The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Mystery Books: Snowed-In, Snow Bound, Snowy, Howling Wind – or Just Too Doggone Cold!

All this cold weather has made me want to make a mystery book theme for the cold! This list of mystery books brings to mind dark, shadowy events on dark, dreary days.

Mystery Books that Feature: Snowed-In / Snow-Bound Settings:

Gilbert Adair: The Act of Roger Murgatroyd

Nancy Atherton: Aunt Dimity’s Christmas

Nancy Atherton: Aunt Dimity Snowbound

Marian Babson: Murder on a Mystery Tour

Nevada Barr: Winter Study

M. C. Beaton: A Highland Christmas

C.C. Benison: Eleven Pipers Piping

Kate Carlisle: Peril in Paperback

C.S. Challinor: Christmas is Murder

Agatha Christie: The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding

Agatha Christie: Hercule Poirot’s Christmas

Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express

Agatha Christie: Three Blind Mice

Sheila Connolly: Cruel Winter

Mary Daheim: The Alpine Christmas

Carola Dunn: Death at Wentwater Court

Carola Dunn: Mistletoe & Murder

Dawn Eastman: Fright to the Death

J. Jefferson Farjeon: Mystery in White: A Christmas Crime Story

Monica Ferris: Crewel Yule

Monica Ferris: Thai Die

Joanne Fluke: Sugar Cookie Murder

Martha Grimes: Jerusalem Inn

Steve Hamilton: A Cold Day in Paradise

David Handler: The Burnt Orange Sunrise  

Cyril Hare: An English Murder

Jim Kelly: Death Wore White

Ngaio Marsh: Tied Up in Tinsel

Catriona McPherson: The Winter Ground

Leslie Meier: Christmas Cookie Murder

Leslie Meier: Mistletoe Murder

Leslie Meier: Valentine Murder

Judy Moore: Murder in Vail

J. J. Murphy: A Friendly Game of Murder

Katherine Hall Page: The Body in the Sleigh

Katherine Hall Page: The Body in the Snowdrift

Anne Perry: A Christmas Journey

Mary Monica Pulver: Original Sin

Patrick Ruell (Reginald Hill): Red Christmas

Phoebe Atwood Taylor: Death Lights a Candle

PS>>> I made the above list by consolidating comments from two previous posts: Cold, Howling Wind, Snow… AND … Winter Snow-Ins. As these are from a lot of Cozy Mystery site readers comments, I have not read all of the books. (But, a lot of them are now in my TBR pile! – (To Be Read)

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 Books that Take Place in Kentucky …

Here are some fun Kentucky facts:
The capital is Frankfort.
The largest city Louisville.
State motto is “United we stand, divided we fall.”
State nickname is the Bluegrass State.
State flower is the Goldenrod.
State bird is the Cardinal.

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

Tonya Kappes: Divorced Diva Mystery Series

Tonya Kappes: Kenni Lowry Mystery Series

Abigail Keam: Josiah Reynolds, Beekeeper Mystery Series

Abigail Keam: 1930s Mona Moon Mystery Series – Mona receives a huge inheritance from her uncle during the Depression.

Taylor McCafferty (aka Barbara Taylor McCafferty): Haskell Blevins, P.I. Mystery Series

Barbara Taylor McCafferty & Beverly Taylor Herald: Tatum Twin Mystery Series

Tierney McClellan (aka Barbara Taylor McCafferty): Schuyler Ridgway Mystery Series

Rose Pressey: Trash to Treasure Crafting Mystery Series AND Haunted Tour Guide Mystery Series

Deborah Woodworth: Shaker 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.♦

Alistair Cooke and Russell Baker… Masterpiece Theatre’s Masterful Hosts…

A comment from a Cozy Mystery site reader started me thinking about two of the hosts I can remember from the PBS Masterpiece Theatre shows. Let me see….

Years ago, Alistair Cooke was the host of this show. He was highly informative. Cooke’s job seemed to be to “fill us in” on the pertinent facts of the actual book/story on which that night’s episode was going to be based. He would tell us about the author of the highlighted story/book, and he would often describe the time era in which the particular show would take place. He was a fountain of background information. Perhaps this was because he actually had a degree in English Literature, or perhaps it was because he was a newspaper journalist. He did an exemplary job at setting the mood for the particular shows he introduced.

Enter Russell Baker! He was yet another terrific host of the Masterpiece Theatre shows. Baker also had a degree in English Literature, and also was a correspondent/newspaper journalist. He provided us with the sort of information that many of us wanted… information about the author of the book/story and many times he would tell us about the period of time that the piece took place. I truly enjoyed this Pulitzer-winning host’s introductions of Masterpiece Theatre. He truly was a phenomenal host of the Masterpiece Theatre shows.

They were master hosts of Masterpiece Theatre!

PS>>> I pre-wrote this entry back in November of 2010 and decided to wait and post it another time. Today I found out that my local PBS station is going to be showing “Masterpiece: Unseen Alistair Cooke” next Sunday night (Feb. 6, 2011) so I decided to post this today.

Doc Martin Television Series: Very Cozy (and Quirky!)…

My daughter, husband, and I are huge fans of Doc Martin, a fabulously quirky and funny British television series. The series (not a mystery series) is set in the present day on a quaint, and beyond beautiful little coastal village. The only problem that we had in watching Doc Martin is that we had to wait between season one (2004), season two (2005/2006), three (2007), and four’s (2009) release dates! (And, we are now waiting for season five!!!)

Doc Martin (played faultlessly by Martin Clunes) is simply put… a  curmudgeon. I don’t want to give away too much, so I will just say that he is a brilliant surgeon who has given up his London practice to move to the aforementioned beautiful coastal village. He has done this to become the village general practitioner.

Doc Martin is not only eccentric/neurotic and impersonal – but he even hates dogs! (For those of you dog-lovers who are fans of Martin Clunes, you’ll be happy to know that he loves dogs so much, he hosted a series called Martin Clunes: A Man and His Dogs and he has authored the bestselling A Dog’s Life).

Caroline Catz costars as the absolutely delightful teacher/principal of the village elementary/primary school. Also, Stephanie Cole (from Waiting for God) plays Martin’s (yes, Martin is his first name >>> the villagers refuse to call him Dr. Ellingham!) often-times exacerbated aunt, his source of unconditional love during his youth. Also wonderful in their roles are: his receptionists (Elaine Denham & Pauline Lamb), the local police (Stewart Wright & John Marquez), the father and son plumbers (Ian McNeice & Joe Absolom), and the local pharmacist (Selina Cadell).

I highly recommend the Doc Martin series. The locale is gorgeous, the characters are three-dimensional, the plots are clever and absolutely never dull or slow-paced, and the acting is superb.

If you would like to see more TV and Movies suggestions, click here.

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