The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Only a Few Pages Until I Catch Up with One of My Favorite Authors…

I am currently listening to Ann Granger‘s last Markby and Mitchell Village Whodunit Mystery, and I am sick about it! I know that I have mentioned (several times) about how I hate to "catch up" with my favorite authors. I try to leave a few books in my TBR (To Be Read) pile so that I have some books to really look forward to. But, since I read my books faster (just barely!) than an author writes his/her books, invariably, there comes a day when I "level out" with the author. 

The latest author who simply isn’t writing fast enough for me is Ann Granger. I waited and waited to finally read her fifteenth Markby & Mitchell novel (That Way Murder Lies), but I finally broke down and started listening to it…. and could simply not put it down (or should I say "turn it off"?!?) I now have only a few chapters until I will no longer have "an Ann Granger" to look forward to…

I was so delighted when I found that audible.com carried her novels. I quickly purchased them (unabridged, of course!) and gave my TBR "real books" to my library for other connoisseurs of wonderful books to enjoy. And, as excited as I was to get the books "on tape"… I was even more excited when I heard Judith Boyd’s phenomenal reading of the books. (She’s right up there with my other favorite book narrators.)

Perhaps I should take a more positive view of this…. a glass half full approach… a silver lining in the clouds… Nope! Doggone it…. Why can’t my favorite authors just write faster!?!

December 2007 Cozy Mystery Releases (& Some Not So Cozy!)

This is an addition to my previous post about the books that are going to be (or have already been) released this month. Here is the link to the previous part of this list…

Alina Adams….. Skate Crime

Jill Churchill….. The Accidental Florist

Philip R. Craig & William G. Tapply….. Third Strike

Michael McGarrity….. Death Song

Also… I haven’t read this Christmas novel, but I found it and thought I would post it:

Jennifer Colt….. The Con Artist of Catalina Island: A McAfee Twins Christmas Novel

Cozy Mystery CPAs and Cozy Mystery Financial Advisors…Who’d ‘a Thunk It?

For those of you cozy mystery readers who enjoy “money matters”… the following three authors should be of interest to you. These mystery authors have chosen to give their main characters professions that you wouldn’t ordinarily associate with a cozy mystery sleuth…

Elizabeth Chamberlin has been both a teacher and an accountant, and now writes the Jane Mayhew Mystery Series, which happens to feature a retired accountant.

Connie Feddersen writes the Amanda Hazard Mystery Series which is set in Oklahoma and features a CPA/Sleuth.

Diane Kelly writes the Tara Holloway Death and Taxes Mystery Series, which is set in Texas, and features an IRS criminal investigation agent.

Connie Shelton writes the Charlie Parker Mystery Series which is based in New Mexico, and features an accountant.

Patricia Smiley‘s Tucker Sinclair Mystery Series features a financial management/advisor.

Jennifer Sturman‘s Rachel Benjamin’s Mystery Series has an investment banker as her sleuth.

Maggie Toussaint writes the Cleopatra Jones Mystery Series which features a golfing-accountant-sleuth and her side-kick, Madonna (a rather huge St. Bernard)…

It’s time for us (the cozy mystery readers) to get rid of our notions of knitting needles, mustache combs, and walking canes in lieu of calculators, pie charts, and index graphics!

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

Holiday Post Office Blues

Have you been to the post office recently? I really planned and organized this year so that all of the packages I had to send out of town were actually sent before Thanksgiving. However, one thing I didn’t plan for was running out of stamps. I was the only person in the post office line who didn’t have any packages in my arms…. I felt somewhat out of place there. And, I also felt like an idiot for being able to get the obvious post office tasks done early… just to be standing in a long queue in order to buy stamps.

I do most (if not all!) of my holiday shopping online. Of course, that means that I pay for each item’s postage two different times, but I prefer getting the items so that I can wrap them, and then repack them. The online shopping is so convenient that I feel like I should do something personal… cutting the glitzy paper and adding the bright bow makes me feel like I have selected the gift personally… There’s something about actually having the item in my hands.

To get back to the point I was going to make at the beginning of this blog…. If you did your planning and have already sent out the packages you have to send out…. I hope you don’t run out of stamps! Your feeling of "Wow! I beat the mad rush!" will soon be a thing of the past…

(Of course, you would think that someone who admits to doing almost 100% of her holiday shopping online should be able to do something as easy as ordering stamps online, also!)

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