Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV
I received a comment asking for help in finding mystery authors who are similar to the following authors.
I have listed a few authors who might be similar. Remember, though, this is not scientific or 100% “accurate.” I hope that readers from the site can come up with some more names for you.
Carolyn Hart:
Rex Stout:
If you would like to add to the lists, please post a comment.
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!
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?!?
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.
