December MysteryKIT: Cozies

We are fortunate to be able to end this difficult year by reading a light kind of mystery, a cozy mystery.
"Cozy mysteries, also referred to as "cozies", are a subgenre of crime fiction in which sex and violence occur off stage, the detective is an amateur sleuth, and the crime and detection take place in a small, socially intimate community" (Wikipedia).

Numerous cozies have been written during various time periods. We have already had the opportunity to read cozy mysteries in the months featuring historical mysteries, furry sleuths, Golden Age, international authors, and series.

Examples of historical cozies include but are definitely NOT limited to:
The Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear (London, WWI through WWII
The Gaslight mystery series by Victoria Thompson (New York City, turn into the 20th century)
The Molly Murphy series (Irish immigrant in early 20th century America) and Lady Georgiana Mystery Series (England in 1930s), both by Rhys Bowen
The Phryne Fisher Mystery Series (Australia, 1920s) ---also intermational

Examples of a few furry sleuths include but are definitely NOT limited to:
Mrs. Murphy Mysteries. Cats accompanied by dogs and Master of the Fox Hunt series (horses) both by Rita Mae Brown
Cat in the Stacks Mystery Series by Miranda James
Cat Who ... series by Lillian Jackson Braun
Chet and Bernie Mystery Series (dogs) by Spencer Quinn

Golden Age cozies include but are definitely NOT limited to:
Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot series by Agatha Christie
Sherlock Holmes series by Arthur Conan Doyle
Superintendent Hannasyde Mystery Series by Georgette Heyer
Lord Peter Wimsey novels by Dorothy L. Sayers
Alan Grant Mystery Series by Josephine Tey

We now have a Christmas list for holiday reading at https://www.librarything.com/topic/326281
Christmas cozy mysteries are very popular.
Anne Perry and Kate Kingsbury wrote Christmas cozies annually for a number of years.
These and other Christmas cozies can be found at: https://cozy-mystery.com/blog/christmas-cozy-mystery-recommendations-2015.html and https://cozy-mystery.com/blog/christmas-mystery-book-list-recommendations.html and https://cozy-mystery.com/blog/the-best-christmas-cozy-mystery.html

Although I have read books from a few of these series, most of the titles mentioned came from the online Cozy Mysteries by themes from Cozy Mystery List which lists numerous cozies under numerous categories. Categories not mentioned above include but are not limited to culinary-cooking, super paranormal, vacations or take place in exotic locations, professions, senior sleuths, religious, etc. For a number of the more numerous themes, it lists the authors alphabetically by group of letters such as A-D, E-K, etc.
https://cozy-mystery.com/cozy-mysteries-by-themes.html

Hope that this is not overwhelming. We want to have fun.

>1 sallylou61: We are fortunate to be able to end this difficult year by reading a light kind of mystery, a cozy mystery.

Fortunate indeed. I don't know what I'll be reading, but I'm sure there will be a cozy mystery in my next 6 weeks of reading. Thanks for the lists!

My reading group always has December as mystery month, so I will be reading Death Ex Machina by Gary Corby and Persona Non Grata by Ruth Downie. I am also looking at The Countertenor Wore Garlic by Mark Schweizer

I'm positive I'll be reading a Dorothy Sayers in December if I can get my hand on the selection of the month. I think I've got a few Christmas cozies that might fit too.

You did a great job of giving us ideas for this month. I will probably read a Christmas cozy.

I'm thinking about reading Ruth's First Christmas Tree which is 4.5 in the Ruth Galloway series. There is always discussion as to whether this series is a cozy, but I am of the opinion that it is. I could use a nice light seasonal read in December.

Don't have time to dig too deep at the moment, but I'll have lots to choose from.

>2 markon:, >5 LadyoftheLodge:. Thanks.

>1 sallylou61: Great suggestions!

How reasonable is it to start a Winspear or Thompson in the middle of a series (book ~10)? I've been wanting a return to Rhys Bowen, but that won't work it seems -- local mystery coverage is quite spotty apparently. But Winspear or Thompson seem possible and I'm unfamiliar with either of them, so I'm inclined to pick one up unless the middle of one of these series is a bad idea.

>9 pammab: I am probably not the best person to answer this question since I often do not read series in order. In fact, I do not read nearly as many mysteries as many people who participate in MysteryCAT/MysteryKIT do. When I first started reading Maisie Dobbs, someone suggested that I skip the first one and I did and began with the second. Most of the Maisie Dobbs which I have read are the later ones. Although the books build on one another, I certainly have not felt lost in skipping around, especially since a reader can gather information about the background which Ms. Winspear skillfully provides without taking away from the story. That said, I see according to the web that some people suggest that they be read in order.

The Gaslight mystery series by Victoria Thompson is the only series in the historical section from which I have never read any volumes although I read Ms. Thompson speak at a book festival several years ago. I have one of her Gaslight mysteries, but it is a mass market paperback on poor quality paper -- a type of book which often kicks up my allergies.

I've taken a couple of short adult education mystery classes, and the books assigned have not been the first one in a series. However, I know that a lot of readers like to read series in order.

>9 pammab: I usually do not worry about reading the series in order. I read a lot of mysteries, and if they are well written, the reader will not feel lost when entering a series in the middle.

I am going the vintage route with Heads You Lose by Christianna Brand.

>9 pammab: - I basically just read the entire Gaslight series by Victoria Thompson this year as it was a really hitting the sweet spot for me. While I don't think you "have" to start with the first one, I would recommend starting as early as possible in the series as #10 and #15 both have huge payoffs for readers who have been following along the whole time.

I'm planning on reading Word to the Wise by Jenn McKinlay and Second to Nun by Alice Loweecey.

>10 sallylou61:
>11 LadyoftheLodge:
>13 LittleTaiko:
Maisie Dobbs To Die But Once it is then -- thank you for your helpful comments and color!!

I'm planning on reading The Tale of Hill Top Farm.

>16 JayneCM: I read all those in the Beatrix Potter series and loved them!

I am reading nothing but Christmas theme books this month. I have chosen A Catered Christmas by Isis Crawford for this challenge.

I have finished Mord im Santa-Express, a Christmas cozy set on an ICE train travelling from Hamburg to Munich on 24 Decemer 2020. A death happens, and a doctor is suspicious. Echoes of Murder on the Orient Express here. Nice seasonal fluff.

I read Gaudy Night for the Lord Peter group read - the penultimate book in the series. And since I enjoyed it so much, I immediately read the final book, Busman's Honeymoon, as well :)

Seeing the various holiday cozies folks are reading makes me think I may try to fit in a reread of Cyril Hare's Christmas mystery - An English Murder.

>20 leslie.98: if Gaudy Night could be considered a Cozy mystery, I can read it for two different challenges this month!

I read a vintage country house mystery called Heads You Lose by Christianna Brand. Unfortunately I found the whole thing rather silly, but I do have at least one more book by this author on my shelves so I am hoping she improved on her plotting and timing.

Rest You Merry / Charlotte MacLeod
3.5 stars

Peter Shandy is a professor at a small college. Many of the faculty live close to each other, and at Christmas they go all out in their neighbourhood to decorate. It’s called the Illumination Festival and it attracts people out to see the lights. While Peter is away, there is a Christmas party. When Peter returns, he finds the assistant librarian dead in his house. It appears she was trying to fix some decorations and she fell. But, on looking closer, Peter doesn’t think it was an accident. The last time the librarian was seen, she was leaving the party.

I quite liked this. It’s a quick read and, unfortunately, the first in a series. I will continue on (if I can find the next book(s), as this one was originally published in 1978). I don’t read a lot of Christmas-themed books, so the Christmas-y stuff was kind of fun, too.

>23 LibraryCin: That one's on my to-read list, so I'm glad to see you enjoyed it!

>21 fuzzi: I'm counting Gaudy Night

>24 christina_reads: I actually picked it out for a different challenge (wasn't on my tbr, but I needed something originally published in 1978!), and found it fit a couple of other challenges this month, too, so it worked out well! In addition to being an enjoyable read!

>21 fuzzi: Sayer's Lord Peter Wimsey series is in the lists given in post #1 so I assumed it counted. "Cozy" is a somewhat nebulous term but generally all books featuring a non-professional detective are considered cozies (so Lord Peter & Miss Marple but not Hercule Poirot or Miss Silver). Some books are more cozy than others and of course everyone is free to choose their own definition.

I've read Turning the Tide, a Quaker Midwife Mystery, by Edith Maxwell. This is also a historical mystery occurring in Amesbury, Massachusetts, during the presidential election of 1888 (Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison); it features the suffrage/anti-suffrage fight including suffragettes standing on the opposite side of the street from the voting site where only men are voting. The Quaker midwife is a young woman, Rose Carroll, who is living with her brother-in-law and taking care of the children after her sister's death. In addition to her duties as the town's midwife, she also gets involved in helping to solve murders (only one in this book). She is also dealing with the local Quakers' opposition to her upcoming marriage with a non-Friend. The murder victim in this story is a local leader of the suffrage movement. I really enjoyed this mystery which includes several suspects, with strong motives for wanting the victim dead. I had not figured out the murderer before it was revealed near the end of the story.

(Early Quakers were often "read out of Meeting" (lost their membership) for marrying a non-Quaker. Apparently, this was still the practice in some meetings in the 1880s)

>27 leslie.98: thank you. I'd missed the Sayers reference it seems!

Finished Second to Nun by Alice Loweecey a cozy mystery featuring a former nun who now runs a detective agency.

>28 sallylou61: I'm taking a book bullet on the first in that series.

>28 sallylou61: >31 thornton37814: Me too!

>31 thornton37814:, >32 beebeereads:. This is actually the third in the series; I'm notorious for not starting with the first of a series. However, I enjoyed this one so much that I've bought the others in the series. I enjoy reading Quaker fiction written by Quakers, and there are not many mystery series having these qualifications.

I've read Death Around the Bend, the third in the Lady Hardcastle Mystery Series by T. E. Kinsey.

I've read Away in a Manger by Rhys Bowen. Molly Murphy Sullivan becomes concerned about two young children, staying in a rooming house in which the owner kicks them out every day without the proper clothing or anything to eat. She discovers them when she hears the young girl singing Away in the Manger in the Irish tune. The children's mother has disappeared. The mystery is to find the mother or other members of the family. To say anything more about the plot would give away too much of the story.

I read Arrow Pointing Nowhere by Elizabeth Daly, which is borderline for a cozy. Henry Gamadge, the main character in this series, is a literary "detective" who over the course of the series so far (this is book #7) has become drawn into investigating murders. His background is in rare books and prior to the first book of the series he had been involved in investigating fake rare books etc. so he is somewhat of a professional but in terms of physical crimes, he could be considered an amateur.

In any case, it is a good, often overlooked, GA American mystery series.

I read Word to the Wise by Jenn McKinlay - book 10 in the Library Lover's series.

>6 beebeereads: Well I read Ruth's First Christmas Tree but it was a big disappointment. It is #4.5 in the series and I finished through #10 so that may be part of my reaction. It is a short story that has only a very simple mystery that was resolved in an unexplained manner. I would not recommend unless reading it in order. It does give a lot of review of the main characters which could be helpful for people new to the series.

I read Death of a Glutton by M. C. Beaton, #8 in the Hamish Macbeth series.

I read two, Death Around the Bend by T E Kinsey and Christmas Caramel Murder by JoAnne Fluke.

I finished my first Maisie Dobbs by Winspear, To Die But Once (#14), selected with some help upthread from sallylou61, LadyoftheLodge, and LittleTaiko. Quite enjoyed it! Felt much less "genre" than I was expecting.

I read Murder at Longbourn by Tracy Kiely, a contemporary cozy with some nods to Jane Austen and Agatha Christie. It was mildly enjoyable, and I may seek out the next book in the series at some point.

I hope everyone who participated enjoyed some relaxing reading at the end of this very difficult year. Thanks for participating.

>43 sallylou61: thank you for hosting!