The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

April 2023 Mystery Book New Releases

The following Mystery Books will be released in April 2023:

Ellery Adams (aka J. B. Stanley, Jennifer Stanley, & 1/2 of Lucy Arlington): Paper Cuts (6th in the Secret, Book, and Scone Society Mysteries)

Lauren Elliott: Dedication to Murder (9th in the Beyond the Page Bookstore Mysteries)

Diane Kelly: Fiddling with Fate (3rd in the Southern Homebrew Mysteries)

Leslie Meier: Mother of the Bride Murder (29th in the Lucy Stone Mysteries)

Anne Perry: The Fourth Enemy (6th in the Daniel Pitt Mysteries)

Peter Robinson: Standing in the Shadows (28th in the Inspector Banks Mysteries)

Paige Shelton: Fateful Words (8th in the Scottish Bookshop Mysteries)

Dana Stabenow: Not the Ones Dead (23rd in the Kate Shugak Mysteries)

Victoria Thompson: Murder on Bedford Street (26 in the Gaslight Mysteries)

Scottish Television Mystery Series: Taggart

How did we miss this police procedural show?! My husband and I have been loving Taggart! I must warn you, though: it is not a Cozy Mystery series. The main character, Detective Chief Inspector Taggart, is quite acerbic and has a wickedly dry sense of humor. He does not “suffer fools lightly”.  Taggart ran from 1983 to 2010, so there are lots of shows to watch… which is great news for us! (Since this is a Scottish show, the accents can be pretty strong at times so you may need to use the subtitles.)

Mark McManus is absolutely terrific as Taggart. Actually, all of the acting is really good. The relationship between Taggart and his wife (beautifully played by Harriet Buchan) is of particular interest to me. His wife doesn’t let the fact that she is wheelchair-bound stop her from having many outside interests/jobs – as well it shouldn’t. She gets quite upset at how Taggart lives for his job and doesn’t seem to enjoy anything other than excelling as a detective. (At the beginning of the series Taggart boasts about never living/visiting anywhere outside of Glasgow – and he is not a young man!)

As I mentioned at the beginning of this entry, this series is not Cozy! It is set during the time the shows were produced – although watching today makes them seem “historical”.

The shows are very well-written – the plots make sense. The women detectives don’t chase down suspects in their stilettoes (I’m guessing a lot of you are tired of me saying that!) The actors (mostly) look like normal people… they don’t all look like young models. (Why do shows made in the US have such unrealistic looking characters?)

I definitely recommend the series to those of you who enjoy gritty police procedurals. Taggart is available on BritBox – but be prepared to use subtitles.

Also, if you’re interested in taking a look at some other good mystery shows, make sure to go to my Cozy Mystery TV and Movies page.

Cozy Mystery News – March 2023

I’ve got two pieces of good news about site authors this month!

First, Leslie Budewitz has two more books planned for the Spice Shop Mystery Series, which will bring the series to at least 8 entries. Supposedly, the two last entries are tentatively titled To Err is Cumin and Lavender Lies Bleeding.

Terrie Farley Moran will be continuing to write the Murder, She Wrote Mystery Series, having been approved to write three more entries in the long-running series begun by “Jessica Fletcher” and Donald Bain.

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