The Cozy Mystery List Blog

Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV

Mystery Books that Take Place in South Carolina …

Here are some fun South Carolina facts:
The capital & largest city is Columbia.
State motto is “While I breathe, I hope” (“Dum Spiro Spero”)
State flower is the Yellow Jessamine.
State bird is the Carolina Wren.
Origin of the South Carolina’s Name: In honor of England’s Charles I.
State nickname is Palmetto State. (This is because the American fort on Sullivan Island’s walls were made out of Palmetto logs, which helped to protect the fort when the British cannonballs ricocheted off of the spongy Palmetto logs.)

Mystery authors who are found on the Cozy Mystery Site who feature south Carolina locations/settings in their books:

Susan M. Boyer: Liz Talbot Mystery Series

Elizabeth Lynn Casey (aka Laura Bradford): Southern Sewing Circle Mystery Series

Laura Childs: Theodosia Browning Tea Shop Mystery Series

Caroline Cousins: Indigo Island Mystery Series

Nora DeLoach: Mama Detective Mystery Series

Carolyn Hart: Death on Demand Mystery Series AND Henrie O Mystery Series

Sean Keefer: Stand Alone Mystery: The Trust

Joyce & Jim Lavene: Renaissance Faire Mystery Series

Kendel Lynn: Elliott Lisbon Mystery Series

Tyora Moody: Eugeena Patterson Mystery Series

Tamar Myers: Den of Antiquity Mystery Series

Gail Oust: Bunco Babes Mystery Series

Cathy Pickens: Southern Fried Mystery Series

Fran Rizer: Callie Parrish Mystery Series

Paige Shelton: Farmers’ Market Mystery Series

Kathryn R. Wall: Bay Tanner Mystery Series

Please feel free to comment if you see an author from the Cozy Mystery Site who belongs on this list, or if you have any corrections.

♦To access more Cozy Mysteries by Theme click on this link.♦

Mystery Book Theme: Actors and Actresses

I was asked by a Cozy Mystery site reader to do an entry that would include actors and dancers. I have decided to separate the two themes. This post includes mystery books that feature actors. I have only included the authors who can be found on the Cozy Mystery site:

Lydia Adamson: Alice Nestleton Mystery Series

Conrad Allen (aka Edward Marston & Keith Miles): George Porter Dillman Mystery Series

Marian Babson: Trixie Dolan & Evangeline Sinclair Mystery Series

George Baxt: Celebrity Sleuths Mystery Series

Simon Brett: Charles Paris Mystery Series

Jeffrey Cohen (aka E. J. Copperman): Double Feature Mystery Series

Lesley Cookman: Libby Sarjeant Mystery Series

Eileen Davidson: Soap Opera Mystery Series

Jane Dentinger: Jocelyn O’Roarke Mystery Series

Susan Dunlap: Darcy Lott Mystery Series

Jerrilyn Farmer & Joan Rivers: Red Carpet Mystery Series

Kellye Garrett: Detective by Day Mystery Series

Ann Granger: Fran Varady Mystery Series

Kerry Greenwood: Ruddy Gore (7th in the Phryne Fisher Mystery Series)

Stuart M. Kaminisky: Toby Peters Mystery Series

Ngaio Marsh: Night at the Vulcan (aka Opening Night)

Edward Marston (aka Keith Miles & Conrad Allen): Elizabethan Theatre Mystery Series

Stefanie Matteson: Charlotte Graham Mystery Series

Linda Palmer (aka Melinda Wells): Daytime Mystery Series

Melinda Wells (aka Linda Palmer): Della Cooks Mystery Series

Please feel free to comment if you see an author from the Cozy Mystery Site who belongs on this list, or if you have any corrections.

♦To access more Cozy Mysteries by Theme click on this link.♦

3 Pounds of 1264 Pages… That’s a Whole Lot of Reading!

Our daughter came home last week for her spring break. Since she is busy with her classes and papers, she enjoys the “relax time” that she can get during her school breaks, even though she has a lot of class reading to do.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to spend the entire break time at home. She is taking a class which required her to go to Washington D.C. for a few days, which meant that she didn’t get to spend the entire week holiday with us. But since her time at home is quickly becoming shorter and shorter as she grows older, we were just happy she had the amount of time she had.

Whenever she is home, she always includes a talk with her dad about books he is reading, or has recently read. His latest book was William L. Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, which he recommended to her. Long story short… she bought a copy of the book and is now reading it in her “reading for fun” allotted time.

She is enjoying the book although it is a bit dated.  Now that she is back at school, she doesn’t have much “reading for fun” time. Good grief! It would take me forever to read a book that long! I can’t even imagine holding a book that heavy during my “reading for fun” time!

Needless to say, my daughter takes after her father… which is a pretty good thing!

Was Mary Higgins Clark the First “Blockbuster Crime Writer to Start a Recurring Christmas Series”…

I received a letter the other day from a site reader asking me this question regarding Mary Higgins Clark:

“… I’m trying to figure out if Clark was the first blockbuster crime writer to start a recurring Christmas series…. wondered if you know of any that predate Clark’s first Christmas book.”

I started writing her back, and then realized that since I haven’t read every single book on the list I came up with, I had better ask you all for help in addressing this question. The authors who I came up with that predate

Mary Higgins Clark…..Still watch   ’84
Silent Night   ’95
My Gal Sunday   ’96
All Through the Night    ’98
Santa Cruise   ’07 (w/Carol Higgins Clark)
Dashing through the Snow (w/Carol Higgins Clark)  ’08

are the following:

Marian Babson…..Murder, Murder, Little Star    ’77(see Judith’s comment below)
The Twelve Deaths of Christmas    ’79
Line Up for Murder   ’80
Murder on a Mystery Tour   ’85
(Babson’s are all Stand Alones)

Charlotte MacLeod…..Rest You Merry    ’78
Murder Goes Mumming   ’81
The Convivial Codfish   ’84
(All three of MacLeod’s Christmas mysteries belong to different mystery series)

Robert Barnard…..Death in a Cold Climate  ’81
The Habit of Widowhood   ’96
(Barnard’s are Stand Alones)

Martha Grimes….The Man with a Load of Mischief   ’81
Old Fox Deceived   ’82
Jerusalem Inn  ’84
(All three belong to the same mystery series)

First of all, since I haven’t read all of the books above, do any of you know if one of the listed books above is not a Christmas mystery? I try to make sure that they are when I update my Christmas mystery book list as best I can.

Also, are there any other “blockbuster crime writers” who you all know about who predate Mary Higgins Clark (other than the ones I have listed above)?

Thank you all for the help!

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