The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Gabriella Herkert, G. M. Malliet, & Allana Martin: Three New Authors to the Cozy Mystery Site

Here are three new authors who have been recommended to the Cozy Mystery Site by some of its readers. Thank you for telling us all about the (new-to-the-site) authors!

Gabriella Herkert:  While attending law school, Herkert became aware of a case which involved a woman who left her fortune to her cat. Looking back (years later) Herkert made this the basis of her Animal Instinct Mystery Series, which is set in Seattle.

G. M. Malliet: Malliet is a Malice Domestic Grant Winner, as well as a copywriter and journalist. She pens the Detective Chief Inspector St. Just Mystery Series, which is set in Great Britain.

Allana Martin: Martin writes the Death of a ***** Mystery Series which is set in a Texan border-town (bordering Mexico) and features Texana Jones, the owner of a trading post and her husband (Clay) who is a veterinarian.

Firefly series…

Firefly This is another review of what I consider a truly delightful show that doesn’t happen to be a mystery. (Of course, it’s a mystery to me that it was cancelled after only one season… although I have a feeling that when a network decides to air the shows of a new series out of sequence, that can’t help establish the show…)

Firefly is really a departure from any one type of genre>>> The best way to describe it is to say that it’s a western/science fiction/dramedy. (If you aren’t a sci-fi fan, don’t be put off by that part of the label! The series is set in the far-away future and features the escapades of a rather unconventional spaceship crew. The characters are three dimensional, the special effects are fun and vivid, the plot lines are original, and the acting is more than convincing… This show really is a delight to watch.

The writer/director of Firefly is Joss Whedon (whom a lot of you probably recognize.) Firefly follows the adventures on a cargo ship (the Serenity) which is commanded/owned by a good-guy-sort of captain (played by Nathan Fillion). Firefly breaks the stereotypical rules— Gina Torres plays both the only wife in the crew and a very tough warrior. It was through Firefly that my family first experienced the comedic delivery of Adam Baldwin (not from the Baldwin brother acting family)>>> (You can now see him on the television show Chuck.) He plays the perfect marshmallow tough guy… a delight to watch.

Firefly originally aired on the Fox network, and a lot of the shows’ fans were greatly disappointed when it was cancelled. Perhaps because it had such a large following, in 2005 Joss Whedon released the movie Serenity. I would definitely recommend watching the series in its correct chronological order, and then following it with the movie. I am not a huge sci-fi fan and I think that I would probably have been a little lost watching the movie without knowing all of the characters and the ship’s purpose. I am sure that my adult son and daughter (as well as my husband) could have gone into the movie “cold.”

Although Firefly is loads of fun to watch… it is not for young children.

If you would like to see more TV and Movies suggestions, click here.

What's the Wisdom in Having Wisdom Teeth?!?

Our daughter is home for the holidays. What better way to spend the time than having her wisdom teeth extracted?!? We were hoping that she wouldn’t need to have this procedure done, but you know what they say about the best laid plans…

As I write this, she is taking a nap in the family room>>> still highly medicated from the morning’s earlier surgery. Our son had his wisdom teeth taken out when he was a little younger than she is, and we made several mistakes (that we learned from!) with his surgery.

For anyone looking at this process: consider the actual time of the surgery. I am so much happier with our daughter’s time of 8:30 AM. This way I can keep an eye on her all day long, making sure that everything is 100%  OK before bedtime. My son did his own scheduling (mid-afternoon) which meant that I worried throughout the night and kept checking on him while he was asleep (more like “passed out” from the anesthesia.)

The other difference between their wisdom teeth procedures. My husband insisted that our son was an adult (over 18) and that he could handle the pre-op decisions. What a mistake that was! His oral surgeon actually had an “assembly line” going!!! He would anesthetize one patient, go extract another patient’s teeth, go work on another patient, ETC. All in all he had FOUR dental chairs going at the same time! (That explained how this particular dentist was able to work such a short week!) I insisted on going to the oral surgeon”s office with my daughter, and although I let her do most of the talking, I had a few questions of my own!

Anyway, I don’t mean to add one more worry to the already-long list of parental concerns for those of you who are parents of younger children, but I really don’t see the wisdom of wisdom teeth. I mean, if man can walk on the moon, why haven’t we evolved enough to no longer have those pesky molars in our mouths!

Heat of the Sun miniseries…

Heat of the Sun Boxed Set (Private Lives / Hide in Plain Sight / The Sport of Kings) What happens if a 1930s up-and-coming Scotland Yard detective is headed for a melt down? (Think vigilante cop!) The Yard might send him to Colonial Africa… and in this case, I’m delighted that’s what they did! The Heat of the Sun is a British miniseries that follows a Scotland Yard detective after he has been “banished” from Scotland Yard.

The miniseries follows Detective Tyburn (played wonderfully by Trevor Eve) from the day he arrives in Colonial Africa as he is greeted by the terrible bigotry that existed in the colonies at that time. He does not conform to what the “elite” British class expects of him. And, as if that’s not enough, one of his superiors is an old boss (as in nemesis) from his Scotland Yard days.

The wonderful Susannah Harker plays Emma Fitzgerald, a woman who is about the only down-to-earth person in the “elite class”… a woman before her times: a pilot and one of the very few Brits who sees the African people as… people, and not as servants.

The mysteries are well-executed, the scenery is phenomenal, the wardrobe is realistic, and the acting is outstanding. The miniseries follows Detective Tyburn as he bucks the system and actually does what he is supposed to be doing>>> He finds the culprits of crimes, even though they could/might be from the upper British hierarchical class. He protects the innocent even though they could/might be from what the Colonial Brits consider the very lowest of classes.

This is yet another terrific character-driven mystery miniseries that we have come to expect from Great Britain. Be forewarned though… it is not for children.

If you would like to see more TV and Movies suggestions, click here.

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