Cozy mysteries are light on violence and gore but strong on puzzle plots and quaint country villages. British cozies hearken to the master sleuths, the inimitable Sherlock Holmes from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the intrepid Jane Marple or the
Cozy mysteries are light on violence and gore but strong on puzzle plots and quaint country villages. British cozies hearken to the master sleuths, the inimitable Sherlock Holmes from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the intrepid Jane Marple or the fastidious Hercule Poirot from Agatha Christie. At a recent Lihue Library Book Club meeting, reader Gail Weir commented on one of Ann Purser’s cozy mysteries. “It’s like comfort food,” she said, “like sitting down with a nice bowl of macaroni and cheese! Sometimes you just want to read some fluff.” Book Buzz this week names a few well-loved British cozy mystery series highlighting the first book in the set. For murder most cozy stop by your neighborhood library.
Happy reading!
Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death
By M.C. Beaton
Adult Fiction Beaton
Marion Chesney writes two mystery series under the pseudonym M. C. Beaton. One features the amateur sleuth Agatha Raisin. It was begun in 1992 with the above title. The other, launched in 1985, features police detective Hamish Macbeth beginning with Death of a Gossip. Both series are still underway with a new title coming out each year. Death of a Valentine and Agatha Raisin and the Busy Body are the 2010 titles.
Crocodile on the Sandbank
By Elizabeth Peters
Adult Fiction Peters
Follow the curious, witty and daring Amelia Peabody, Victorian Egyptologist, as she encounters murder, mayhem, mystery and mummies in her travels. Still sleuthing with her well-muscled husband after eighteen adventures, the most recent in the series is A River in the Sky. The American author, Barbara Mertz, with a PhD from the University of Chicago in Egyptology, writes the Amelia Peabody Series under the pseudonym Elizabeth Peters. Under the same name she also writes a mystery series starring librarian Jacqueline Kirby and another series led by professor of art history, Vicky Bliss.
From Doon
with Death
By Ruth Rendell
Adult Fiction Rendell
The prolific award-winning crime novelist Rendell, a member of the British House of Lords, introduced her contemporary detective, Chief Inspector Reginald Wexford in From Doon with Death in 1964. Wexford with his old friend and partner Mike Burden, sleuth their way through her series which is arguably not too cozy. The latest and 22nd in the Wexford Series is the 2009 Monster in the Box. For another contemporary Scotland Yard detective try the Richard Jury Mysteries by Martha Grimes. This series starts with The Man with a Load of Mischief. The most recent is this year’s The Black Cat.
The Face of
a Stranger
By Anne Perry
Adult Fiction Perry
Murder fans that prefer their crimes with a touch of class should heat up some scones and nestle in for an afternoon of the Victorian London police detective William Monk. The amnesia-stricken detective soon teams up with Nurse Hester Laterly. The 16th and latest in the series is this year’s The Execution Dock. Perry also writes the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt Mystery Series beginning with The Cater Street Hangman in which young Inspector Thomas Pitt is joined by two unconventional young Victorian sisters to track down a killer. Perry’s 26th and most recent in this series is Buckingham Palace Gardens.
Homicide in
Hard Cover
By Kate Carlisle
Adult Fiction Carlisle
Author Carlisle’s fun new Bibliophile Mystery Series features rare book expert and accidental detective Ms. Brooklyn Wainwright. Book two in the series is the 2010 If Books Could Kill. Or try some other new tea cozy authors such as Patricia Harwin, starting with Arson and Old Lace featuring the feisty retired librarian Catherine Penny who moves from New York to the idyllic English village of Far Wychwood. Also look for G.M. Mailliet’s new St. Just Mystery Series that starts with Death of a Cozy Writer, in which the author names characters after an attribute associated with their occupation.
A Morbid Taste
for Bones
By Ellis Peters
Adult Fiction Peters
Author Peters provides history lessons in twelfth century monastic life as medieval monk, Brother Cadfael sleuths his way throughout Great Britain. The latest and 20th in this well-loved series is Brother Caedfile’s Pennance. For mysteries of ancient Ireland try Peter Tremayne’s series featuring Sister Fidelma of Cashel and her sidekick Brother Eadulf beginning with Absolution by Murder. Tremayne’s 17th and most recent is the 2009 The Council of the Cursed.
Murder on Monday
By Ann Purser
352.236 Ne
Amateur sleuth Lois Meade is a straightforward working class mom who cleans houses for folks in a nearby village. After Monday’s murder, her adventures continue through the days of the week to Sorrow on Sunday then start in on hours of the day beginning with Warning at One and Tragedy at Two. Threats at Three is scheduled for release this December. Purser’s newest series features the cantankerous spinster Ivy Beasley and begins with The Hangman’s Row Inquiry. For other American sleuths in England try the Aunt Dimity Series by Nancy Atherton or the Dorothy Martins Mysteries by Jeanne M. Dams.
Room with a Clue
By Kate Kingsbury
Adult Fiction Kingsbury
Hotel owner and amateur sleuth Cecily Sinclair Baxter stars in Kingsbury’s Pennyfoot Hotel mystery series set in Edwardian England. The most recent in the series is the 2009 Pennyfoot Christmas tale entitled Decked with Folly. Kingsbury also created Lady Elizabeth Hartleigh Compton, of Sitting Marsh Manor House, who turns sleuth in a mystery series set against the backdrop of World War II England. Author Jacqueline Winspear writes a delightful historical mystery series set in England after WWI beginning with Maisie Dobbs and running to the seventh and most recent The Mapping of Love and Death.
Whose Body?
By Dorothy Sayers
305.5209 Ro
Join the dashing and unflappable Lord Peter Whimsey and his love interest, young mystery-writer Harriet Vane, in a series of first rate detective stories written with Sayers’s inventive plots and wonderful eye for detail. Having created eleven stories, published for the first time between 1923 and 1937, and culminating in Bushman’s Honeymoon, the late Sayers remains in a class of her own.
• Carolyn Larson, head librarian at Lihu‘e Public Library, brings you the buzz on new, popular and good books available at your neighborhood library. Book annotations are culled from online publishers’ descriptions and published reviews.
Sheila Pim wrote four mysteries with garden themes. She wrote the first one for her father who enjoyed mysteries and was unable to get new ones because of a paper shortage during World War II. They take place in Ireland. Two of them are in print and available from the Rue Morgue Press. The others may be in the library.