The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Tour Guide & Travel Mystery Books:

Tour Guide Cozy Mysteries… Mystery Books that Involve Travel:

What better time to travel than in the summer months? Well, that is true if you have children in school… My guess is that most empty-nesters or people who have opted from having children would rather travel during the times when school is in session… making places of interest a whole lot more accessible and less crowded. Either way, you can take along a cozy mystery which features travelling as a central theme:

Peter Abresch: James P. Dandy Elderhostel Mystery Series

Taffy Cannon: The first novel in the Roxanne Prescott Mystery Series features a tour guide for a very first-class tour business.

Lynne E. Chandler: Mrs. Baul Investigates: Bishop Kidnapped in Egypt

Hy Conrad: Conrad writes the Abel Adventures Mystery Series which revolves around mystery-solving tours.

William Doonan: The Henry Graves Mystery Series features an octogenarian who works on a cruise ship as a senior investigator.

Dorothy Gilman: In Mrs. Pollifax Mystery Series, Mrs. Pollifax is often traveling. In Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station, she is on a tour group to China.

Sue Henry: The Maxi & Stretch Mystery Series features a 60s something RV traveler who sleuths across the country with the help of her Mini Dachshund.

Maddy Hunter: The Passport to Peril Mystery Series features a tour guide who travels with her senior citizen group… who prove that there is such a thing as being “young at heart”.

Anna Loan-Wilsey: The Hattie Davish “Have Typewriter Will Travel” Mystery Series features a traveling secretary/typist in the late 19th century. Hattie travels to different locales in the USA.

Marie Moore: The Sydney March Mystery Series has, as its sleuth, a woman who takes vacationing groups on tours.

Nancy J. Parra (aka Nancy Coco & Nell Hampton):  Wine Country Mystery Series – Taylor O’Brian runs wine tours in Sonoma valley – California.

Emily Toll: Are you Booked for Travel?… as in the Booked for Travel Mystery Series which features a widowed tour guide with a penchant for sleuthing.

Livia J. Washburn: The Literary Tour Mystery Series… With tours that are based on literary works, “plots” (as in the type you find in cemeteries!) are sometimes on the agenda.

Marty Wingate: The Birds of a Feather Mystery Series stars a tourist manager in Smeaton-under-Lyme.

Aaron Marc Stein: The Bombing Run

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

John Adams Miniseries : Happy Fourth of July!

John Adams (DVD) I feel particularly patriotic this Fourth of July! We just finished the last episode of the HBO miniseries entitled John Adams…. and ¡¡¡WOW!!!

Let me first mention that we don’t subscribe to HBO… And, that we have tried some other HBO miniseries/episodic shows, and that some of them are just a tad out of my particular comfort zone. Yes… It’s true… I get a little uncomfortable with gratuitous sex and violence. Call me a “square” or “old-fashioned” but those are just the facts, ma’am.

A very good friend of mine told me about the miniseries… and since Cora is a cozy-mystery reader… I knew that she would not be recommending something that was going to be … let’s just say… adult-situation-graphic! (Don’t I sound like a prude!?!)

My husband had already read “John Adams,” David McCullough’s bestselling novel, and had really enjoyed it. And, since this miniseries is based on McCullough’s novel… which is presumably accurate, we knew that the miniseries would not take some of the “liberties” that a lot of other miniseries take… tweaking more “juicy tidbits” into the plots so that they are more readily appreciated by the masses. Of course, my husband did notice some changes that were made in the miniseries for dramatic purposes, although they didn’t detract from the overall spirit of accuracy.

The cast does a wonderful job portraying the characters who we all (in the USA) grew up learning and hearing about… Cast: Paul Giamatti (as John Adams) and Laura Linney (as his wife, Abigail) are superb in their parts. Tom Wilkinson (as Benjamin Franklin), Stephen Dillane (as Thomas Jefferson), David Morse (as George Wahington), Sarah Polley (as the Adams’ daughter), well… the list goes on! We found the acting, the sets, the director’s view ALL exceptionally good. (Of course, if you are looking for a sanitized version… where you don’t see and almost feel what it must have been like… where you don’t see how excruciating it was to be sick back in those times… when blood-letting seemed to be a very common practice… where there is a lack of buzzing flies, then this very realistic (and, again, to use an adjective I use to show the superlative), phenomenal miniseries is not for you…

HBO’s John Adams miniseries did not disappoint! It truly is worth watching… And, it gives a true meaning of why we, in the USA celebrate the Fourth of July… We have these very heroic men, such as John Adams, to thank for the liberty we now know and enjoy!

♦If you would like to see more TV & Movie  suggestions, click here.♦

That Girl TV Show…

That Girl - Season One Here is yet another TV & Movies blog on the Cozy Mystery site that has absolutely nothing to do with mysteries. The reason I chose to write about That Girl is because it is one of the shows from the late 1960s/early 1970s that I hope isn’t lost amongst the huge array of shows available now.

We moved into our house fifteen years ago— and I remember that That Girl was one of the shows my daughter and I watched together when Nickelodeon offered it (I think that they aired it during the Nick at Night time block… even before there was a TV Land channel!)

That Girl starred Marlo Thomas as Ann Marie, an aspiring, “struggling” actress. The use of quotation marks on the word “struggling” refers to the fact that Ann Marie’s apartment was absolutely phenomenal… large enough for a family of four in New York City, and her clothes were even more “absolutely phenomenal” than her apartment. BUT remember that this is a TV show, and just accept the fact that in the world of make-believe>>>Who Cares!?!

That fact is that despite a few little glitches, the show really is a good show to share with your daughters, nieces, granddaughters, or just you alone! (As I am doing now that my daughter doesn’t live with us…)

Ann’s personality is bubbly, fun, positive, in short… refreshing. Her boyfriend (Donald…played perfectly by Ted Bessell) is her anchor”’ but not her protector. Ann doesn’t need a protector,. She”s a strong, independent woman.

That Girl- Season One (1966-1967) included thirty episodes, in which we get introduced to the recurring characters. Ann’s father (Lou) was played by the wonderful Lew Parker… He is every young daughter’s father: over-protective and loving at the same time. Rosemary DeCamp exudes patience in her roll as Ann’s mother Helen Marie… She is Ann’s champion and runs interference between her leaving-the-nest Ann and her you-should-stay-at-home father.

For those of you like me who enjoyed the show when it first aired, you’ll be familiar with some of the great guest stars the show managed to get: Ethel Merman, Merle Milton, Danny Thomas, and some very young guest stars who went on to become big names: Sally Kellerman, Dabney Coleman, George Carlin.

If you’re worried about “adult situations,” let me just tell you that inn the episode “Rain, Snow and Rice,” Donald and Ann are snowed in with their friends in a hotel— the girls end up sharing one room and the boys share the other room… and the other couple is on their honeymoon!

Season Two (1967/1968) also had thirty episodes. (Unbelievable by today’s standard!) My daughter and I enjoyed watching these a year or two ago… and I am guessing that at 22, she would still enjoy Ann Marie’s antics. (I will pass on my DVDs when I am finished with them…)

Season Three (1968/1969) had 26 episodes and one of them had (almost!) the entire Thomas family. “My Sister’s Keeper” had guest appearances by Marlo’s dad (Danny), Sister (Terre), and brother Tony. What’s not to like?!?

I have yet to watch (or should I say “re-watch”?) any of Season Four (1969/1970) or Season Five (1970/1971) but I am looking forward to them. So here is the way.

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

I'm Just Venting…..AGAIN!

Good grief! I know that I am going to sound VERY OLD here… but am I the only one who is getting tired of “improvements”?!?!?

I finally had to chuck my AOL… I remember way back… when I first started using the computer, about 15 years ago>>> I was the last hold-out in my household to join the modern world! Back then, my relationship with my computer seemed a whole lot easier. I could save pictures to put on my emails, I could make folders that kept all of my correspondence, I could get off of the computer without “it” keeping files hidden in my computer which would then mess up my computer… Computer life was sweet! (As my daughter would say… “Sweet” is the new “delicious”— which a lot of us used to use to describe something that was totally super!)

But, some good things actually do come to pass. AOL kept putting out new versions… which they touted as “improved” (or some such adjective.) I would usually try to put off “upgrading” to the new improved system. And, when I finally acquiesced and let my husband upgrade my AOL (since I was the only one in the family who used AOL) I would immediately find fault with the “improvements.” (That’s right… “let my husband” do the work>>> Wasn’t I a good sport!?!)

Well, this last “upgrade” has finally persuaded me that after fifteen years of using AOL, I am ready to “go solo.” Yes, I have finally gotten fed up with all of the improvements… It seemed like this last upgrade meant that my husband had to keep fixing my computer when it “crashed.” And, I have enough computer questions for my husband… questions about how to save pictures of cozy mystery books, covers, how to make a new category on the site, how to “go behind the scenes” of my pages and make changes, how to…. well you get my drift.

So, adieu to AOL… You were “delicious” when I was learning my ins and outs of the computer… but your improvements just aren’t that “sweet” for me!

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