The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Patricia Cornwell… I know she's not cozy, but still….

Years ago, when I first started using the internet, I joined a group of mystery readers who only read novels by Patricia Cornwell. At that time, I truly enjoyed Patricia Cornwell, even though she was not at all cozy!

As with most reading groups that only follow one author, the group fizzled out. At the time, Cornwell simply wasn’t able to keep up with our group’s demand… even though she was putting out one Kay Scarpetta book a year. I don’t mean that I think that a year is too short a time for an author to be able to write a novel, I just mean that for a group to only talk about that limited a number of books, it became a little tedious. Actually, I left the reading group before the group disbanded completely…

There were two reasons I stopped reading Patricia Cornwell’s novels:

1. Lucy, her niece, simply started grating on my nerves. Anytime Lucy appeared in the book, I knew that I was going to be in for some major complaining and whining. I found myself thinking things like: "Grow up!" "Get over it!" and "Get over yourself!" whenever Lucy came to visit her aunt, or even when she called her. I could have put up with Lucy had Lucy and Kay not been as close as they were…unfortunately, Lucy was around a lot!

2. The final straw…. For those of you readers who have never read a Kay Scarpetta novel, the books revolve around Kay, a chief medical examiner.  I know that the books are not intended to be cozy, but, believe me, I have read a lot of books that aren’t cozy. It seemed to me that Cornwell was trying too hard to impress her readers with new forensic details. Since she was writing so many books with so many forensic details, it seemed to me that she just had to keep pushing the envelope further to come up with something totally new. And, at one point, those "totally new" details just seemed superfluous to me… as if the more gross and gruesome the details could be, the more respect we were supposed to have for Kay. (I won’t get into details, since this is a cozy site, but believe me… I will never look at my large soup/stew pots the same way!)

I know that Cornwell has many, many fans out there, and that I am definitely in the minority. But, really, unless I’m training to become a forensic examiner, then spare me the most gruesome of gross details!

Leaving on a Jet Plane… Some Necessities for the Cozy Mystery Traveler…

Not that I am addicted to this site, but I have written several extra blogs to "cover" the time I will be away. My daughter and I are taking a trip to the New York/Washington D. C./Canada area… and, since I have post-dated this particular blog for the 28th… We left a couple of days ago!

My husband and son took a trip last summer, and since this is the very first summer that my daughter hasn’t been in some type of internship (since she was in the ninth grade!), we decided that the girls would venture out on their own. The car trip we had planned to take a month ago fell through, so we were especially glad that we had already signed up for this particular tour of the Northeast.

In the past, I have written a few blogs about car trips, and how easy our technology has made them. Today’s GPSs and cell phones make hotel arrangements almost obsolete. Last summer, I flew out to California so that I could join my daughter on her drive home from her summer internship, and I couldn’t get over how easy the trip was. We were able to locate hotels with the GPS, and then call  home so that my husband could Google the phone numbers we needed to make our reservations.  I can still remember rushing to make the 6:00 hotel check-in times only fifteen years ago! Or, driving around to find a telephone booth so that we could call the hotel and make sure they didn’t give our room to some other road-traveller at 6:01 pm.

Now, it seems, my biggest "headache" for our trip involves deciding which books I am going to take!  My husband has made it possible for me to download my audible.com books right onto a tiny, little MP3 player. I have to select my top 20 UNabridged books that I want to take with me. I can honestly tell you that for someone who was born in 1955, this is absolutely mind-boggling! Can you imagine taking 20 (physical) books with you on a flight where you are limited to the amount of luggage you can take?

Since I am making my way through the Brother Cadfael books (by Ellis Peters), I am definitely taking (or should I say "I have taken…"? since I have already left! ) the next five of those… The books are quite a bit different than the television shows, but just as enjoyable. Ellis Peters is by far one of my favorite authors for historical mysteries… and she’s quite cozy, at that! I tried reading some of her Inspector Felse novels, but didn’t enjoy them. I know that a major down-fall I have as a cozy mystery reader is that if I like one series by a particular author, I usually don’t like their other works. There are a few exceptions to this absurd feeling of mine, so, once I finish the Cadfael books I will definitely try an Inspector Felse’s book, again.

Also in my carry-on bag…my last few Dalziel and Pascoe books (by Reginald Hill), and although I have already read them, some Markby and Mitchell books (by Ann Granger)… The Markby/Mitchell series is a good series to follow… if you haven’t already. Markby is a Chief Inspector and Mitchell is a diplomat. I know that traditionally, cozies aren’t supposed to have professional sleuths… but since Mitchell does a lot of the sleuthing… and since there is no superfluous sex or violence, they qualify as cozies to me!

Well, I’m off to download the books that I have, at the time you are reading this, already downloaded. (I will be posting a few more post-dated blog entries while I am away.) 

Sherlock Holmes… Jeremy Brett…

Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Granada Television Series I should begin this TV/Movies review by saying that you probably saw Jeremy Brett years before you thought you had seen him. If you remember the scene in My Fair Lady (1964) with Eliza’s young suitor dancing and singing down the street where she lived, then you know where you first saw Jeremy Brett.

It is for this reason, that when you see these Sherlock Holmes shows, you will clearly see what a lithe dancer Jeremy Brett was. He sometimes seems to simply pirouette through the air, leaping and bounding as gracefully as a dancer would.

But, Brett brought much more than just large movements to his Holmes’ character! Brett’s facial ticks, all-too-brief attempts at smiles, meditative poses (almost yoga-like trances), and pensive gazes into space ( just to name a few smaller physical movements) were all part of the Sherlock Holmes persona that we have grown to anticipate and love. Brett conveys emotions through his acting, and instead of having to verbalize his feelings, he simply shows us. How many times, during the many episodes, do we see Holmes sit in his chair, smoking his long pipe, flashing a (not even) momentary smile? He doesn’t have to say one word, we know exactly what he is thinking…

The sets and costumes of these delightful Sherlock Holmes productions are period-appropriate, and exactly what we have come to expect from the folks at the Granada production company.

There are several different sets that are now available for us to enjoy. Here is a list of the shows in order:
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, 1984 (13 episodes)
The Return of Sherlock Holmes, 1986 (11 episodes)
Sherlock Holmes: The Sign of Four, 1987
Sherlock Holmes: Hound of the Baskervilles, 1984 (I know that ’84 comes before ’86 & ’87, but the official site puts this show in this chronological spot… not where I initially thought it should go…)
The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, 1991 (6 episodes)
Sherlock Holmes: The Master Blackmailer, 1992 (a 2 Hour Movie)
Sherlock Holmes: the Last Vampyre, 1993 (a 2 Hour Movie)
Sherlock Holmes: The Eligible Bachelor, 1993 (a 2 Hour Movie)
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, 1994 (6 episodes)

This is one television series that was almost seamlessly able to switch actors playing a leading character. Dr. Watson was played by David Burke until 1985, with Edward Hardwicke taking over from 1986 until the end of the series. I enjoyed both of the Watson portrayals… I have found that in several other Sherlock Holmes adaptions, Dr. Watson is portrayed as (almost) a bumbling idiot. I doubt that Holmes would have kept him around for longer than it took for him to dismiss him>>> with a wave of his hand! (No words needed if it is Jeremy Brett doing the dismissing!)

Although a small part, Rosalie Williams was perfect as  Mrs. Hudson.  She neither coddled Sherlock nor shied away when he would bellow out orders…. She held her own!

We should remember, while watching these wonderful productions, that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote these stories as newspaper installments. He was one of, if not the first, prolific mystery writer. (Edgar Allan Poe was more of an author of suspense.) Doyle had actually tired of the Holmes stories, and killed him off… only to find that he “had to bring him back to life” when the public “demanded” more Sherlock Holmes newspaper stories.

The one very bad thing about this series is this:  Once you see these television productions, you will never be happy with another actor’s portrayal of the great Sherlock Holmes character!

If you would like to see more TV and Movies suggestions, click here.

*****I wrote this entry back in 2007. Since then, I have seen several different renditions of Sherlock Holmes, and I still think Jeremy Brett’s is the absolute best. April 2014

Someone's Got to Do It…So You Might as Well "Enjoy" It…

Friday was my housework day… That’s right, when I’m not tending to the store (or in this case… the site) or writing my blog, life goes on. As much as I would love to sit here writing, surfing, interacting, etcetera-ing, I still have drudgery-types of tasks that have to be done around the house.

I know that I have blogged about this tedious task of housework before, so bare with me…

I really don’t know how I performed those awful, yet necessary chores before I started listening to my books! Don’t get me wrong… as much as I enjoy listening to my mysteries, dusting and vacuuming are still just that, dusting and vacuuming.

BUT…

Listening to Colin Buchanan read my current Dalziel and Pascoe book by Reginald Hill  (unabridged, of course!) ALMOST makes pushing the vacuum a cinch.

Listening to Lisette Lecat read my current  Mma  Ramotswe, Mma Makutsi, and Mr. J.L.B. Mate-koni book by Alexander McCall Smith, with all of the wonderful Botswana stories and happenings ALMOST makes my Swifter dusting a little swifter.

Listening to Davina Porter read my current Isabel Dalhousie novel, which not only includes Isabel’s sleuthing, but also her  “Review of Applied Ethics” articles  ALMOST makes cleaning the bathrooms a snap. 

Listening to Stephen Thorne engross us with Ellis Peters‘ stories about twelfth century Brother Cadfael, as he discovers herbal clues and   basic forensic details that others around him miss ALMOST makes scouring the kitchen sink a piece of cake.

As I said before, I know that I have blogged about the virtues of listening to books on tape before, but once you have tried it, you will see just how much of a chore it takes out of your chores. Unless you have the luxury of having someone else clean your home for you, you really owe it to yourself to try listening to one of your favorite authors/books on tape. Remember……. most local libraries carry lots of different books for your reading… or should I say listening… pleasure.

More information about Alexander McCall Smith‘s four (currently!) series.

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