The Cozy Mystery List Blog

Happy Thanksgiving! (Actually, I am writing this the day before Thanksgiving… since I know I will be busy enjoying my family AND not enjoying the kitchen duties!)

Well, I am going to have to take a break from my Who Killed Father Christmas? novel (by Patricia Moyes) in order to read my Kissing Christmas Goodbye (by M. C. Beaton). I finally got my eighteenth Agatha Raisin novel, and I am so excited about reading it that I am almost giddy!

I know that I have written about this before, but here it is in a nutshell!

I first discovered M. C. Beaton through her Agatha Raisin books. I thought that they were absolutely delightful. In fact, I enjoyed the Agatha novels so much that I didn’t want to read the Hamish Macbeth series, in fear that I wouldn’t like it… since, how many authors can have two wonderful series going at the same time?!? Anyway…. I stayed with solely Agatha until after the (+/-)tenth book of the series. For some reason, I became a little disillusioned with some of Agatha’s antics. That is when I decided to try Beaton’s Hamish books. How glad am I that I did that!!!!?!!!?

I love Beaton’s Hamish series… I still continued to really like the eleventh through fourteenth Agatha novels, but, when Beaton dropped the "Agatha Raisin and the….." part of this series’ titles, I started thinking that at any time, I would stop reading the series… I thought that perhaps the series had seen its final chapters (as far as I was concerned). I got very tired of one of the characters…James (not to worry… I won’t go into details since I don’t want to write any spoilers. But, I can say that it was one of the few times in my reading experiences that I wished the earth was flat so that James could simply walk off the side… never to be heard of/from again!)

Anyway, I have continued with the Agatha Raisin series since I still enjoy the novels… but not as much as I used to. And, since I love holiday-theme cozy mysteries, I think that I am going to enjoy this book.  The cover is absolutely beautiful, but I’m hoping that Agatha is back to her delightfully wicked ways!

On a totally different topic… My husband sent me  a notice about Amazon having a day after Thanksgiving sale (better known as Black Friday Sale). We were totally unaware of that Amazon had a Black Friday Sale in the past….

I just finished a Patricia Moyes novel from her Inspector Tibbett Mystery Series. Henry is the Chief Superintendent of Scotland Yard, and his wife, Emmy, is his sort of "side-kick" in the series. As much as I like this Moyes series, I have only read the first three books… out of the possible nineteen. I know that this may seem silly, but when I like an author a lot, I try to space his/her novels and use them as a sort of "reading treat." I already have all of the novels in the series, so it’s not like I am too lazy to get them. By the looks of it, though, I have spaced them too much!

Anyway…. Now that we are approaching Christmas, I have decided to read another Moyes book… Who Killed Father Christmas? and Other Unseasonable Demises. It is a compilation of short stories, all written by her. Since I just started it last night, I haven’t gotten far…  the story that I did read, I liked. As the title says… there are Christmas and non-Christmas stories. But, that’s all right with me…. since, it’s not yet Thanksgiving. (I will probably try to save the Christmas stories for December reading.)

As I said in the first paragraph… I have only read three of the Inspector Tibbett novels. But, I can say this: If you’re looking for an author who writes "classic, British" mysteries, you should definitely try a book by Patricia Moyes. The first novel in the series is Dead Men Don’t Ski, and after reading it, I was hooked on Moyes!