The Cozy Mystery List Blog

I just finished another mystery by one of my favorite mystery authors, and I’m not sure I am very happy about it. Actually, if I hadn’t been happy about reading it, I would have not finished it, but I am unhappy about the setting.

Let me use this example to demonstrate what I am talking about:

In the very popular Murder, She Wrote television show, Cabot Cove was a little haven of friends and “regulars” who we all grew to enjoy spending time with. Doc might have been grumpy, but he was “our” Doc. Amos might not have been the best sheriff, but he was “our” sheriff. As much as we enjoyed our “regulars”>>> we didn’t begrudge Jessica as she occasionally globe-trotted. OK, some of the globe-trotting shows seemed a little more like boondoggles, but we knew that the next week, we would be back with “our friends.” An occasional week without Amos and Doc was OK. But, what about when Jessica moved away from Cabot Cove? Hmmmm…..

Now that it is taking me longer and longer to make it through one book, do I really enjoy it when my favorite sleuths head out of town for the entire book, and leave behind some of my other favorite characters? No, I do not!

I just finished a Cozy Mystery where the main sleuth left the “village type setting” and took with her, my LEAST favorite regular character in the series. YIKES!!! I guess it wouldn’t have been so bad if my sleuth had taken her little vacation with my very favorite character in the series >>> and by that I mean that I like a secondary character even more than the sleuth! This meant that I didn’t get to “spend time” with a well-developed character who I really enjoy.

I know that places like Cabot Cove might have started with a population of less than a thousand at the beginning, and that after all of the shows, the population probably dwindled down to less than one hundred, with the cemetery having to buy up more and more land parcels for all of the victims Jessica sought justice for. But, when an author spends time developing her/his characters, why “drop” those characters for an entire book?

This type of “let’s take a vacation from the very same village the readers love” switcheroo has me as grumpy as Cabot Cove’s Doc!

What about you? Do you miss the “regular” characters in your favorite mystery series when the sleuth leaves town in order to do her/his sleuthing with a whole new group of characters?

Can you believe it is already fall? I can! Today, our high is way down: projected to only be 91*! Fall is in the air! I hope you all have great autumns/falls!

I just got out my autumn/fall candles, and am working on finishing up the summer/spring remnants I have been using. I know I have mentioned (more like complained about!) the fact that we don’t have four distinct seasons. One of the things that I do to help make it more “season-ish” is to use different types of scents in the house during the four different seasons.

I don’t enjoy baking, but I do enjoy the scents of traditionally autumn baking smells. So, during this season, I use scents like banana nut bread and warm apple pie. Of course, this is quite misleading to those who don’t realize it’s not an actual pie they are smelling…

During the winter I use a lot of evergreen scents and in the summer/spring I use clean, lemony smells. My daughter isn’t crazy about the scents, so I don’t use them when she is home… which, unfortunately isn’t very often. (Although, she doesn’t mind the evergreen during the holidays, when we have our artificial tree up.)

I haven’t decorated my computer desk in a while, and am thinking about doing so for this fall season. My computer desk is an absolute mess right now… with five piles of reminder notes I have written to myself. I should probably go through those piles before thinking about putting up some seasonal stickers. The things I do to get the seasonal feelings I grew up with!

Do any of you have certain things you like to do to celebrate autumn/fall?

I have considered Ruth Rendell one of my very favorite mystery authors for a long time. I have kept this particular Ruth Rendell paperback for a while, hoping that I could use these quotes in one of my entries. So, here goes!

Here is an author review on the cover of Ruth Rendell’s The Best Man to Die 1975 paperback:

The Boston Globe: “The best mystery writer anywhere in the English-speaking world.”

Here are the reviews from the inside cover of Ruth Rendell’s The Best Man to Die 1975 paperback:

Los Angeles Times Book Review: “Chief Inspector Wexford…is an erudite, thorough investigator….He is a compassionate man, who can put the screws on if need be.”

Kirkus Reviews: “The page-by-page storytelling-wry, superbly paced, full of arresting character details-is still unsurpassed in the mystery field.”

New York Daily News: “Ruth Rendell is the finest living practitioner of the mystery genre.”

The New York Times Book Review: “There aren’t many writers like Ruth Rendell who are highly prolific and yet maintain a consistently high standard….Miss Rendell is a plot prestidigitator who has mastered all the tricks of her trade. Including writing.”

Here are the reviews on the back of Ruth Rendell’s The Best Man to Die 1975 paperback:

The New York Times Book Review: “You cannot afford to miss Ruth Rendell?”

Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine: “For readers who have almost given up mysteries… Rendell may be just the woman to get them started again.”

Saturday Review: “First-rate entertainment.”

So, here is my question: Do reviews matter to you?