The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Good Cozy Author Recommendations from Good Cozy Reading Friends…

I know I have referred to very good friends of mine who are also cozy readers. I met two women who share my passion for cozy mystery books several years ago while we were all three members of two different cozy mystery reading groups. (My children were still in elementary school… and our thirteen year old dog was a mere puppy, so that is quite a few years ago!)

One of these women shares an extremely close taste in cozies with me… She has told me about more than a handful of cozy mystery authors who I tried reading and consequently added to my list of authors I follow. One of these authors is Ann Granger (her Markby and Mitchell Village Whodunit Series.) Even though Markby is a police officer, since Mitchell does so much of the sleuthing, it is fair to say that it is a cozy… Also, the lack of superfluous sex and violence, along with the village atmosphere close the deal for me! (In this particular book, so far "My place or yours?" is the extent of the "adult-talk"… and I am clearly able to deduce what happens from just that much!)

Anyway, I was so surprised yesterday when my friend wrote me that she is reading an Ann Granger book that is a stand-alone. It didn’t surprise me that she is reading an Ann Granger book… what surprised me is that at this very moment, I am also reading an Ann Granger book. She introduced me to Granger’s books years ago, and I know that she keeps up with Granger’s current books, but I am only on the twelfth of the series (Beneath These Stones.) It was as if, even though we are separated by many miles (San Antonio to Sacramento, no less!) we were both somehow "connected" while reading an author we both enjoy reading. 

Bird & Birdwatcher Theme Mysteries…

I finally finished going through all of “my authors” to find their professions and/or interests. Since I have already done a Dog Mystery list and a Cat Mystery list, I thought I would continue with yet another animal who a lot of people have as pets… birds. Unfortunately, I only have a few authors who write mysteries with a bird theme…

Lydia Adamson  pens the Lucy Wayles Mystery Series. (Thanks for reminding me, Andrea!)

Donna Andrews also writes a series that uses birds in the titles, and also in some minor parts of the story lines.

Ann Cleeves writes the George and Molly Palmer-Jones mystery series that is set in England. They are birdwatchers.

Barbara Colley pens the Charlotte LaRue Mystery Series which features a maid who has a pet parakeet named Sweety Boy.

Carol Nelson Douglas has put out a book which she edited called The White House Pet Detectives, and one of the stories in the book is written by Edward D. Hoch and is called “Martha’s Parrot”… as in Martha Washington! Also included is “A Mimicry of of Mockingbirds” by Lillian Stewart Carl.

Jan Dunlap writes the Bob White Birder Murder Mystery Series, which is set in Minnesota and features a counselor at a highschool.

Christy Fifield (aka Christy Evans) writes the Haunted Souvenir Shop Mystery Series which has Bluebeard, the Parrot.

Christine L. Goff writes the Birdwatchers’ Mystery series.

Lorena McCourtney is one of the authors who writes the Mysteries of Sparrow Island books –  which feature a senior-sleuth ornithologist who lives on an island off of Washington (the state)…

Mysteries of Sparrow Island Mystery Series features Abby Stanton, an ornithologist who lives on an island off of the state of Washington’s coast…

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

Miss Emily D. Seeton… Heron Carvic, Hampton Charles, & Hamilton Crane…

I received the following comment about the Miss Seeton cozy mysteries… Shermeen wrote:

“Why were there 3 different authors? Also Hampton Charles’ books were decidedly different than the other 2 authors, I can find no information about him. Thanks, I have read most of the books, and wish there were more.”

In answer to the comment:

Heron Carvic wrote the first five  Miss Seeton mysteries between 1968 and 1975. I couldn’t find any information about why he stopped writing the books before his death in 1980. (Here is the link to the page with all of the Miss Seeton mysteries.)

It was at that time that Roy Peter Martin (using the pseudonym of “Hampton Charles“) took over the series, and penned three more of the Miss Seeton novels, which interestingly enough, were all published the same year (1990.) Roy Peter Martin also uses the pseudonym “James Melville” when writing his Superintendent Tetsuo Otani series set in Japan.

Sarah J. Mason (using the pen name “Hamilton Crane“) took over the series, writing fourteen more Miss Seeton novels… more than the two previous authors put together. She uses her own name when writing her British Detective Superintendent Trewley & Sergeant Stone series.

I noticed that Sarah J. Mason is putting out novels in her other series, so I wonder if she has decided that it is time for Miss Emily D. Seeton to finally do what she had decided to do in the very first novel… retire!

Interior Decorator Jason Lynx & Grace, his Police Woman Girl Friend

Thank you so much Bridget, for (hopefully) solving this puzzle:

"I’m trying to find 2 authors (series). First, an interior decorator, male, straight, who gets a female cop (or P.I.) to help him find the "bad guy". "

A. J. Orde (whose real name is Sheri S. Tepper) writes a series about Jason Lynx, who is an interior decorator/antiques dealer from Colorado whose girlfriend (Grace) is a police woman. Here are the series’ books in their correct order:
 
A Little Neighborhood Murder ’89
Death and the Dogwalker  ’90
Death for Old Times’ Sake  ’92
Looking for the Aardvark  ’93 (the paperback was published as Dead on Sunday)
A Long Time Dead   ’94
A Death of Innocents   ’96

Dale, I hope that these are the series you were looking for. Isn’t it wonderful how the internet can get people together?

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