The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

What I'm Reading Now: Susan Rogers Cooper and Hazel Holt

You may wonder why I have two authors listed as “What I’m Reading Now”… since I am always talking about having to keep lists of events, times, books, ETC. How in the world can someone like that be reading two books at a time?!?

I go nowhere without listening to my “book on tape” (even though it isn’t a tape.) And I mean nowhere! I listen to my book while driving and then take it in to the appointment I am driving to and use an earphone while waiting for my given appointment. I even take it into my local post office… since I can now count on waiting half an hour to get to the ONE open counter.

I started reading all of Susan Rogers Cooper‘s mystery series years ago. I just checked to see when that could have been >>> and am shocked to see that it is twenty (plus) years ago! I have watched as Milt Kovak struggled with dating, I have “been with” E. J. as her family grew, and I laughed along with Kimmey.  Cooper is not a Cozy author, but I do enjoy her mysteries.

As for the “hard copy” book that I am reading… the actual paper-bound book that I am enjoying right now >>> one of Hazel Holt‘s. I cannot believe that I hadn’t tried her books years ago. Holt had been highly recommended to me by a Cozy Mystery reading friend of mine before I started this site. I don’t know why I never “got around” to reading her. I think that I felt like I had so many other authors who I enjoyed, and that there was always tomorrow.

I’m glad that I finally “found the time” to read her. I just started making my way through her very British Mrs. Mallory series, and I have to say… there is absolutely no question in my mind that Holt is a Cozy Mystery author. I am really enjoying the first book in her series, and am (almost) ready to find out the who, why, and how of the mystery!

A Blast from the Past: Four New Authors to the Cozy Mystery Book Site… Torrey Chanslor, Margaret Erskine, Phoebe Atwood Taylor, and Josephine Tey

Every once in a while I get recommendations (from the Cozy Mystery site readers) that really take me back! I decided to try to “save up” until I had four authors who I could post together… for those of you who remember them fondly.

Torrey Chanslor (aka Marjorie Torrey, Caldecott Winner): Beagle Sisters Mystery Series… Amanda and Lutie Beagle are spinster sisters who inherit a Manhattan detective agency. 

Margaret Erskine: Septimus Finch Mystery Series… Septimus is in the Scotland Yard CID (Criminal Investigations Department) and as such, is a plain clothes police detective.

Phoebe Atwood Taylor (aka Alice Tilton & Freeman Dana): Asey Mayo Mystery Series… Asey is a Boston sleuth who relies heavily on his cousin who happens to be a big gossip AND Leonidas Witherall Mystery Series (as Alice Tilton), which is also set in Boston and features an ex-teacher sleuth.

Josephine Tey: Alan Grant Mystery Series… Alan Grant is an inspector with the Scotland Yard.

The Cozy Mystery Site's Beginning…

I know that I have said this several times: When I first began the Cozy Mystery site, I really had something very different in mind. I only included authors who I had read… authors who I enjoyed and thought that a few of my Cozy Mystery book friends would enjoy.

Actually, my first version of the site was simply a list that I kept for my own use. I used this list every time I bought a new book. Since I kept the list on my computer’s desktop, I had easy access to it every time I ordered a book online. I also printed out my list so that I could take it with me every time I went to a bookstore. My list was pages and pages in large-font print. I marked off each book as I bought it and read it, and also added each book as soon as one of “my” authors published a new book.

A friend of mine asked if she could take a look at my list, so I tidied it up and sent it to her. When I told my husband about sending it to her, he asked me to think about putting my list online as a site. Since I am not the most computer-savvy person, I quickly thought about it, and then promptly said “NO!” I just wanted my list of books so that I could have access to “my” authors, and most importantly, I wanted somewhere to annotate each time I bought or read a book.

Whenever I complained about not having a “universal list” of Cozy Mystery authors with their books listed chronologically, my husband would (again) ask if I might want to create just that. I was tired of clicking on someone’s “Cozy Mystery Books List” thinking that I would magically see all sorts of authors from whom I could pick. Most of the lists consisted of a handful of authors with a smattering of their books. I wanted more!

So, a few years ago I slowly started constructing the site. I have to admit that most of the computer functions I do by rote memory… I don’t know why I click, drag, double-click, “control A C,” or “control V” >>> I don’t need to know why or how, as long as it works.

And, thanks to a whole lot of site readers, I have added a whole lot more Cozy Mystery authors to the site and I have  discovered many new Cozy Mystery authors who I now consider “my authors.” These are authors who I include on my personal “Must Read” list… authors who have given me crime-filled hours of enjoyment. THANKS!

YIKES!!! Isn't Agatha Christie COZY?!?!?

Good grief! Boy did I steer you all wrong… I posted two entries about the new PBS Agatha Christie season… along with the Ellen Byerrum shows, and YIKES!!! (The “YIKES!!!” should tell you enough if you don’t want to go on reading… But, I am so “hot-under-the-collar” right now, that I HAVE to go on writing…)

As for the Ellen Byerrum movies >>> I didn’t make it through the first half of the first movie, so I really can’t comment… other than to say that. I decided I would much rather be watching old reruns of Murder She Wrote… which is exactly what I did!

On to the longingly-awaited PBS shows:

I was concerned (going in) that I was going to miss Miss Lemon, Inspector Japp, and Capt. Hastings so much that I wasn’t going to enjoy the two Poirot movies. Not  the case! Both of the Poirot movies (Mrs. McGinty’s Dead and Cat among the Pigeons) were very good movies… The production values were great, the attention to detail, the characters, the writing… and of course, David Suchet, reminded me of a time when we (SO) looked forward to watching a new Poirot show on A & E. Lots of little grey cells went into the production of these two movies!

On to the Miss Marple movies: That is exactly where my “YIKES” come into play! I have to be upfront on this: We have only watched the first two episodes in the four-part series. But, when did Miss Marple become an astute, in-the-middle-of-the-investigation player? When did she cease to be the doddering, fumbling, (always knitting) old woman who could be in a room without anyone worrying about her overhearing them? When did she start writing notes and telling the police what to do? I realize that she would hint at things and hope that the police would pick up on what she wanted them to do… but in these movies she came off as the central force of the investigations… with the detectives/constables actually relying on her to tell them what to do! She actually conducted the police investigations/questioning!

As Pat pointed out in a comment: Murder is Easy and Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? weren’t even Miss Marple mysteries! But, I was not at all prepared for what they did with Murder is Easy… both in adding Miss Marple as the lead investigator and also at the filmmakers decision to include incest/rape into the plot. Why do production companies feel like they have to “jazz things up” by making shows that feature hot taboo plotlines?

After I struggled to make it through the entire Murder is Easy, the first thing I proclaimed to my family was: “I know Agatha Christie did not include  the incest/rape into that plot!” Of course, after looking it up online, my daughter found that Agatha Christie didn’t include a lot of things into that mystery’s plot… things that the “hip” filmmakers passed off on the unsuspecting audience as written by Agatha Christie! Shame on them!!! And, since Masterpiece Mystery provides us all with introductions to each of their presentations >>> Why didn’t they tell us that the characters and plot had been WILDLY changed to appeal to a new “hip” audience?!? (Alfred, you are right: The Miss Marple shows have so many characters and scenes that it all becomes a confusing “What the heck?” OR “Who is that?” sequence!)

My daughter looked up the matter of incest in an Agatha Christie mystery and found that in 1995, Rosalind Hicks (Christie’s daughter) had to threaten a law suit against the film company that was making Towards Zero into a film >>> in which they added incest into the plot. The results of Hicks’ disapproval were that they had to change the name of the film, change the names of the characters, and take Agatha Christie’s name off of the entire project. Bravo!!! (As the president of the Agatha Christie Society, Hicks made sure that Agatha Christie’s work would not be… and these are my words… butchered or changed. And, I would like to add more words to that: to meet society’s growing “push-the-envelope” mentality!!!)

Having said all of this, I’m not even sure that the rest of my family will be watching the next two Miss Marple shows. I probably will… although I’m not sure why. I guess that it must be a morbid curiosity… or perhaps I am holding out hope that the filmmakers could not possibly make all four of these episodes into such lackluster events to watch. But, just in case, I will have my Miss Marple DVDs on hand with Joan Hickson… When I’m in the mood for a cozy movie… I know I can get a “quick fix” watching the “real” Miss Marple!

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