The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Some Cozies are Simply Cozier than Others!

It takes place at night… OR… on a bright, sunny morning.
It occurs in New York City, bustling with activity… OR… a quaint English village.
The main character is a hip, young man with a beautiful young wife and one child… OR… a nice "older" teacher, getting ready to retire.
It involves a sleek Corvette… OR… an umbrella/cane.

Hmmm… If you’re a reader of cozy mysteries, I don’t need to tell you the correct answers!

I am embarrassed to admit this, but I just started my FIRST Miss Emily D. Seeton novel! Yes, I know that they are almost as classic as the Miss Marple books. Yes, I have almost all of the Miss Seeton novels waiting in my bookshelf… along with many other wonderful cozy novels…. all of them seemingly there just to gather dust now that I am spending all of the time at my computer… rather than reading my favorite cozy mysteries!   ("More Reading/Less Typing" ought to be my new mantra!)

Getting back to the purpose of today’s blog:

The Miss Seeton’s series of books has been written by three different authors. Heron Carvic began the series in 1968, with Hampton Charles taking over during 1990, followed by Sarah J. Mason (aka Hamilton Crane) in 1991, with her last book (or should that be "his" for Hamilton?!?) published in 1999.

Miss Emily D. Seeton is a retired British teacher, although in the novel I am reading, she hasn’t quite decided to retire… at least she hasn’t by page 49! So far, "Picture Miss Seeton" has all of the things you would expect from a Cozy Mystery… all of the above correct answers come into play, but, alas, I haven’t met up with a cat yet… just egg-laying chickens…

I am really excited about starting this new cozy series, although I know it’s not new at all. Sometimes, when I start to read a book that has this much promise, I actually feel like "I’m home again"… It’s a difficult feeling to describe, but I am guessing that other cozy mystery readers have a sensation similar to my "I’m home again" feeling when they start reading a new author’s book that looks like it is really going to deliver the COZY that we all want so much!

"Once is Not Enough" … for Me!

As much as I enjoy this website, I have to admit that sometimes, it bogs me down! My husband is the "expert" in the technical things, and as the expert, he thinks that I will be an expert after he has explained a method of doing something…. once.

Hmmm…. That reminds me of a title of a book that I read years ago…. "Once is not Enough" (by Jacqueline Susann…. in the days before I knew just how much better a cozy mystery would have been!)

I asked my husband if he could go ahead and "program my website" so that I could start posting other people’s blogs on my blog page… When I asked him for his help… I worded it very carefully… lest he get the impression that I actually wanted him to show me how to do it, so that I could do it (alone) in the future. Somewhere between my question and his walking toward me, a misunderstanding occurred! As he approached me, I started thinking…. I bet he misunderstood me… He actually thinks I want to learn how to do this! All I want is for him to do it, and then show me the easy steps I have to take when I want to use the function.

Anyway… It took several times of him saying things like: "Remember what I told you a minute ago…" and "Okay, let’s see if you can try that again…" and, the very best: "So, now you know how to do this…" Right!!!!!!

I don’t want to sound as bad as this reads…. While I am proofreading this, I am thinking… Hmmm… she takes him for granted! I guess that I do… because he does so very much for me, as well as for our two children. But maybe, since we are aware of how wonderful he is, and how he is always willing to drop whatever he is working on so that he can help us with what we need, we don’t actually take him for granted. Maybe, and that’s a big MAYBE, he knows how grateful we are that he is who he is. (I certainly hope so!)  

I Would Like to Know How I Missed Jesse Stone?!?

Well, I wondered why CBS showed two “Jesse Stone” movies in the wrong sequence. The episode that I thought was the first episode actually aired a week after the second episode. Luckily, I was way behind in watching my recorded shows, so I was able to watch them in the sequence I thought they should be in. When I went online to investigate I found that CBS has been airing these shows since ’05… and I can only wonder how I missed them!

Jesse Stone is an ex-Los Angeles Police Department officer who is transplanting himself to Massachusetts…. after being fired for what appears to be a life of very hard drinking. This is where I started the show, and I really enjoyed it. (But, I could be totally wrong, since I haven’t seen the actual first episode…. which aired in February of  ’05.)

There are four movies in the series… Tom Selleck (yes, Tom Selleck aka Magnum, P. I.) stars as Jesse Stone, and he is very convincing as a fiftyish ex-LAPD, with a penchant for Scotch. He takes on the job of chief of police, after interviewing for the job smelling “like a brewery”…. He corrects that…. It wasn’t beer, it was Scotch! The “feeling” of Jesse Stone is… Spenser for Hire. And, it is no small wonder since both Jesse and Spenser are written by Robert B. Parker. 

What I liked about the show is the promise of some great characters. Jesse and Boomer (his Bloodhound) are a wonderful example of true friendship… never judgemental, always loving. Also, something I really liked is that this was the first time I have seen a movie with the leading man questioning the age difference between himself, a fiftyish man, and a prospective girlfriend, a thirtyish woman. Bravo to them for actually being aware of the “problem.” (Although I am guessing that most men don’t see that as a problem!)

On the negative side, though, is why CBS showed these movies so spaced out in time….

Stone Cold… February ’05
Night Passage… January ’06
Death in Paradise… April ’06
Sea Change… May ’07

Since I watch very little actual television (relying on mostly old movies and BBC-type series), I can understand how I could have missed these movies. But, I have programmed “Jesse Stone” on my DVR, and will watch for the movies to be shown again. If I see that they are going to be airing them,  I will definitely post the times and dates in my blog!

(Please let me know if you happened to see any of the four Jesse Stone movies… Click on Comment below… I would love to know if anyone else saw them… and if so, I wonder if  they like them as much as I did…)

PS>>>> Thin Ice just aired in 2009!
              No Remorse will air in May of 2010.

Let's Go to the Bookstore for a Croissant and an Espresso…

We are lucky to live in a city that has a lot of books stores. I have to admit that I usually do all of my book-purchasing through Amazon’s site, but occasionally I break down and buy a book at an actual store. We have five Barnes and Nobles and seven Borders books stores within a 25 mile radius! That’s a lot of books stores!

Recently, though, I have not really enjoyed my visits to these bookstores. On one occasion, two teenagers were seated (plopped) right in front of the area (mysteries, of course!) that I wanted to look at… They didn’t budge, even with me towering over them trying to find my author of choice. On another occasion, people on the couches near my area were talking loudly on their cell phones while I was trying to peruse the books (mysteries… again!)

I have noticed a trend in the bookstores near our home… they seem to want to make the store have the feeling of a lounge… where people can sit and talk, eat, drink, and even LAY on the floor !!!!! It appears that some people go early so that they can stake out a favorite couch to call their own while they read magazines and drink their morning coffee… before reading more magazines while sipping their fruit shakes in the afternoon.

When I go to a bookstore, I am there with a purpose…. I always take my list of books… I go in, find my book, do a little browsing, and then leave. Well, that’s what I used to do. Now I go in, carefully walk around, step over, peer over, or try to phase out people’s chatter.

Years ago, when our children were young, we had access to a wonderful branch of bookstores called Book Stop. Each trip to Book Stop would last at least an hour…. but it was an hour that was spent on our feet, combing through the children’s’ aisles, discovering the latest Bruce Coville, Daniel Pinkwater, Roald Dahl, or  Klutz books. Certainly, we were not having lunch on one of the store’s couches… while talking on our cell phones… while paging through the latest magazines!  Come to think of it, they didn’t have couches, nor did they sell café latté/caffè latte! 

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