The Cozy Mystery List Blog

Hallmark Movies & Mysteries AND Hallmark Channels Christmas Lists for November 2022

November 1, 2022

The Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel as well as the Hallmark channel are only showing Christmas movies during the month of November 2022. Most of the movies they will be showing are the ones from past years, however, they will be showing some NEW Christmas movies. I am only listing the NEW Christmas movies that both of these channels will be showing.

HALLMARK MOVIES & MYSTERIES & HALLMARK Channels CHRISTMAS LIST for November 2022:

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Friday – November 4, 2022

A Magical Christmas Village – Hallmark channel
A Christmas Village brings the magic of Christmas to the lives of Summer and her family, healing old wounds and bringing new love to Summer and her family. Alison Sweeney, Luke Macfarlane, Marlo Thomas.
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Saturday – November 5, 2022

A Maple Valley Christmas – Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel
Rancher Erica has spent her whole life working the family farm with her mother and sister. When Aaron arrives and disrupts her plans, she starts to question what it is she actually wants. Starring Peyton List and Andrew Walker.

Lights, Camera, Christmas! – Hallmark channel
A holiday movie production comes to town in need of a costume designer, Kerry, a local shop owner, steps into the role and crosses paths with the film’s charming star Brad. Stars Kimberley Sustad, John Brotherton.
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Sunday – November 6, 2022

All Saints Christmas – Hallmark channel
R&B singer Lisette is set to travel home to New Orleans for Christmas when a picture of her and her ex boyfriend is misinterpreted as a surprise engagement. Starring Ledisi and Roger Cross.
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Friday – November 11, 2022

In Merry Measure – Hallmark channel
When pop star Darcy returns home to spend Christmas with her sister and niece, she unexpectedly finds herself coaching the high school choir with her onetime rival, Adam. Patti Murin, Brendan Penny, Jennifer Robertson.
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Saturday – November 12, 2022

Our Italian Christmas Memories – Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel
The Colucci siblings, in an effort to jog the memory of their grandfather who is struggling with dementia, set out to recreate their late grandmother’s legendary pasta sauce. Starring Sarah Power and Beau Bridges.

The Royal Nanny – Hallmark channel
MI5 agent Claire goes undercover as the royal nanny, and must overcome the challenges of her assignment, like resisting the charms of Prince Colin while keeping the family safe at Christmas. Stars Rachel Skarsten, Dan Jeannotte.
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Sunday – November 13, 2022

Christmas at the Royal Dragon – Hallmark channel
With the town’s landmark Chinese restaurant closing, two siblings find themselves reevaluating their lives alongside the restaurant’s loyal patrons. Starring Kara Wang, Osric Chau, Sara Canning, Antonio Cupo, Barbara Niven.
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Friday – November 18, 2022

Inventing the Christmas Prince – Hallmark channel
Shelby is about to quit her job as a rocket engineer when her daughter becomes convinced that her Scrooge-like boss, Evan, is the Christmas Prince; a story Shelby invented years ago. Starring Tamera Mowry-Housley and Ronnie Rowe.
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Saturday – November 19, 2022

Long Lost Christmas – Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel
Interior designer Hayley plans to surprise her recently widowed mother Patricia with the perfect holiday present: the extended family she knows her mom yearns for. Stars Taylor Cole, Benjamin Ayres.

Three Wise Men and a Baby – Hallmark channel
Three brothers get the surprise of their lives when they are forced to work together and care for a baby over the holidays. Starring Paul Campbell, Tyler Hynes, Andrew Walker, and Margaret Colin.
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Sunday – November 20, 2022

When I Think of Christmas – Hallmark channel
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Thursday – November 24, 2022

My Southern Family Christmas – Hallmark channel
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Friday – November 25, 2022

#Xmas – Hallmark channel

A Royal Corgi Christmas – Hallmark channel
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Saturday – November 26, 2022

Time for Him to Come Home for Christmas – Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel

A Tale of Two Christmases – Hallmark channel

Haul Out the Holly – Hallmark channel
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Sunday – November 27, 2022

A Christmas Cookie Catastrophe – Hallmark channel

A Holiday Spectacular – Hallmark channel

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I believe this is it for the Hallmark Christmas movies. Let’s hope we’ll soon be seeing lots of new Cozy Mystery movies now!

If you’re looking for Christmas movies that won’t be found on either of the Hallmark channels, here are some ideas:

Christmas: Favorite Classic Holiday Movies : Old, Black & White

Christmas: Favorite Holiday Movies – More Recent, In Color

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Here is the page on my Cozy Mystery site with plenty of entries about movies and television shows you may enjoy:

Cozy Mystery List TV and Movie Section – all you have to do is click on the link to go to that page on my site.

I’ll update this page when the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries website updates their schedule.

Cozy Mystery Book Recommendations – October 2022

October 30, 2022

October is over, so it’s time to discuss our favorite Cozies that we’ve read last month!

If you read a Cozy mystery last month and want to recommend it to the rest of us, be sure to post it here! For this month, I read the first entry of Libby Klein’s Poppy McAllister Mystery Series. For the reasons I want to recommend it, be sure to check out the blog entry!

So, what have you been reading that you can recommend in October? Please be sure to tell us why you liked these Cozies so much. I know we’re all always on the lookout for more particularly good Cozy Mystery authors! (If you have a lot of Cozies you think are great, please post the ones you like the most at the top of the list.)

As always, please do not tell us about the Cozy Mysteries you did not like.

What really good Cozy Mystery did you read during October 2022 that you want the rest of us to know about, and why did you enjoy it?

Victoria Abbott (Writing duo Mary Jane Maffini & daughter Victoria Maffini): Book Collectors Mystery Series

Sally Andrew: Tannie Maria Mystery Series (first entry Recipes for Love and Murder)

Nancy Atherton: Aunt Dimity Mystery Series

Laura Gail Black: Antique Bookshop Mystery Series

Christin Brecher: Nantucket Candle Maker Mystery Series (first entry Murder’s No Votive Confidence)

Catherine Bruns: Maple Syrup Mystery Series

Leslie Budewitz: Spice Shop Mystery Series

Lucy Burdette (aka Roberta Isleib): Key West Food Critic Mystery Series

Sarah Burr: Ducal Detective Mysteries (first entry The Ducal Detective)

Laurie Cass (aka Laura Alden): Bookmobile Cat Mystery Series

Alisa Craig (aka Charlotte MacLeod): Grub-and-Stakers Mystery Series

Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell & Tace Baker): Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery Series

Daryl Wood Gerber (aka Avery Aames): French Bistro Mystery Series

Sally Goldenbaum: Seaside Knitters Society Mystery Series

Liz Ireland: Mrs. Claus Mystery Series (first entry Mrs. Claus and the Santaland Slayings)

Libby Klein: Poppy McAllister Mystery Series

Dawn MacKinnon: The Mr. Mustachio Murders (first entry Mr. Mustachio Is Falsely Accused)

G. M. Malliet: Max Tudor Mystery Series

Jenn McKinlay (aka Josie Belle & Lucy Lawrence): Library Lover’s Mystery Series

Korina Moss: Cheese Shop Mystery Series (first entry Cheddar Off Dead)

Jacquie New: The Yellow Cottage Vintage Mystery Series (first entry An Accidental Murder)

Robin Paige (aka Susan Wittig Albert & husband Bill Albert): Victorian Mystery Series

Raquel V. Reyes: Caribbean Kitchen Mystery Series (first entry Mango, Mambo, and Murder)

Alexander McCall Smith: The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency

Patricia Wentworth: Miss Maud Silver Mystery Series

I will list the authors and series that have been recommended, but I urge you to read the comments below so you can see the reasons other Cozy Mystery readers thought these were their best reads of the month.

♦To access more Cozy Mystery Books Recommendations, click on this link♦

P.S. I usually don’t comment on your recommendations since they speak for themselves.

Basil Rathbone’s Sherlock Holmes

October 28, 2022

Inspired by this month’s Basil Rathbone movie marathon held on October 5 by TCM, I thought it would be fun to discuss one of the the most classic characters Rathbone would take on in his career, Sherlock Holmes.

Sherlock Holmes has been portrayed by many actors over the last century, so it takes a lot to really stand out above the crowd. Basil Rathbone certainly wasn’t the first – there were Sherlocks as far back as the 30-second short silent film Sherlock Holmes Baffled, from 1900, as well as the much longer short film series released by Stoll Pictures in the early 1920s. However, I feel that it is relatively safe to say that Rathbone’s Holmes might be the earliest that has been retained in the larger public consciousness, as it is one of the earliest series with sound, as well as the longest full-length feature movie series to date, with 14 entries.

Unfortunately, not all of these movies were of equal quality – in particular, I’d say that the two first released, The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (both released in 1939) were the strongest – in my personal opinion. This is likely due to the differing production companies – 20th Century Fox released these two, while the rest were wartime (or shortly post-war) movies by Universal Pictures, often featuring a modern (well, modern at the time) Sherlock fighting Nazis. While the later films have their own charms, they suffered a bit from the modernization – too modernized to be true to the classic tales, too antiquated to be as accessible today.

I specifically re-watched The Hound of the Baskervilles for this article, and the only complaint I have is one also found in other adaptations and even the original material – there just isn’t enough Holmes. Holmes sends Watson off to Baskerville Hall early in the story, and only reappears toward the end of the work, leaving a largely Holmes-shaped hole in the middle of the work. It’s a good thing that Nigel Bruce plays such a good Watson, as he is required to handle a lot more of the heavy lifting in this particular tale than most – more on Bruce’s Watson later.

While I particularly enjoy the earlier two works in the series, if you watch those and want more, the next movie I would really recommend is The Scarlet Claw. Though not credited as being based on any specific Doyle story, it still somehow gives the strongest impression of being a Doyle-inspired piece. The ones I would least recommend are Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror,Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon, and Sherlock Holmes in Washington. Sherlock Holmes hunting Nazis isn’t as entertaining as the concept may sound, and these early Universal movies in the series all feel a bit more rushed and cheaper to me than the Fox movies or the later Universal entries.

Regardless of which movie you watch, Basil Rathbone is of course excellent as Holmes, who he helps to largely define in film even today. Rathbone-as-Holmes displays the right degree of intellectual confidence leaning into arrogance, perfectly bringing the character of the eccentric investigator to the big screen. Clinically logical, bordering on cold, he’s just off-putting enough to truly bring the role to life.

But in many ways, his co-star, Nigel Bruce, playing Watson, is even more defining for the role. If anything, Bruce is perhaps a bit too perfect – he exemplifies a bumbling Watson, and as such has likely been the primary influence for the character in the many, many other adaptations that have been made since. This is definitely a necessary role, as it gives Holmes a ready target to describe the many masterful intellectual leaps that were required to reach the correct conclusions from minute observations. However, it does a bit of disservice to the original character of Watson, who is described as a classic Victorian gentleman by Doyle, an intelligent and athletic man in his own rights — if always outshone by the brilliant Holmes.

For fans of Rathbone’s Sherlock and Bruce’s Watson, it’s also worth noting that there’s more Holmes material out there starring them than the movies – they also starred together in a radio show with over 200 episodes from 1939 to 1947. Many of these, particularly the later episodes, can actually be found online on sites like YouTube.

(Note that if you do decide to pick up these movies, I would recommend The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection, which includes all the movies for a much lower price. Even if you don’t want most of the Universal pictures, you’re still probably getting the best value for money there rather than buying the movies one at a time.)

Libby Klein: Poppy McAllister Mystery Series

October 26, 2022

As part of my ongoing series highlighting the most recommended and popular Cozy Mystery series suggested by site readers, this month I will be discussing the first entry in Libby Klein‘s first entry in her Poppy McAllister Mystery Series, titled Class Reunions are Murder.

This book is another relatively recent Cozy, released in 2018, though the series already has seven entries – some authors really have a talent for writing quickly! Though it’s also possible she had a few written before getting them published. As such, it definitely has a lot of the hallmarks of a modern Cozy – specifically, a down-on-her-luck sleuth who is ready to move on to a new career, new town, etc.

In this case, Poppy isn’t actually looking to move back home at the beginning – she’s a recent widow in her early 40s who is still going through the grieving process for her husband, and only intends to go back to her childhood home of Cape May, New Jersey, to attend her high school class reunion. She doesn’t really even want to go to that, but is pressured by her old high school friends. All of them were former nerds/outcasts in their high school experience, and have received personal invitations to the reunion from their mutual bully, Barbie, who wanted to meet with them privately at some point during the reunion.

When Poppy and friends do run into Barbie at the reunion, she’s combative and insulting not only to them, but to the majority of her other former classmates. Naturally, as in many Cozies, the meanest person introduced is given cosmic karma for their attitude by being killed after antagonizing a large group of people who already have no reason to love her. Poppy is the person who locates her body – and naturally becomes the primary suspect.

A bit of a warning – a few of the reasons Poppy’s life is a mess at the beginning of the novel are a bit darker than in most Cozies (even for the “grieving widow” subset of Cozy sleuths), so if you’re looking for a more pure “good-times” sort of Cozy, this might not be at the top of your list. Indeed, the fact that Poppy’s life legitimately seems depressing at the beginning of the novel is one of the big differences between this and other Cozies. Most Cozy protagonists have already gotten over the worst of their emotional issues before becoming determined to make a fresh start, but Poppy feels like a much more realistic depiction of someone who really legitimately needs to make a big change to start to get their life back on track.

Naturally, this being a Cozy, a lot of those problems start to unravel as Poppy is exposed to her old hometown, though they become replaced by new problems – most obviously the murder accusation, but also other complications like her bail being covered by her old high school boyfriend, her eccentric Great-Aunt Ginny needing more supervision now that she’s in her eighties, and other similar Cozy-ish sort of developments. The final takeaway is that Poppy does indeed start at a relatively low place – but in this case, it’s a good thing, because it gives the character a real ability to grow through the course of the novel. This is definitely a transition that’s worth seeing, and one that is surprisingly rare in protagonists of the Cozy genre.

If you’re interested in seeing other most recommended or popular Cozy Mystery authors/series, please visit the Most Popular & Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my site.

PS: If this tips the scales for any recipe fanatics out there, this novel does include seven recipes at the end.

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