The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Christmas Mystery Books before Thanksgiving?!?

Laura just posted a comment (Thank you, Laura!) for my last entry that reminds me a lot of what I am doing:

“Danna: It’s already on your Christmas cozy list, but I just finished Emilie Richards, “Let There Be Suspects” and really enjoyed it. I have to read my Christmas books now, because I usually don’t have time when the holidays roll around!”

Isn’t that the truth! With all of the hustle and bustle associated with the time of year we are approaching, I have to admit that I do the same thing. Whether it’s Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa (and there are probably more I’m not listing…) we are quickly nearing a time when family, memories, and/or activities may put our mystery book reading on the back burner.

I just started my new holiday mystery book and am really enjoying it. (Just started it… as in page 35… really just starting it!) You may think that it is a Thanksgiving mystery book, but I’m with Laura>>> It’s the first of the Special Christmas Pennyfoot Mystery Series: No Clue at the Inn by Kate Kingsbury.

I decided to take a (very short) break from my current favorite mystery book authors and try someone new (to me) and I do believe that Kate Kingsbury was a very good choice to get me started on my holiday mystery book reading.

I know that I have said MANY, MANY times before that I never start a series in the middle, but this time I took a chance since I thought the Pennyfoot Hotel Mystery Series had actually been “wrapped up” (Do they say “that’s a wrap” only for movies?!?) I hoped that I would be able to start the Special Pennyfoot Hotel mystery series (or should that be Pennyfoot Country Club mystery series?) at book 13, which as it has turned out, is book #1 of a “new” Pennyfoot Mystery Series… thus the “Special” >>>

I have been very pleased with what Kingsbury (aka Rebecca Kent and Doreen Roberts) does at the beginning of the book. She has gives the reader an introduction (of sorts) to the characters… supplying who they are and what roles they played in the “regular” Pennyfoot mystery books. But, be forewarned… there will be “spoilers” for those of you who plan on reading the “regular” series any time soon…

Lucky for me, when I finally start reading the series from its beginning, my memory, being what it is, won’t serve me well… and while the characters may seem familiar to me, that will only be “vaguely familiar”>>> Even if I start reading the Pennyfoot Hotel “regular” books next year at this same time!

Leslie Meier, Jill Churchill, Kate Borden… Mystery Book Authors with Similar Flairs…

I just finished my most recent Halloween mystery book by a rather new author (to me, that is!) >>> I read Death of a Trickster and must say that it is definitely a Halloween Cozy… small New England town, amateur sleuth, everybody-knows-everybody feeling, eccentric personalities with hidden personal secrets, and to top it off, the most wonderful feeling of autumn/fall that you could possibly find in a book… I felt like autumn was actually one of the characters during the first half (or so) of the book… 

As I read Death of a Trickster (which is written by Kate Borden – aka Kate Grilley) I was struck by Borden’s similarity with two other Cozy mystery book authors who I follow… Leslie Meier and Jill Churchill. All three of them have strong, female main characters who have children… These children are actually written into their plots. The children aren’t just backdrops in their novels, they are woven into the novels’ story lines. There are times when the main characters/sleuths have to find someone to watch their offspring, times when their offspring disappoint them, times when their offspring are actually like >>> children!

For some reason, Jill Churchill’s Jane Jeffrey mystery series, Leslie Meier’s Lucy Stone series, and Kate Borden’s Peggy Jean Turner mystery series just seem to have the same Cozy feeling strewn throughout the book. I don’t know how else to describe it.

Leslie Meier’s Lucy Stone series is set during major holidays of the year, while Jill Churchill really doesn’t “focus” on holidays… although she has several Cozies that are set during Christmas. Borden, I’m not quite sure of… She has only written three Cozies in this particular series, two of which are holiday-themed… Death of a Trickster and Death of a Turkey (Thanksgiving theme cozy mystery.) I guess we will find out if Borden will become an exclusively holiday-themed mystery author when her next Peggy Jean Turner mystery is published!

Cell Phones, Televisions, OR We Sing…

I love the ease of cell phones! Let me state that before I continue with this rant… I love having almost an unlimited amount of long-distance time. I love having access to all sorts of places when I am at all sorts of places.

BUT>>>>

I do not dial my cell phone (or even hold it!!!) while I’m driving. I grew up not being able to make phone calls while on the road – so it is simply a habit I don’t plan to acquire. When my children were young, whenever we were in the car tooting around, we found fun things to do. The “We Sing” tapes were permanently left in the car. When we weren’t singing along with the Wee Sing gang, we played games: rhyming (à la mat-cat-rat), Is it bigger than a breadbox?, simple math, I Spy, the alphabet-finding game, ETC.  Which brings me to my next point…

I remember the first time I was aware that some cars actually have television sets installed in them. What?!? Yep, that’s right! That was my initial response, and I am still wondering WHAT?!?

More and more, I am noticing something that rivals the television and DVD hook-ups in cars>>> Parents on their cell phones with their little tykes in the car!!! Are the parents lives so busy that the only time they can find to make appointments or catch up with family/friends is while they are in their cars with their tots?

Hopefully, when these same cell-phoning parents’ children are twelve years old, the parents can look back fondly and remember what their friends/family had to say during all of those car rides with their children! As Harry Chapin would say: The cat’s in the cradle and the silver spoon…

"Indian Summers" in England?

A while ago, I was caught off guard – not a lot, but just enough…

Are there “Indian Summers” in England? I am not being facetious about this>>> I would really like to know!

I started reading a new Cozy mystery series, which is set in Great Britain, and I was a little surprised to find the “Indian Summer” description for a beautiful autumn day. For some reason, I had always thought this description only applies to North America’s crisp autumn days.

When I read about the beautiful “Indian summer” weather in this British Cozy, I thought about something a site reader from England had written to me. She said that she was quite bothered by non-British authors who set their mystery book series in England and then include things they (the non-English authors) think should be included – stereotypical things – which sound totally wrong to “real” Brits. Of course, since they are stereotypical things that she wrote me about, the rest of us might not know that these things happen “only in the movies.” (I wish I could remember some of the examples she used!)

So, with this in mind, is there such a thing as a British “Indian Summer” day, mate? (I know, I know!!!)

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