The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Hardcover Mysteries : New Discovery Channel Show Featuring Some of the "Biggest- Name" Mystery Authors…

Good news for ALL of us!!! Investigation Discovery channel is beginning a new show that I think ALL of us will find interesting: Hardcover Mysteries will start airing this Monday, Oct. 11 (at 9:00 ET)… and personally, I can’t wait!

This is a new show that will feature some of the very biggest names in mystery authors.

Hardcover Mysteries is going to let us watch as eight New York Times’ best-selling mystery authors take us on a journey… Each of these (best-selling) mystery authors is going to take us along with him/her as they show us how he/she was influenced by a particular true-life crime. Perhaps the author used it as a basis for one of his/her novels, or perhaps the crime was so abhorrent that it lingered with the author as he/she wrote the best-selling mystery books that we associate with him/her.

The authors who we will have the pleasure of accompanying on these journeys are:

David Baldacci,   Sandra Brown,   Harlan Coben,   Linda Fairstein,   Sara Paretsky,   Kathy Reichs,   Lisa Scottoline,   and   Joseph Wambaugh

You can see by that line-up that I wasn’t joking when I told you they were some of the biggest names in the mystery book arena!

David Baldacci is going to be featured in this Monday’s Hardcover Mysteries premiere. He will be talking about a 1964 Washington D. C. murder case which influenced Baldacci’s first best-selling  mystery novel – Absolute Power.

November 2010 Mystery Book New Releases

The following mystery books will be released in November 2010:

Jeffrey Ashford (aka Roderic Jeffries & Peter Alding): Criminal Innocence (This will be a Stand Alone…)

David Baldacci: Hell’s Corner (This will be the 5th in the Camel Club Mystery Series…)

Mignon F. Ballard: Miss Dimple Disappears (This will be the 1st in the NEW Miss Dimple Mystery Series…)

Maggie Barbieri: Third Degree (This will be the 5th in the Murder 101 Mystery Series…)

Jessica Beck: Sinister Sprinkles (This will be the 3rd in the Donut Shop Mystery Series…)

Kate Carlisle: The Lies that Bind (This will be the 3rd in the Bibliophile Mystery Series…)

Patricia Cornwell: Port Mortuary (This will be the 18th in the Kay Scarpetta Mystery Series…)

Clive Cussler & Dirk Cussler: Crescent Dawn (This will be the 21st in the Dirk Pitt Mystery Series…)

Jeffery Deaver: The Edge (This will be a Stand Alone…)

James D. Doss: A Dead Man’s Tale (This will be the 15th in the Charlie Moon Mystery Series…)

Carole Nelson Douglas: Silver Zombie (This will be the 4th in the Delilah Street Mystery Series…)

Jeanne Glidewell: The Extinguished Guest (This will be the 2nd in the Lexie Starr Mystery Series…)

Sally Goldenbaum: A Holiday Yarn (This will be the 4th in the Seaside Knitters Mystery Series…)

Kerry Greenwood: Dead Man’s Chest (This will be the 19th in the Phryne Fisher Mystery Series…)

Betty Hechtman: You Better Knot Die (This will be the 5th in the Crochet Mystery Series…)

Victoria Houston: Dead Renegade (This will be the 10th in the Loon Lake Fishing Mystery Series…)

Kate Kingsbury (aka Rebecca Kent): Mistletoe and Mayhem (This will be the 6th in the Special Pennyfoot Hotel Mystery Series…)

Karen MacInerney: Berried to the Hilt (This will be the 4th in the Gray Whale Inn Mystery Series…)

Debbie Macomber: Christmas in Cedar Cove (This will be the 11th in the Cedar Cove Series…  not a mystery…) (This is a Christmas theme novel…)

Margaret Maron: Christmas Mourning (This will be the 17th in the Deborah Knott Mystery Series…) (This will be a Christmas Theme Mystery…)

James Patterson: Cross Fire (This will be the 17th in the Alex Cross Mystery Series…)

J. D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts): Indulgence in Death (This will be the 32nd in the Eve Dallas Mystery Series…)

Al Roker & Dick Lochte: The Midnight Show Murders (This will be the 2nd in the Billy Blessing Mystery Series…)

Maria Schneider: Under Witch Moon (This will be an Urban Fantasy…)

Maggie Sefton: Double Knit Murders (This will contain the first two mysteries in the Knitting Mystery Series…)

J. B. Stanley (aka Jennifer Stanley & Ellery Adams): Black Beans and Vice (This will be the 6th in the Supper Club Mystery Series…)

Rebecca Tope: A Grave in the Cotswolds (This will be the 8th in the Cotswolds Mystery Series…)

Elaine Viets: An Uplifting Murder (This will be the 6th in the Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper Mystery Series…)

Joseph Wambaugh: Hollywood Hills (This will be the 4th in the Hollywood Station Mystery Series…)

Livia J. Washburn: Killer on a Hot Tin Roof (This will be the 3rd in the Literary Tour Mystery Series…)

Livia J. Washburn: The Pumpkin Muffin Murder (This will be the 5th in the Fresh Baked Mystery Series…) (This will be a Thanksgiving theme mystery…)

Leslie Wheeler: Murder at Spouter’s Point (This will be the 3rd in the Miranda Lewis Living History Mystery Series…)

♦To go back to the Cozy Mystery New Book Release page, click here.♦

Historical Mystery Books with Old Churches and Abbeys as Their Settings…

At the end of September 2010, Eveline posted a comment asking for help:

“Can anybody please recommend a period mystery book where the settings are abbeys or old churches – much like in the vein of “The Name of the Rose”?

I am not a religious person, but I love those types of settings.

I have seen that movie three times, and I never seem to get tired of watching it. They haven’t done anything like that again, not that I know of.

I love all the Cadfael mysteries…”

So, we know that Eveline is already aware of all of the Cadfael mystery books… But, do you all know about any other historical/period mysteries with old churches and abbeys as their setting?

Nancy Bilyeau writes the Joanna Stafford Mystery Series : 1) The Crown, 2) The Chalice, & 3) The Tapestry. This series is set in Tudor England.

Kate Charles writes both the Book of Psalms Mystery Series and the Callie Anson Mystery Series. Both of them feature old churches.

G. K. Chesterton writes the Father Brown Mystery Series. They aren’t always set in a church, but they always star Father Brown.

John Meade Falkner, the son of an Anglican priest, has written two books in which old English churches are featured: Moonfleet and The Nebuly Coat.

Margaret Frazer (aka Gail Frazer & Monica Ferris) writes the Sister Frevisse Medieval Mystery Series which takes place in England, during the reign of Henry VI (1422-1461 & 1470-1471) While I am a big fan of the Monica Ferris Needlecraft Mystery Series, I have to admit that I haven’t read her Sister Frevisse mysteries… yet.

G. M. Malliet writes the Max Tudor Mystery Series. Max is the vicar of the Cozy millage of Nether Monkslip

Donna McLean has A Distant Murder, which is the first book in her Sparrow Falls Mystery Series. Although it is a contemporary mystery, it features an old church with its old Scottish burying ground.

C. J. Sansom: Dissolution is a Matthew Sharlake Mystery Series book which takes place during the time of Henry VIII. The book features the tearing down of the Catholic churches.

Please post a comment if you think you might know of just the right author for Eveline…
Additionally, Kate Charles writes wonderful mysteries in a series which exceptional characters.
Also, Wicked Autumn: A Max Tudor Novel by G.M. Malliet

V.C. Clinton-Baddeley, Vicki Doudera, Mary Anna Evans, Al Roker, & Nancy Means Wright… the Four Newsest Mystery Authors to the Cozy Mytery Site…

Here are the five newest author additions to the site. All of these authors have been recommended by site readers who believe they belong on the Cozy Mystery site:

V.C. Clinton-Baddeley writes the Cambridge Crime Mystery Series. Of course, it takes place in Cambridge (England, not Massachusetts) and features Dr. R.V. Davie, a retired university professor.

Vicki Doudera‘s Darby Farr Mystery Series has a sleuth who is a real estate agent. Darby lives on an island off of the coast of Maine. Doudera is also a real estate agent who, incidentally, lives in Maine.

Mary Anna Evans has degrees in both physics and engineering. She writes the Faye Longchamp Mystery Series, which features an archaeologist/sleuth who lived in Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Al Roker is the weatherman of a national morning show who occassionally does the cooking segments. Roker writes the Billy Blessing Mystery Series which features a professional chef who does the cooking segments on a national morning show. These books are supposed to be very funny…

Nancy Means Wright writes two very distinct mystery series. The Ruth Willmarth Mystery Series takes place in Vermont and features a single mother who is also a dairy farmer/sleuth. Her other series is the Mary Wollstonecraft Mystery Series, which features an English governess in 18th Century Ireland. Mary Wollstonecraft was actually a real person. (Wright also pens a children’s mystery series – the Northern Spy Club.)

MENU