The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Jesse Stone by Robert B. Parker (The Television Movie!)

Good news for all of you Robert B. Parker fans out there AND all of you mystery readers who crave mystery movies:

Jesse Stone’s new two hour television movie Thin Ice will be on this Sunday night at 9:00 EST (which for me translates into 8:00) on CBS. I wanted to be sure and tell those of you who don’t know about it, since we have had previous discussions about these special event movies. This will be the fifth in the Jesse Stone movie series: Stone Cold,  Night Passage,  Death in Paradise,  &  Sea Change are the previous four installments.

Police Chief Jesse Stone (of Paradise, Massachusetts) is in trouble for getting involved in a shoot-out in Boston. Since Jesse (played by Tom Selleck of Magnum P.I. fame) has to spend a lot of time sorting out his trouble in Boston, his absence in Paradise causes a problem there. And to make things worse, Jesse fired one of Paradise’s greatest money-makers… a policeman who gave out more than his share of tickets  >>> which boosted the town’s income quite nicely!

So, set up your Replay machines, Tivos, DVRs, VCRs, or just have your alarm clocks set for 8:00 (my time, probably not yours!) for Sunday, March 1!

The Men of Cozy Mysteries, Part Two

This is a follow up to yesterday’s entry. Bill wrote to thank me for addressing his question, with this:

“P.S. — BY the way, I do read a good number of mysteries with female protagonists…I liked Lonnie Cruse’s “Fifty-Seven Heaven,” for example, and some of the Sue Grafton books and many others….

I certainly did not mean to imply I “NEED” my protagonists to be male….

BUT, though it might sound stereotypical, there are, I suppose, some interests common to men and common to women…It would be a stretch for me to try to be interested in a subtext that involved knitting techniques or quilting or doll-collecting, for example, while my wife might have to strain to work up an interest in a subtext that involved fly-fishing or automotive restoration or NASCAR…”

Well put! I know that in this politically correct world we live in, we aren’t supposed to “notice” differences of any sort between men and women…. BUT, let’s face it, differences do exist! We might feel uncomfortable admitting it out loud, though.

With this in mind, it poses the question “Why do so many Cozy Mystery authors feel like they have to gear their subject matter towards women?”

• Is it because we like to read books that include our favorite interests?

• Is it because publishers push their authors to write themed Cozies with women in mind?

• Is it because we can identify with Cozy Mystery sleuths who seem most like us?

• Is it because the themed Cozy Mysteries that are serialized sell better once they have an established fan base, which is the publishers think should be limited to women?

• Is it because publishers think that ALL men want to read mysteries that include graphic sex, violence, and language – so they keep the non-graphic mysteries for women… focusing on women’s interests?

Hmmmm….. Sounds like I have a lot of questions, and no answers. Doesn’t it?!?

The Men of Cozy Mysteries, Part One…

Bill wrote a comment to the site that started me thinking, so I thought I would post it here:

“I have a question about cozy mysteries: Why are they seen as largely geared to female readers? I enjoy many elements of cozy mysteries — their plots, their wit, their avoidance of relying overly much on gratuitous graphic details, etc. I wonder why there are not a greater number with male protagonists, etc.? Do you have a list of those that might be more appealing to male readers? Thanks! (I don’t suppose writers such as William Tapply and Bill Crider would quite fit into the cozy genre, would they? I like those two authors, among MANY others.”

Bill, you are right! Cozy Mysteries really do seem to be marketed for women. It seems like even male authors of Cozy Mysteries prefer to have women as their protagonists. But there are many men who enjoy the subgenre. (My husband listens to Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh… two of the four Queens of the Golden Age of Mysteries, and he would not listen to them if he didn’t like them>>> Believe me! He has access to many different books.) 

As for your Bill Crider and William Tapply question… I don’t read either of those authors, so I don’t know… but I do read Reginald Hill (Dalziel and Pascoe Series), Colin Dexter (Inspector Morse), and R. D. Wingfield (A Touch of Frost) and I know that they don’t qualify as Cozy. (They are police procedurals.) To me, they don’t seem to bog themselves down with minute, gratuitious details. (This is not to say that they aren’t grittier than Cozy Mysteries… In some cases, they are quite a bit grittier!)

Right now, I am drawing a blank, except for J. A. Jance‘s J. P. Beaumont series, but I’m not sure if her books really qualify as Cozies… they are a little grittier than, let’s say, Agatha Christie. (I happen to be a fan of both her J. P. Beaumont and Joanna Brady series.)

So, readers, do you have any suggestions for Bill? If you do, I’ll post them, and then make a theme for the male protagonists in Cozy Mysteries.

Follow-Up of Feb. 15 Blog…

As I previously stated, “I’m all for authors who decide that they should finish up a series if it is no longer fresh. If an author feels like he/she is simply ‘calling it in’ while writing their series, I say: Quit churning them out, start something new. ”

Boy! Do I believe that!

Sometimes I wonder about why I continue reading an author who I have gotten tired of… an author who just seems to be writing in his/her sleep, an author who  seems to be going through the motions. But, I stay with my favorite authors until they finally stop writing their series… even though some of the authors I decide I am going to stop reading, but soon find myself getting the next book in their series… sort of like potato chips… very addictive! (And I like potato chips!)

I wonder if all readers are loyal to their favorite authors. Since I update authors’ pages on the site, I can see just how many books the individual authors are writing. Based on what seems to be an overall ‘cleaning house’ attitude of some of the publishers, I doubt that an author could continue to get published if he/she didn’t bring in the $ale$.

OK… Here’s an example of an author who just writes, writes, and then writes some more!

The author I am thinking about has one series that has more than 20 books in it… Sometimes this particular author writes two mysteries in just one year for this series. In addition to this best selling series, the author has another series with over 15 books in the series, sometimes two books have been published in one year, and this series is being written at the same time as the other series. That’s a prolific author!

But, wait, there’s more! This author has two more series which are being written at the same time as the other two series, and both of these have close to half a dozen books in them. WOW!!!! That’s a lot of books!

So, I ask myself about authors who are that productive… Are their last books published as good as their third books in the series? Are they as fresh?

Well, if the readers of that author are anything like me… Those questions don’t matter…. I just wonder if everyone is as loyal a reader as I am?!?

MENU