The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

August 2008 Mystery Book New Releases:

The following mystery books will be released in August 2008:

Jo Bannister: Closer Still (This will be the 8th in the Brodie Farrell Mystery Series…)

Linda Barnes: Lie Down with the Devil (This will be the 12th in the Carlotta Carlyle Mystery Series…)

Nancy Bell: Paint the Town Dead (This will be the 3rd in the Judge Jackson Crain Mystery Series…)

Cordelia Frances Biddle (aka 1/2 of Nero Blanc): Deception’s Daughter (This will be the 2nd in the Martha Beale Mystery Series…)

Simon Brett: Blood at the Bookies (This will be the 9th in the Fethering Mystery Series…)

Edna Buchanan: Legally Dead (This will be the 1st in the NEW Michael Venturi Mystery Series…)

Barbara Cleverly: Folly du Jour  (This will be the 7th in the Joe Sandilands Mystery Series…)

Kate Collins: Shoots to Kill (This will be the 7th in the Flower Shop Mystery Series…)

Sheila Connolly (aka Sarah Atwell): One Bad Apple (This will be the 1st in the NEW Orchard Mystery Series…)

Kaitlyn Dunnett (aka Kathy Lynn Emerson): Scone Cold Dead (This will be the 2nd in the Liss MacCrimmon Mystery Series…)

Charles Finch: The September Society (This will be the 2nd in the Charles Lenox Mystery Series…)

Sally Goldenbaum:  Death by Cashmere (This will be the 1st in the NEW Seaside Knitters Mystery Series…)

Margaret Grace (aka Camille Minichino):  Mayhem in Miniature (This will be the 2nd in the Miniature Mystery Series…)

Ann Granger: A Mortal Curiosity (This will be the 2nd in the Lizzie Martin Mystery Series…)

Faye Kellerman: The Mercedes Coffin (This will be the 17th in the Peter Decker & Rina Lazarus Mystery Series…)

Margaret Maron: Death’s Half Acre (This will be the 14th or 15th in the Deborah Knotts Mystery Series…)

Cricket McRae: Heaven Preserve Us (This will be the 2nd in the Home Crafting Mystery Series…)

Kaye Morgan: Sinister Sudoku (This will be the 3rd in the Sudoku Mystery Series…)

Elizabeth Peters: Laughter of Dead Kings (This will be the 6th in the Vicky Bliss Mystery Series…)

Kathy Reichs: Devil Bones (This will be the 11th in the Temperance Brennan Mystery Series…)

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

Starting with the Grande Dame of Cozies… Agatha Christie

I have read many Agatha Christie novels during my life…  and I have also watched (and re-watched) many different adaptations of Christie’s novels on television. But, I never tire of her oh-so-very cozy works. It is for this reason that I have decided to start at the beginning, and work my way through her novels.

I have just finished listening to The Murder at the Vicarage (1930) and The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1922). Both of these are the first novels of her two most famous series… the Vicarage introduces us to Miss Marple’s unassuming role as the elderly spinster sleuth. The Styles Affair introduces us to Captain Hastings, Inspector Japp, and, of course, Hercule Poirot. What a delight it was to go back and listen to how Christie brought those characters to life. It had been years since I read either novel, and I was most interested in listening to how the two main characters were described.

The audio version of the Mysterious Affair at Styles that I am listening to is actually read by David Suchet… who most of us immediately identify as the best Hercule Poirot ever caught on film. What a treat it is to listen to Hercule’s dialogue by “Hercule himself”… well… almost! 

At first, my plan was to “plow my way” through all of the Agatha Christie audio books that I have available to me. I have since then decided to hold off on that particular plan. I am going to intersperse the Miss Marples and Poirots with other audio books that I have. I don’t want to “overstay my welcome,” so to speak. I have found that many times, when I try to go through a series with no interruptions by other books, I sometimes don’t enjoy the books as much as I would, had I visited the characters more times>>> but less often.  

Ruth Rendell… Barbara Vine, Inspector Wexford, Stand-Alones…

The title of this blog should give you an idea of just how much Ruth Rendell has contributed to the world of fiction. I have read less than a dozen (but more than half a dozen) of her works, and have enjoyed each book immensely. As Barbara Vine, she writes incredibly detailed, three-dimensional fiction… I have to admit to a bias for mysteries, but I love Vine’s work outside of the mystery genre.

As Ruth Rendell, she writes two types of books… anyway, based on the more than half a dozen books that I have read by her, that’s what I think…

She has the wildly popular Inspector Wexford series (of which the 21st was published in 2008) and she also has her stand-alone novels. I am more familiar with the stand-alones, and  still remember getting totally hooked on Rendell’s style after reading Live Flesh. YOW!!!!! Rendell’s stand-alone mysteries are psychological studies… I hate to say psychological thrillers because, on this COZY site, that might put off a lot of potential readers… But, I am going to go ahead and say it… they are just that… but PLEASE don’t let that put you, the Cozy reader off… Rendell is simply fantastic at her craft!!! She seems to know the minds of the psychotic people who inhabit her books. (Note that I didn’t say “characters”… She is so good that they become “people” rather than characters!)

If you don’t think that you’re up to a psychological thriller, then the Inspector Wexford novels are probably the way you should “try” Rendell (if you aren’t already a fan of Rendell’s work.) I have decided to start her Inspector Wexford novels at the very beginning, and read them all the way through… I have all 21 books beckoning to me, so here goes… I am delighted with my choice of Ruth Rendell, an author with whom I will be spending a considerable amount of time reading and enjoying… (And, this time, I am going to read the books in the correct chronological order!)

What Am I Reading???

A few weeks ago, after finishing E. V. Cunningham‘s Masao Masuto Series, I went to my bookshelves and debated (with myself!) over which book to read next…. I have (+/-) two hundred books just waiting for me… which is a great feeling for someone who seems to have a compulsive/obsessive disorder with order.

At first I thought that  I would go for a true crime book… Every once in a while I like to “mix-it-up” and add in a book that will offer some change from my very cozy mystery books, be it with a police procedural, gritty mystery, general fiction, etc.

I had an Ann Rule in one hand and a Joseph Wambaugh book in the other… Hmmmmm>>>>> which book did I “feel like”!?! I enjoy both of these authors’ true crime so much… but was I in the mood for just that?

You know how you sometimes have a period of not quite knowing what you want to read next? Sometimes I can have that feeling for a few days at a time… when I deliberate over what I feel I want to read next… It’s at those times when I catch up on reading my magazines and doing Sudoku puzzles. 

I am always happy when I finally get out of one of those “not-reading” slumps, when I am so intent on finding the correct book for my mood that I actually spend no time reading!

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