The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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!

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!