The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Mystery Books that Take Place in Iowa:

June 26, 2009

Here are some Fun Iowa Facts:
State capital is Des Moines.
State bird is the Eastern Goldfinch
State flower is the Wild Prairie Rose.
State motto is “Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain.”
Iowa gets its name from the French word that was used to describe the region’s Bah-kho-je Indian tribe.

Authors who are found on the Cozy Mystery Site and who feature Iowa locations in their books:

Barbara Allan (aka Barbara & Max Allan Collins): Trash ‘n’Treasures Mystery Series…

Kathleen Bacus: Tressa Jayne Turner Mystery Series…

Shirley Damsgaard: Ophelia & Abby Mystery Series…

Maddy Hunter: Passport to Peril Mystery Series…

Leslie Langtry: Merry Wrath Mystery Series…

Fay Risner: Amazing Gracie Mystery Series…

Please feel free to contact me if you see an author from the Cozy Mystery Site who belongs on this list, or if you have any comments.

♦To access more Cozy Mysteries by Theme click on this link.♦

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Does There Need to Be a Body?!? I Would Love to Hear What You All Think…

June 24, 2009

Hi Cozy Mystery Site Readers!

I just received a question from a site reader who also writes mysteries. So far, she has published short stories and is working on a cozy mystery. She would really appreciate our help. Here is her question:

“Do cozies need dead bodies?  Are the stories more exciting when they do have dead bodies or have you never really noticed?

I know there are a couple of cozies that come to mind that don’t have a dead body (there are some in the series, but not necessarily in every book.)  Sometimes that works for me, sometimes, not.  Usually it seems to have more to do with how entertaining the characters and story are overall.

Anyway, I was hoping you’d have an opinion–or maybe even knew of some additional cozies without dead bodies that I could read for reference!!!

If you have any insight, I’d love to hear it!!!

Thanks!“

I must tell you all, as a follow-up with the above author, she said:

“Now just know–there’s a character in my book… her LIFE depends on the answer we get!!!!!“

How is that for motivation?!?

So, please don’t be shy. If you have an opinion, a recommendation, or a thought on this particular query, we’d love to hear from you!

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No Longer An Empty Nester… AND Loving It!

June 22, 2009

Where to begin?

Both my son and daughter are back in the nest for what might be our last summer together. Our son is looking for an accounting job, and our daughter is taking a much needed break from summer internships… getting ready to go “back east” to law school.

We have been living in San Antonio for the last sixteen years… Both of our children attended elementary, middle, and high school right here. They both went to college in Austin (less than 70 miles away), so we have been very lucky to have them close enough that we could see them on a regular basis.

What a shock it was when I heard that my son is applying for jobs as far away as California!!! And our daughter will be moving east in just two months. Where has the time gone?!?

I didn’t really think about this possibly being our last summer together until last night, when my husband “announced” this bit of information. I don’t know if I was living in a time warp, dream land, or just not facing reality >>> I just hadn’t “put it all together.”

I don’t want to dwell on the negative (which I am inclined to do), rather embrace the time we have to enjoy each other. But, with the “help” of my husband’s one little phrase, I am already dreading the time when our two children will go their own ways, and our time together will be limited to holiday visits and phone calls.

At least it isn’t like “the olden days” when phone calls were limited… more than 35¢  per minute made them a costly event. It seemed to me that whenever I talked to my parents on the phone, my father would say hello and pretty quickly lapse into how much the phone call was going to cost. I am pretty sure that some of our phone calls consisted solely of how much we were going to pay Ma Belle per minute!

So, I am armed for this brave new world, which I will be exploring in a short while: We are on the “family plan” of T-Mobile… an answer to every parent’s empty nest syndrome, and perhaps not such a great joy for sons and daughters of new Empty Nesters…

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July 2009 Mystery Book New Releases

June 20, 2009

The following mystery books will be released in July 2009:

Jeff Abbott: Trust Me (This will be a Stand Alone…)

Madelyn Alt: Where There’s a Witch (This will be the 5th in the Bewitching Mystery Series…)

Donna Andrews: Swan for the Money (This will be the 11th in the Meg Langslow Mystery Series…)

Juliet Blackwell (aka Hailey Lind) Secondhand Spirits (This will be the 1st in the NEW Witchcraft Mystery Series…)

Rhys Bowen: Royal Flush (This will be the 3rd in the Lady Georgiana Mystery Series…)

Simon Brett: Blotto, Twinks, and the Ex-King’s Daughter (This will be a Stand Alone…) (Actually released in very late May 2009…)

James Lee Burke: Rain Gods (This will be the 5th in the Billy Bob Holland Mystery Series…)

Chris Cavender (aka Elizabeth Bright, Melissa Glazer, & Tim Myers): A Slice of Murder (This will be the 1st in the NEW Pizza Mystery Series…)

Sheila Connolly (aka Sarah Atwell): Rotten to the Core (This will be the 2nd in the Orchard Mystery Series…)

Elizabeth George:: Two of the Deadliest: New Tales of Lust, Greed, and Murder from Outstanding Women of Mystery (This will be a Stand Alone Anthology…)

Lee Goldberg: Mr. Monk and the Dirty Cop (This will be the 8th in the Mr. Monk Mystery Series…)

Kerry Greenwood: Murder on a Midsummer Night (This will be the 18th in the Phryne Fisher Mystery Series…)

Susanna Gregory: A Vein of Deceit (This will be the 15th in the Chronicles of Matthew Bartholomew Mystery Series…)

Carolyn Haines: Greedy Bones (This will be the 9th in the Sarah Booth Delaney Mystery Series…

Dorothy Howell: Purses and Poison (This will be the 2nd in the Haley Randolph Mystery Series…) (Actually June 30…)

J. A. Jance: Fire and Ice (This will be the 20th in the J. P. Beaumont & Brady Mystery Series…)

Kaye Morgan: Killer Sudoku (This will be the 4th in the Sudoku Mystery Series…#3)

Karen E. Olson: The Missing Ink (This will be the 1st in the NEW Tattoo Shop Mystery Series…)

Deborah Sharp: Mama Rides Shotgun (This will be the 2nd in the Mace Bauer Mystery Series…)

Alexander McCall Smith: Corduroy Mansions (This will be the 1st in a NEW Series…)

Jennifer Sturman: And Then Everything Unraveled (This will be a Stand Alone…)

Laura Wilson: The Innocent Spy (aka Stratton’s War) (This will be a Stand Alone…)

♦To go back to the Cozy Mystery Book New Releases page click here♦

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