The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Happy Thanksgiving! Written on Tuesday…

Happy Thanksgiving Day to all of the site readers in the USA. (I’m guessing it’s just another Thursday for those of you who find yourselves living in “exotic” locations.)

As this entry’s title says, I am writing this on Tuesday, and post-dating it. To all of you out there who are the primary (as in “only”) cook in your homes >>> If you are reading this entry during the day, you know that I am probably “enjoying” the national day off by doing one of the following “fun” activities:

Peeling potatoes
Cutting up celery
Dicing onions
Preparing the green beans
Making the white sauce to go on the pearl onions
Preparing the stuffing
Mashing potatoes
Cutting the turkey
Baking the pumpkin pie
Preparing the gravy (Which I have to admit, I cheat on>>> I use the turkey flavor canned gravy with a whole lot of coarse cracked pepper in it >>> No lumps for us… and a whole lot easier for me!) 
ETC!!! 

Of course, if you’re reading this entry after, let’s say, 6:00 PM… Then my “fun” activities will be somewhat different:

Doing the dishes
De-boning and carving the turkey
Finding space in the refrigerator for all of the left-overs
Labeling cut-up turkey for the freezer
Finding space in the freezer for all of the excess turkey
ETC!!!

Not to worry though… Since we favor the Ocean Spray jellied cranberry sauce, someone will probably help me by opening the can… if only to hear the swoosh as the air suctions out of the can when the cranberry “blob” falls into the bowl >>> which I placed right by the can >>> next to the can opener!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you… cooks and non-cooks!

Lorraine Bartlett aka Lorna Barrett aka L. L. Bartlett >>> Booktown Mystery Series, Jeff Resnick Mystery Series, AND Victoria Square Mystery Series Will Be Out Soon!

It seems like more and more frequently, I am told about mystery book authors who are being dropped by their publishers. What a shame!!! Perhaps people are reading less books, or people are feeling the economy’s crunch and are now trading their books, or perhaps… well, I don’t know why, but it does seem to be a growing trend. Publishers simply aren’t as loyal and helpful as shows like Murder She Wrote would suggest that they are…

Remember when Jessica would be wined, dined, chauffeured around the city while looking for the “bad guys” (& “bad gals”) and then treated to a suite in a swanky 5 ♦ hotel? (That symbol is the closest I can get to a star…) Jessica would usually eat her room-service breakfast as she was heading out for a day of solving mysteries (in between making her appearances to sell her mysteries).

But there is good news for Lorna Barrett fans, as well as L. L. Bartlett fans, and Lorraine Bartlett fans, also! A very helpful librarian from the Indianapolis area (Thank you, AGAIN, Janet!) has just updated me on Barrett/Bartlett.  

Lorna Barrett (aka L. L. Bartlett) will be starting a new mystery series called the Victoria Square Mystery Series. The first book in the Victoria Square Mystery Series is called A Matter of Murder, and will be published in the later part of 2010 or the beginning of 2011.  The Victorian Square Mystery Series will feature Katie Bonner as the sleuth… She’s the first-found dead man’s beneficiary, and will have to do a lot of investigating to get to the bottom of the crimes that are taking place. (Yes, I did make that crimes… plural!)

2009 Anthony Awards Given at Bouchercon 2009…

Sorry about posting this so “after the fact”… I kept thinking that I wanted to post the 2009 Anthony Award nominees and winners, who were announced at Bouchercon 2009 last month. Another case of better late than never…

Congratulations to all of the authors nominated for these great awards, and to all of those authors who won:

2009 Anthony Award Best Novel:
 The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly (Winner)
Trigger City by Sean Chercover
Red Knife by William Kent Krueger
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny

2009 Anthony Award Best First Novel: 
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (Winner)
Pushing Up Daisies by Rosemary Harris
Stalking Susan by Julie Kramer
Death of a Cozy Writer by G. M. Malliet
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

2009 Anthony Award Best Paperback Original: 
State of the Onion by Julie Hyzy (Winner)
 The First Quarry by Max Allan Collins 
Money Shot by Christa Faust
In a Dark Season by Vicki Lane 
South of Hell by P. J. Parrish 

2009 Anthony Award Best Short Story: 
A Sleep Not Unlike Death by Sean Chercover (Winner)
The Night Things Changed by Dana Cameron
Killing Time by Jane K. Cleland
Skull and Cross Examination by Toni L. P. Kelner
Scratch a Woman by Laura Lippman
The Secret Lives of Cats by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

2009 Anthony Award Best Critical Nonfiction Work:
Anthony Boucher: A Bibliography by Jeffrey Marks (Winner)
African American Mystery Writers: A Historical and Thematic Study by Frankie Y. Bailey
How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries by Kathy Lynn Emerson
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale

2009 Anthony Award Best Children’s/Young Adult Novel: 
The Crossroads by Chris Grabenstein (Winner)
Paper Towns by John Green
Kiss Me, Kill Me by Lauren Henderson
The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart
Sammy Keyes and the Cold Hard Cash by Wendelin Van Draanen

2009 Anthony Award Best Cover Art: 
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Peter Mendelsund (Winner)
Death Was the Other Woman by David Rotstein
Death Will Get You Sober by David Rotstein
The Fault Tree by David Rotstein
Money Shot by Steve Cooley

2009 Anthony Award Special Service Award: 
Jon and Ruth Jordan (Winner)
Ali Karim
David Montgomery
Gary Warren Niebuhr
Sarah Weinman

2009 Bouchercon Guest of Honor:
Michael Connelly

2009 Bouchercon Toastmaster:
S.J. Rozan

2009 Bouchercon Honored Youth Author:
Wendelin Van Draanen

Bouchercon 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient:
Allen J. Hubin

♦Back to the Mystery Book Awards page♦

British Mystery Mini-Series is a Mystery to Me!

Su just wrote in a comment the other day which I have decided to post as an entry. She has a question about a British mystery show that aired about ten years ago, and wondered if any of us know the name of the series.

“This is really a long shot, but maybe you mystery fans could help me remember the name of a British Television mini-series (or multi-part movie) that I completely loved and want to see in it’s entirety. It was maybe 10 years ago give or take a decade 😉
I can’t remember anything but snippets and bits of memories. So I thought I’d throw out those bits and pieces and see if anyone can put the clues together and figure out what show it is. A mystery challenge for you!

OK so here it is – these are all the things I can remember about the show.

The title of the show was a play on words.
The main character was a woman maybe in her 30s.
She ended up driving through Scotland searching for something – i think it had to do with her father.
There was a man she met who joined in the quest. The letter K suggests itself here.
The banter between them was such clever repartee that it reminded me of Robert Heinlein’s dialogue writing.

Now is where I get really confused. I remember a young side-kick who either was the same actor as the young Scot who played Merry in Lord of the Rings or looked a lot like him. But this may be from another show altogether. Double score if you can name both shows.”

If any of you think that you might know the name of the show, please feel free to send us a comment!

PS… Dominic Monaghan is the actor who played Merry in Lord of the Rings. The first time I saw him was when he played Hetty Wainthropp’s very young, detective side-kick on the Hetty Wainthropp Investigates series, which if you haven’t seen, you should definitely check out.

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