The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Susan Rogers Cooper……..I love her books, and can't wait to read the first in the Kovak series!

Well, I know I have written several times about how important it is to me to read a series in the correct chronological order.  Having said that, I must admit that I have had to read some series out of order….. not really on purpose, but …. sort of.

Susan Rogers Cooper is one of my favorite cozy mystery authors. She has three series, and I have read all three. That’s a lot of books! The only one I haven’t read is The Man in the Green Chevy, which is the first Milt Kovak cozy. I tried desperately to buy a copy of that book, but was unable to find it. At one time, I was eagerly waiting for my library to pull off an inter library loan, but that fell through. Boy! Was I having a difficult time finding that book!

Cooper’s three series are based on main characters who come from very different backgrounds. The E. J. Pugh series is about a romance novelist who lives in Texas.  The Kimmey Kruse series is about a stand-up comedian, and Milt Kovak is a sheriff from Oklahoma. I think that "Milt’s series" is my favorite……. which is a good thing, since it looks like Susan is continuing to write those books. (There hasn’t been a Kimmey Kruse books since 1994.) Vegas Nerve is set for a 2007 publication…. and I can’t wait to read it….. after I finally read The Man in the Green Chevy, since (after several years of searching) I have finally gotten a copy of it!

New Cozy Mystery Authors……..

I know that I have talked about this before on my site….  I have gotten many suggestions regarding new authors who I should add to my site. When I first put this website together, I pretty much included only authors I had personally read. There were a few authors who I hadn’t read, but since my cozy mystery reader friends had recommended them, I felt that they could be  added to my list. I tried to add a small note on the site that explained I hadn’t read any of that particular author’s books…. yet.

At first, I thought that I wouldn’t add new authors unless I tried them first, or one of my personal friends endorsed them. Now, with all of the new suggested authors, I have changed my mind. As I have stated before, I am not an unusually fast reader. If I tried every suggested author before I posted his/her chronological list of cozy mysteries, I wouldn’t be adding very many of those authors each year. I have many cozy mystery authors who I follow, who take up most of my reading time already.

Once I have an author’s name, I then go about looking up information about that author. I try to run down the author’s website, which, if I can, makes my chronological list of books a lot easier to get together. Unfortunately, many authors don’t have a website, which then means that I have to do web searches for the author, and then try to piece together what I can. (I remember… years ago……. how I found out the chronological order of an author’s books: I would go to the library, pull out all of a particular author’s books, and then check each copyright date. As I said…….. "years ago!">>>> and oh, I would then return the books to the correct library shelf location…)

Anyway, right now I am in the midst of adding several new authors to the site. (By "new," I mean "new" to me.) I know that a lot of the site’s users follow these  cozy mystery authors………. and eventually, I probably will too!

At the Risk of Repeating Myself…. Alexander McCall Smith is Terrific!

I know that I have previously blogged about Alexander McCall Smith, but what can I say!!! He must be addictive!

First of all, let me admit to going nowhere without my Books on Tape. I listen to my books while driving, and also, while walking to my destination. This morning, for example, I unplugged my car’s device and plugged in my ear phone so that I could listen to my book while walking the distance between my car and my doctor’s office. (If you’re doctor is like mine, you can easily listen to a good portion of a chapter while sitting and waiting in both the doctor’s waiting room and the little examination room.)

I actually find myself looking forward to my time driving/running errands if I am listening to one of my favorite authors. Which brings me to Alexander McCall Smith… I not only enjoy listening to his mystery books (The Number One Ladies’ Detective Agency and the Sunday Philosophy Club series) but also his non-mystery fiction. Of  course, I don’t really see his two mystery series as “mysteries” per se, although they do have mysteries interwoven into them… If pressed to describe them, I would say that they are light on the mystery and very heavy on great writing, great characters, great story-telling…. just about everything GREAT!!!

I am currently listening to Espresso Tales, the second part of his 44 Scotland Street books. He wrote the books as story installments for The Scotsman newspaper, and since I don’t get that publication, I am delighted that they put all of the chapters together to form these books. The books follow several Edinburgh characters who live on 44 Scotland Street, and they are truly an assortment of people…. from Bruce  (who just can’t seem to pass a mirror without longingly gazing into it) to Bertie (a five year old saxophone-playing, Italian-speaking, VERY lonely child) to Bertie’s mother Irene (who has been known to translate Bertie’s Italian to suit the situation…. “vacca” becoming “vaccum” instead of “cow”…..)

If you haven’t tried any of Alexander McCall Smith’s books yet…………… do yourself a favor…….. and DO! 

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

House of Eliott……Definitely Cozy, Though Not a Mystery

My husband and I just finished watching the House of Eliott DVDs, and I’m not quite sure how I feel. As with most series that we watch, I miss the shows when they are over, as they seem to almost  become a part of our lives for the brief time that we watch them. After devoting an hour every day for , let’s see……… 34 episodes, I feel like I am “addicted” to finding out what the characters are going to do next. When the show is over, I am left thinking about the characters and wondering what they are up to NOW!  I missed the series when it first aired on the A & E network, and can’t imagine how I did that!

The House of Eliott series was created by Jean Marsh (of Upstairs, Downstairs fame).The three-year series revolves around two sisters and their photographer friend. The sisters (played by Stella Gonet and Louise Lombard) and their photographer friend (Aden Gillet) live in London during the 1920s. The sets are beautiful, and are only surpassed by the wardrobe. 

I have to say, this series was a little different for me than most. I actually enjoyed the first season’s shows more than the following two seasons. I won’t plant any spoilers here, but I was very sorry that they got rid of two particular characters who I thought added an incredible amount of energy to the series. But, other than that, I think that it is fair to say that House of Eliott, season one is incredibly believable and very interesting.

The second season of the House of Eliott continued telling about the sisters’ plight, and I enjoyed this season almost as much as the first. I was, however, again sorry to see two more characters leave the show. They were characters who (or should that be “that”?!) added a nice background to the main story line.

I have to admit that during the third season, there were times when I caught myself thinking: “You have got to be kidding!” I almost felt like I knew the characters more than the cast, writers, directors, etc. did. I found myself thinking……….. “Jack wouldn’t have done that.” OR “Bea wouldn’t have said that.” ETC.  Even so, I was very sorry to finally watch the last episode of the show. I will miss our nightly visits with Jack, Bea, and Evie!

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

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