Cozy Mysteries discussion
Cozy corner
>
Cozy Mystery List
date
newest »
newest »
Wakar - thank you for that link. What a wonderful site for cozy fans. Here's a site that I often use: www.cozylibrary.com. It lists reviews as well.
Thanks for the link - this will be a real help for using my new book gift cards and searching for a new mystery book or series.
Thanks for the link, Wakar. First,it introduced me to what a cozy mystery is. Second, it gives all the examples and authors in the world who write cozy mystery books. I have lots of groups and lists since joining GoodReads and didn't realize how many cozy mysteries are on all of these lists. I can't wait to get to it. I love cozy mysteries.
I'm so happy to have found this list! Thanks for posting it. I'm always on the look out for new (to me) authors, and this list is like hitting the jackpot. :)
This site has more than just cozies but it is great to find the latest updates and other series by the same authorwww.stopyourekillingme.com
those sites sound great I am going to definitely check it out
Hi Lynn,I love several of the authors you mentioned as well! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you Wakar and Bookworm for those websites. I LOVE a good mystery and with those websites I can get some more recomendations for authors I would have never thought of to read. Has anyone read Reginald Hill? He is very good and I love the Daziel and Pascoe characters. Thanks everyone for sharing!!
I started a list over at listopia for Victorian mysteries and one for cozy mysteries. I'd love it if you all added your favorites. There are so many series out there and it's hard to know which ones are any good.
Thanks for the links...I'll check them out. I love a good mystery!
Have any of you tried the Phryne Fisher mysteries by Kerry Greenwood? Set in 1920s Australia--a spunky, sexy, smart and warmhearted heroine and a variety of interesting secondary characters. Website for perusal: http://www.phrynefisher.com/
And for TV series (I see there is a link on the cozy-mystery.com) I've recently discovered the British series "Rosemary and Thyme." The mysteries are not terribly in-depth but the characters are a great deal of fun and the settings are always gorgeous British gardens and such. Definitely cozy!http://www.rosemaryandthyme.tv/
Some of my favorite Cozy Mysteries are the Tommy and Tuppence books by Agatha Christie. The first three are my favorites, and the most "cozy" by far!I've also recently discovered Lord Peter Wimsey (Dorothy Sayers) and completely enjoyed that - I've only read "Clouds of Witness" thus far, but definitely plan to delve into more soon!
I just added the kerry greenwood mysteries to my tbr list. I love the Rosemary and Thyme series. Did you know the lady who used to be a cop,Mrs. Thyme, is the woman who played Mrs. Trunchbull in the Matilda movie. They really uglied her up for that movie! That is a beautiful and humorous series. Have any of you read the Joanne pence novels? I added hers as well.
I like Rosemary and Thyme too. I am not a fan of the Phryne Fisher books though. I don't like the main character at all. My library has two different versions of Peter Wimsey on DVD. Both are really well done, but slightly different in feel.
I'd seen something about the Peter Wimsey DVDs on Amazon, but wasn't sure if they were good or not. I'll have to look into them now! Thanks;)
I haven't read any Agatha Christie in a few years (I miss them though!). I'd say that the Tommy and Tuppence ones are probably the coziest that I've read of Christie's - does anyone know if any of her other books are that "cozy?"I LOVED "The Seven Dials Mystery" but I'm not sure it was exactly cozy... it was a little disturbing finding out who was behind everything!!!
And I also loved "Destination Unknown" and "Man in the Brown Suit" - but again, not sure that they are as cozy as T&T (but still more so that Seven Dials).
In terms of Phryne Fisher, if you have any access at the library I would recommend finding one there as they are expensive new/used. Read a few pages and see if you like the style and Phryne; if you do, you will probably love the entire series. If not (I can see where she would not be for everyone!) then you won't be out any $$$Glad to find some fellow "Rosemary and Thyme" fans here. Sadly, my library only has Season One and one episode of Season Two. Do they continue to be good in Season Three?
And I have not read Joanne Pence. Do you have a favorite for starters?
I also enjoyed "The Thin Woman" by Dorothy Cannell -- probably one of the most "cozy" mysteries I've ever read (more so than Greenwood, Sayers and Christie for sure!) -- Apparently there is a whole series following that one.
I think the Rosemary and Yhyme series is still good in season 3. Have you seen Ballykissangel and Monarch of the Glen. Not mysteries but great Irish and Scots shows.
I have a whole list of the first books in a lot of cozies. it took a while to put together but i like to start from the beginning. I have the Thin Woman book listed and the joanne pence one.AMazon has some listmanias on the first in a series lists.
Thank you for the wonderful recommendations, Pumpkin! (I love your profile photo, BTW.) "Monarch of the Glen" especially looks like my cup of tea. I'm currently watching a 1991 mini-series called "House of Eliot" which, once you get past the rather poor soap-opera-ish film quality and sound, is quite a lot of fun, very interesting, two sisters in 1921 London trying to make it on their own, become interesting and independent women in a time where that wasn't always easy to do (but getting easier!) and climb their way to fashion. Again, no mysteries, but fun if you like that sort of thing.
A caution on my Phryne Fisher recommendation--I just finished "Murder on the Ballarat Train" and parts were not so cozy. Stay with "Away with the Fairies" if you want to try the series.
I adore Agatha Christie's books. I was not a fan of The Seven Dials Mystery though! I also am rather bored by Tommy & Tuppence.Are Agatha's books cozy? Oh my gosh yes! In the Coziness Department, I especially recommend The Golden Ball & Other Stories, The Tuesday Club Murders, Poirot Investigates, Halloween Party, The Sittaford Mystery (particularly wonderful to read when it's snowing outside & you have a nice fire), Nemesis (one of my all-time favorites), & so many more. I recently read The Pale Horse & it was so engrossing! I loved it.
Dorothy L. Sayers (the Lord Peter Wimsey books) is good, but much more starched-British, if you know what I mean. She was a big influence on Agatha Christie.
I also like Ngaio Marsh's books. She was from New Zealand.
Thanks for the recommendation, Kathie!:D I will have to look into some of those :)
Yes, we saw Rosemary and Thyme, Monarch of the Glen and BallykissAngel, but they aren't being shown in the states right now.
If you are looking for books in series there are two lists maintained on the web that are excellent. The first is called Stop! You're Killing Me http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/, it has lists by author, lists by main character name, as well as what's new, genre lists, award winners, diversity, historical, by jobs, and read-alikes. I use it every few days for some reason or another. The other site is Fantastic Fiction http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/ it does author, has a strong search engine and it does lots of genre, not just mystery (SF, romance, etc.)Patty
Kathryn, Hope you like the House of Eliot series. It is very nice too. To the Manor Born is another fun series but it is older as well.Our library doesn't have a Phryne Fisher mystery so I will wait to read it. I have so many books on my tbr list I am going to get just the ones the library has right now. :)
So many books,so little eyeballs!
That is a great site-stopyourekillingme. Gave me so many great titles and authors of cozy mystery writers.
For all the Christie fans out there, did you know she has an autobiography COME, TELL ME HOW YOU LIVE detailing the other half of her life as "Mrs. Mallowan" as she accompanied her husband on his archaeological expeditions. No mysteries here, but interesting if you are curious about other aspects of her life. I haven't finished it as I got sidetracked and a bit bored as one dig seemed so much like the other, but some people LOVE it and it was worth checking out from the library and reading several chapters just to get a glimpse of this aspect of a much beloved author!
Thanks Patty for sharing the stopyourekillingme link. That totally made my day, I love it when i can find new mystery authors. And Toni sometimes on PBS they show BallykissAngel, Monach of the Glen and Rosemary and Thyme. I really enjoyed Rosemary and Thyme and have the series on DVD which I watch over and over again.
KathrynI read Come, and tell me how you live years ago. I did find it a little slow and I don't remember finishing it. I do remember that she was at a dig in Baghdad.
Diane
Come, Tell Me How You Live is one of my favorite books. I was engrossed & entranced from page one. This was a life-changing book for me. I still daydream about the digs Agatha Christie went on in Baghdad. This book led me to go on a cross-country camping trip with my kids & no husband (or as they said in Dallas TX, "You ain't got no MAN or no GUN with you?!"). We slept in a tent (on the ground) in 29-degree nights (in the summer) in a canyon in Wyoming & in the desert in Utah when it got up to 108 in the daytime. This is a great adventure autobiography like another of my faves, Cross Creek by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.I love Ballykissangel! You can get the DVDs on Netflix. Right now I'm watching Joan Hickson as Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in A Body in the Library (for the upteenth time).
I get a good laugh out of Murder, She Wrote on TV. The "mysteries" are so hackneyed & contrived ("If only we knew the layout of this old mansion! WAIT! What do you know! Here are the blueprints right here in this cupboard! How lucky!") but it certainly is cozy, especially when she's in Cabot Cove ME.
The writer of a murder mystery series, Selma Eichler, got started writing screenplays for Murder, She Wrote. I think Ms. Eichler is one of the most talentless writers I've ever had the misery to slog through! IMHO of course! ;-)
I just finished a book in a new series called Death of a Garage Sale Newbie. It's a Christian mystery, but not overwhelmingly so. I have the complete review on my profile. I think it would be good for this group.
I always wondered why Jessica Fletcher was never suspected in any of the two hundred plus murders she solved. Didn't anyone notice that wherever she went, people were murdered? You'd think they'd start to wonder about that and at least stop inviting her to garden parties and writing seminars.And that's always been my problem with Miss Marple like amatuer slueths. They just require me to suspend too much disbelief.
I heard a radio ad spoof of Jessica Fletcher with Mulder and Scully from The X-Files investigating her as a mass murderer. It was dang funny. That was a few years ago, when X-Files was still on.
The Bookworm wrote: "Wakar - thank you for that link. What a wonderful site for cozy fans. Here's a site that I often use: www.cozylibrary.com. It lists reviews as well."
Im just now reading these older posts..
:)
Thanks for the cozy link!
Ann wrote: "Some of my favorite Cozy Mysteries are the Tommy and Tuppence books by Agatha Christie. The first three are my favorites, and the most "cozy" by far!I've also recently discovered Lord Peter Wimse..."
Oh! I love Tommy and Tuppence! They are fantastic and I would definitely class them as a "classy cozy mystery" LOL.
I've visited that cozy link site, myself, in the past and found books through them. It's a great resource.
Thanks, Wakar, for the cozy mystery list website! I wish I would have about this year's ago. A wonderful resource for the avid reader!
I did a search for this web site among the posts but nothing came up. If this has already been posted, my apologize.
There is a wonderful site (it's next to the definition "labor of love") that lists untold number of cozy mystery series. It lists them mostly by author and in publication order - which is priceless for folks who like to read series in order. But there are other pages as well, such as the "new releases" that she's just started.
Anyone who loves cozies must have this in their bookmarks. I am constantly referring to it. It's called Cozy Mystery List and the URL is:
http://www.cozy-mystery.com
Wakar