The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Mysteries with (Previously) Famous Fictional Characters:

Here is another cozy mystery theme… I have gone through all of my authors and found two who “borrow” characters from other authors. They are as follows:

Carrie Bebris… Bebris has an MA in English Lit, has been an editor, freelance writer, and college instructor. Her Mr. and Mrs. Darcy Mystery Series features two of the main characters from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Mrs. Darcy is Elizabeth Bennet, who, if you remember, married Mr. Darcy at the end of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice… obviously in England!

Barry S. Brown: Mrs. Hudson of Baker Street Mystery Series

Carole Buggé: Sherlock Holmes Mystery Series

D.E. Ireland: Eliza Doolittle & Henry Higgins Mystery Series, based on the George Bernard Shaw Pygmalion characters.

Laurie R. King: King has an MA in Old Testament Theology, and writes the very popular Mary Russell Mystery Series which features Mary Russell, a protégé of Sherlock Holmes. I won’t give all the details… but Sherlock Holmes is actually the partner/side-kick sleuth!

Lora Roberts: Roberts writes the Mystery with Sherlock  Holmes Mystery Series.

Joanna Campbell Slan: Jane Eyre Chronicles Mystery Series, which features Charlotte Brontë’s Jane.

June Thomson: Thomson writes the Sherlock Holmes Series.

Jill Paton Walsh writes the Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane Mystery Series, which is based on the characters of Dorothy L. Sayers.

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

I Am On A Roll!

I have been getting so many recommendations! I actually have four lists of mystery authors who I will eventually get posted on the site. The reason I have four lists is because I have gotten the recommendations in different ways. My number 1 list is comprised of authors who you, the cozy mystery site readers, have let me know about.

The second and third lists have authors who I have accumulated from the different web boards I have belonged to at one time or another. These are authors who I annotated and who I thought I would get to very quickly when I first started the Cozy Mystery website, but who have been placed on the back burner for now… until I finish up the authors who you all have actually told me about.

The final list I have is authors who I got from the Malice Domestic queue of authors who were "registered attendees" either last year or the year before… I thought that if they were willing to go to the convention and meet "ordinary people" like us, well then, doggone it, good for them (and good for us! ) Hopefully, I will someday get to that fourth list of authors…

If you have recommended an author, and have been wondering why it is taking so long to see that particular author on the site>>> Did I mention that I have twenty four authors on my #1 "Authors To Do" list?!?

Marian Babson…. I just felt like a quick cozy mystery…

I just started a Marian Babson book from over thirty years ago…. Murder Sails at Midnight, from 1975. I went to my trusty book shelf which now holds over 300 books for me to read at some point in the future (I really should count those books some time soon!) and decided that it was time for me to read this particular book. I have read several of Babson’s books before, but since they didn’t belong to a series, I just hopped around picking books as they suited my moods.

Murder Sails at Midnight is not disappointing me. I have finished about half of the book and cannot wait to find out … not whodunit, but who whodunit to! For those of you who haven’t yet read the book, we are "introduced" to the murderer at the very beginning of the book. Babson then introduces us to four people, one of whom will be the recipient of the murderer’s handiwork… This is a book with a neat twist… Babson lets us in on the "secret" of the murder, and fills us in on some of the facts we will need to know in order to (hopefully) solve the crime.

And, since the reader knows who the whodunit is, and that he will be ending one of the four people’s lives, we are able to go along with Babson and try to pick up the hints… sifting through the red herrings that she tosses out to us. I have to admit, I have no idea which of the four people is the most likely to get the undeserved ax.  I am having to fight off the urge to take a peak at the end of the book… that’s how much I want to know!

Jennifer Chiaverini, Claire M. Johnson, Nina Wright, & Evan Marshall: Four New Authors to Mystery Site

I just copied the following blog directly from my What’s New on the Cozy Mystery Site page… So, if you are a regular reader of that page, you will probably not be interested in reading this blog which covers the four new authors I just finished adding to the site. (Since you have already read about them on the What’s New page, NOT because you aren’t interested in the authors!!!)

I am trying to get back into adding some of the authors who site readers have recommended. I  had been working on putting pictures of the covers of authors’ books on their individual pages, but found that it was simply taking too much time to make much progress on that project. (I just finished the "C" authors!)

Today I am adding an author who does not write mysteries, but who several site readers recommended as someone who might fit in well with the cozy theme of the site: Jennifer Chiaverini writes the Elm Creek Quilts Series. (I have added Chiaverini to the Quilting Theme page.)

Nina Wright writes the Whiskey Mattimoe Mystery Series. Whiskey is a realtor in a resort area in Michigan, and Abra is her trusty Afghan Hound sleuthing partner. (A new addition to the Dog Theme page.)

The third recommended author I added to the site today is Claire M. Johnson. Johnson writes the Mary Ryan, Pastry Chef Mystery Series… which I have added to the Culinary Mystery Theme page.

The last (but by no means least!) author is Evan Marshall. Marshall writes the Jane Stuart & Winky Mystery Series and is also beginning a new series called the Hidden Manhattan Mystery Series. I have added Marshall to the Cat Theme page, also.

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