The Cozy Mystery List Blog

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

Four New-to-the-Site Cozy Authors

It’s been a while, but I’m adding more authors to the site. As always, most of these are from reader recommendations during the end of month recommendations posts.

Mary Angela is a teacher, having taught English and humanities for more than two years. She lives in South Dakota. She is the author of the Professor Prather Mystery Series, starring English professor Emmeline Prather in Copper Bluff, South Dakota, and the Happy Camper Mystery Series, starring Zo Jones, the owner of a gift shop in the small town of Spirit Canyon, South Dakota.

Laura Gail Black is a book collector, living on the shore of Lake Marion in South Carolina. She is the author of the Antique Bookshop Mystery Series, starring Jenna Quinn, an antiquarian bookseller in the small town of Hokes Folly, North Carolina.

 

 

Tracy Gardner is a Detroit native and a nurse. She is the author of the Shepherd Sisters Mystery Series, starring Savannah Shepherd and her sisters in the small town of Carson on the banks of Lake Michigan, and the Avery Ayers Mystery Series, starring Avery Ayers, the owner of an antique appraisal business.

 

Darci Hannah is a Midwest native, now living in a small town in Michigan. She enjoys baking, hiking, and walking in the nearby lakeside areas. She is the author of the Very Cherry Mystery Series, starring a baker in Wisconsin, and the Beacon Bakeshop Mystery Series, starring a baker in Michigan.

Upcoming Mysteries on Turner Classic Movies for April 2022

I sure enjoyed reading your responses to my Turner Classic Movies entry. I sometimes wonder if Robert Osbourne no longer being “the face” of the channel is what is driving them to add newer movies. (I sure do miss him!) I have an old recording device (a Sage) on which I still have a lot of movies that he introduced – and I always enjoy seeing his introductions.

This month the channel is doing a whole lot of diverse themes which has sort of cut down on the mystery movies they will be showing. However, there are still some pretty good ones coming up. The 1934 Alfred Hitchcock “The Man Who Knew Too Much” is playing on Saturday, April 23. Most of us are pretty familiar with the 1956 version that starred Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day.

Oh, and for all of you who are fans of the Perry Mason television series, Barbara Hale (aka the absolute best Della Street actress of all time!) will be in the 1949 non-Perry movie “The Window” on April 24.

***** ***** ***** *****

TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES CHANNEL MYSTERY MOVIES – April 2022

***** ***** ***** *****

Sunday – April 3, 2022

12:45 AM Pitfall (1948)
A married insurance man falls for a criminal’s girlfriend.
Dir: Andre Detoth. Actors: Dick Powell, Lizabeth Scott, Jane Wyatt
84 mins

10:00 AM Pitfall (1948)
A married insurance man falls for a criminal’s girlfriend.
Dir: Andre Detoth. Actors: Dick Powell, Lizabeth Scott, Jane Wyatt
84 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Monday – April 4, 2022

2:30 PM The Trial (1963)
Adaptation of Kafka’s classic novel about a meek bureaucratic clerk who is arrested and put to trial without knowing what crime he’s been accused of.
Dir: Orson Welles. Actors: Anthony Perkins, Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider
118 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Tuesday – April 5, 2022

8:15 AM Mara Maru (1952)
A salvage diver is accused of murder while hunting a mysterious treasure.
Dir: Gordon Douglas. Actors: Errol Flynn, Ruth Roman, Raymond Burr
98 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Wednesday – April 6, 2022

4:00 AM Gaslight (1944)
A newlywed fears she’s going mad when strange things start happening at the family mansion.
Dir: George Cukor. Actors: Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten
114 mins

8:00 PM The Lost Weekend (1945)
A writer fights to overcome his addiction to liquor.
Dir: Billy Wilder. Actors: Ray Milland, Jane Wyman, Phillip Terry
101 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Thursday – April 7, 2022

11:30 AM Cry of the Hunted (1953)
A prison convict escapes through the Louisiana swamps.
Dir: Joseph H. Lewis. Actors: Vittorio Gassman, Barry Sullivan, Polly Bergen
80 mins

1:00 PM The Drowning Pool (1975)
Harper, the wisecracking private investigator, goes to New Orleans to help out an old flame, Iris Deveraux. After the murder of her mother- in-law, someone implicates Iris.
Dir: Stuart Rosenberg. Actors: Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Tony Franciosa
106 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Sunday – April 10, 2022

12:30 AM Bob le Flambeur (1955)
An old gangster and gambler decides to rob a gambling casino.
Dir: Jean-pierre Melville. Actors: Roger Duchesne, Isabelle Corey, Daniel Cauchy
98 mins
*****possibly in French

10:00 AM Bob le Flambeur (1955)
An old gangster and gambler decides to rob a gambling casino.
Dir: Jean-pierre Melville. Actors: Roger Duchesne, Isabelle Corey, Daniel Cauchy
98 mins
*****possibly in French

***** ***** ***** *****

Monday – April 11, 2022

2:00 AM Breathless (1960)
A petty criminal, wanted for the murder of a police officer, returns to Paris where he meets an American girl who hawks newspapers. They become lovers, but eventually the police pressure her into betraying him and revealing his whereabouts.
Dir: Jean-luc Godard. Actors: Jean Seberg, Jean-paul Belmondo, Liliane David
90 mins
*****in French

6:00 AM Boulder Dam (1936)
Man mistaken for a murderer hides out while working on construction project.
Dir: Frank McDonald. Actors: Ross Alexander, Patricia Ellis, Lyle Talbot
70 mins

8:45 AM The Getaway (1972)
A released convict tries to get to Mexico after being betrayed by the crooked man who got him his freedom.
Dir: Sam Peckinpah. Actors: Steve McQueen, Ali Macgraw, Ben Johnson
122 mins

12:45 PM Out of the Past (1947)
A private eye tries to escape his past by running a gas station in a small town, but it catches up to him.
Dir: Jacques Tourneur. Actors: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas
97 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Tuesday – April 12, 2022

9:00 AM The Case of the Curious Bride (1935)
Perry Mason helps a young woman whose supposedly dead husband suddenly returns to life.
Dir: Michael Curtiz. Actors: Warren William, Margaret Lindsay, Donald Woods
80 mins

11:15 PM The Seven Ups (1973)
New York City cops wage a war against assorted hoods and criminals after one of their own is brutally killed by a hoodlum.
Dir: Philip D’Antoni. Actors: Roy Scheider, Tony Lo Bianco, Larry Haines, Richard Lynch, Ken Kercheval
103 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Thursday – April 13, 2022

8:30 AM Jack of Diamonds (1967)
A glamorous jewel thief tries to go straight.
Dir: Don Taylor Actors: George Hamilton, Joseph Cotten, Marie Laforêt
108 mins

10:30 AM High Sierra (1941)
An aging ex-con sets out to pull one more big heist.
Dir: Raoul Walsh. Actors: Ida Lupino, Humphrey Bogart, Alan Curtis
100 mins

12:15 PM The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Recently paroled master criminal Erwin “Doc” Riedenschneider gathers several crooks together in Cincinnati for a heist. The robbery is pulled off successfully until an alert night watchman shoots the team’s safe-cracker.
Dir: John Huston. Actors: Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen
112 mins

2:15 PM They Live by Night (1948)
After an unjust prison sentence, a young innocent gets mixed-up with hardened criminals and a violent escape.
Dir: Nicholas Ray. Actors: Cathy O’Donnell, Farley Granger, Howard Da Silva
95 mins

4:00 PM Kansas City Confidential (1952)
To commit the perfect crime, a former detective keeps his colleagues’ identities secret from each other.
Dir: Phil Karlson. Actors: John Payne, Coleen Gray, Preston Foster
98 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Saturday – April 16, 2022

3:15 PM The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Hard-boiled detective Sam Spade gets caught up in the murderous search for a priceless statue.
Dir: John Huston. Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Mary Astor, Gladys George
100 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Sunday – April 17, 2022

12:30 AM Night and the City (1950)
A London hustler has ambitious plans that never work out.
Dir: Jules Dassin. Actors: Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney, Googie Withers
95 mins

10:00 AM Night and the City (1950)
A London hustler has ambitious plans that never work out.
Dir: Jules Dassin. Actors: Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney, Googie Withers
95 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Monday – April 18, 2022

4:45 AM Mad Holiday (1936)
A temperamental film star’s vacation turns deadly when he uncovers a murder.
Dir: George B. Seitz. Actors: Edmund Lowe, Elissa Landi, Zasu Pitts
71 mins

4:00 PM Wait Until Dark (1967)
A blind woman fights against drug smugglers who’ve invaded her home.
Dir: Terence Young. Actors: Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin, Richard Crenna
108 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Wednesday – April 20, 2022

10:30 AM The Big Steal (1949)
A man is on the trail of a thief who stole a $300,000 Army payroll, but there is someone else after him – a woman.
Dir: Don Siegel. Actors: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, William Bendix
71 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Friday – April 22, 2022

1:45 PM Colorado Territory (1949)
An outlaw just released from prison is sucked back into a life of crime in this remake of High Sierra.
Dir: Raoul Walsh. Actors: Joel McCrea, Virginia Mayo, Dorothy Malone
94 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Saturday – April 23, 2022

2:00 AM Five Minutes to Live (1961)
A deranged bandit holds a bank president’s wife hostage.
Dir: Bill Karn. Actors: Johnny Cash, Donald Woods, Ronny Howard
80 mins

12:00 PM The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
While vacationing in Switzerland, a British couple gets wrapped up in an assassination plot.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Actors: Leslie Banks, Edna Best, Nova Pilbeam
84 mins

1:30 PM The Lady from Shanghai (1948)
A romantic drifter gets caught between a corrupt tycoon and his voluptuous wife.
Dir: Orson Welles. Actors: Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, Everett Sloane
86 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Sunday – April 24, 2022

12:15 AM The Window (1949)
A boy who always lies witnesses a murder but can’t get anyone but the killer to believe him.
Dir: Ted Tetzlaff. Actors: Barbara Hale, Arthur Kennedy, Paul Stewart
73 mins

6:15 AM Arsene Lupin (1932)
A gentleman thief risks his life in an attempt to steal the Mona Lisa.
Dir: Jack Conway. Actors: John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Karen Morley
84 mins

10:00 AM The Window (1949)
A boy who always lies witnesses a murder but can’t get anyone but the killer to believe him.
Dir: Ted Tetzlaff. Actors: Barbara Hale, Arthur Kennedy, Paul Stewart
73 mins

11:30 AM A Letter to Three Wives (1949)
A small-town seductress notifies her three best friends that she has run off with one of their husbands.
Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Actors: Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, Ann Sothern
103 mins
*****Sort of a mystery – it’s a mystery ’til the end…

***** ***** ***** *****

Monday – April 25, 2022

10:00 PM Footsteps in the Dark (1941)
An aspiring mystery writer stumbles on to a real murder.
Dir: Lloyd Bacon. Actors: Errol Flynn, Brenda Marshall, Ralph Bellamy
96 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Tuesday – April 26, 2022

9:45 AM Cry Wolf (1947)
A woman uncovers deadly secrets when she visits her late husband’s family.
Dir: Peter Godfrey. Actors: Errol Flynn, Barbara Stanwyck, Geraldine Brooks
83 mins

11:15 AM The Big Boodle (1957)
Tough guy fights Cuban gangsters and counterfeiters.
Dir: Richard Wilson. Actors: Rossana Rory, Errol Flynn, Dr. Francisco Canero
84 mins

3:00 PM Born Yesterday (1950)
A newspaper reporter takes on the task of educating a crooked businessman’s girlfriend.
Dir: George Cukor. Actors: Judy Holliday, Broderick Crawford, William Holden
103 mins
*****This delightful movie is not a mystery, but it is well-worth watching.

8:00 PM The Lady Vanishes (1938)
Miss Froy disappears on her return train trip from a vacation in the Balkans. However, Iris Henderson is the only person, on a train filled with suspicious and unsavory characters, who can attest that Miss Froy was ever on that trip.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock. Actors: Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave, Paul Lukas
97 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

Friday – April 29, 2022

7:30 AM Hysteria (1965)
An amnesiac stumbles on to a murder plot.
Dir: Freddie Francis. Actors: Robert Webber, Anthony Newlands, Jennifer Jayne
85 mins

9:00 AM The Strangler (1964)
Completely dominated by his neurotic, bed-ridden mother, an overweight lab technician develops a doll fetish and a bad habit of murdering nurses.
Dir: Burt Topper. Actors: Victor Buono, David McLean, Diane Sayer
89 mins

***** ***** ***** *****

If you’re really looking forward to these or other mystery-themed TV specials coming up in April, be sure to leave a comment below!

In case you’re interested in seeing the rest of this month’s television mystery movies, here’s the March 2022 television mystery movies schedule:

Upcoming Television Mystery Movies for March 2022 on Turner Classic Movies channel

And here is the page on my site with plenty of entries about movies and television shows you may enjoy:

Cozy Mystery List TV and Movie Section – all you have to do is click on the link to go to that page on my site.

March 21 to March 27, 2022

Here is the list of new releases for March 21 to March 27!

Janet Evanovich: The Recovery Agent (This will be a stand-alone novel.)

Andrea Penrose: A Swirl of Shadows (This will be the 7th in the Lady Arianna Regency Mystery Series.)

Wendy Roberts: Burning Hope (This will be the 1st in the NEW Red Hooper Mystery Series.)

Jacqueline Winspear: A Sunlit Weapon (This will be the 17th in the Maisie Dobbs Mystery Series.)

Maria DiRico: Catering Hall Mystery Series

Here Comes the Body (A Catering Hall Mystery Book 1) One of the most popular authors listed on the Cozy Mystery site is Ellen Byron. And, it is no wonder given her credentials as a writer. She has written for television (Wings, Just Shoot Me, and Fairly Odd Parents). Not many Cozy Mystery authors have written TV comedy shows! Anyway, Ellen Byron’s books have been recommended many times by members of this blog’s community — and I’ve already written a post about her Cajun Country Mystery Series as part of my posts about the most popular and recommended Cozy Mystery series. As you all probably know already, Ellen Byron also writes as Maria DiRico.  

So, this month I am adding the first book of Maria DiRico’s Catering Hall Mystery Series, Here Comes the Body to the most popular and recommended Cozy Mystery series list. In the story, Mia Carina returns from Florida having split with her cheating husband to Queens, New York, to work in the event center of her sometimes mob boss father. On her first day working there, a woman appears and publicly accuses Mia’s father of having failed to pay for matchmaking services (Mia’s father denies this allegation). Later, the woman is found in the event center dead in a bachelor party’s cake. As is common in mystery books, a close relative of Mia (in this case, her father) is accused. This leads to Mia’s investigation.

Considering that the characters in the book have connections (“former” or otherwise) with the New York mob, you wouldn’t think that this book is a good fit for the Cozy Mystery genre. However, the “family” is remarkably close-knit. And the event center and Mia’s grandmother’s home provide appropriate places for the “village” setting so often associated with Cozies. And, the story contains a surprising amount of humor.

You might not know that Ellen Byron says in her bio that she “considers her most impressive credit working as a cater-waiter for Martha Stewart.” This experience, of course, gives her credibility when writing her series about event planning and catering. 

As with all of the author’s books, this story is very well written and full of unexpected plot twists and fun surprises. The characters are easy to like despite their “connections”. So far there are only three books in the series, but I hope there will be more!

If you’re interested in seeing other most recommended or popular Cozy Mystery authors/series, please visit the Most Popular & Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my site.

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