{"id":3826,"date":"2020-10-09T14:03:13","date_gmt":"2020-10-09T21:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/?p=3826"},"modified":"2020-10-10T07:28:53","modified_gmt":"2020-10-10T14:28:53","slug":"cozy-round-up-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/cozy-round-up-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Cozy round up 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Cozies certainly provide solace from many of the dark edges of the actual world.”<\/em> — Edith Maxwell in Mystery Scene<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

I read a lot, and I read lots of cozies, partly thanks to my column in Mystery Scene<\/em>.\u00a0 There I am restricted to reviewing mass market paperback originals, and I am generously showered with advance reading copies.\u00a0 I sort through them by reading the premise and a bit of the beginning.\u00a0 If the writing doesn\u2019t hit me quite right, I skip that one, and check out another one.\u00a0 And while I certainly read many, many cozies, I am in no way claiming to have read even a comprehensive number of the books in this sub genre published this year.\u00a0 For that kind of scope, I highly recommend checking out Dru\u2019s Book Musings<\/a>, which is a comprehensive review blog of all things cozy.\u00a0 In addition, Dru has guest posts from authors and publishes a guide to what\u2019s coming out, sometimes weekly.<\/p>\n

However, I can recommend 10 titles of books I did read and enjoy very much in the past year.\u00a0 Many of these hard-working writers have several series and many of the series they are writing are long running as well as many books long.\u00a0 If you are intrigued by a description here or simply want more, please go to Fantastic Fiction<\/a> and check out a full list of their work as well as recommendations of other writers you might enjoy.\u00a0 And one extra note, one of these books, Alex Erickson\u2019s Dial “M” for Maine Coon<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>is only available through Barnes & Noble.\u00a0 It\u2019s worth a hunt through their shelves (or click on this link<\/a>).\u00a0 For the rest, you can order them on our website.<\/p>\n

So here is my alphabetical, opinionated, curated list of the best or most engaging or most original \u2013 or sometimes all three \u2013 cozies I read this year.\u00a0 For a longer discussion on what compromises a cozy, check out my essay here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Last Curtain Call, <\/em>Juliet Blackwell (June) This is book eight in Blackwell\u2019s Haunted Home Renovation series, and it finds series heroine Mel Turner renovating her own house in San Francisco.\u00a0 It\u2019s an historic gem and it comes with a ghostly flapper in the attic.\u00a0 She\u2019s also helping to renovate an old theater which appears to be \u2013 haunted.\u00a0 The threads from the past and the present tie together neatly, as does Mel\u2019s quest both to solve the mysteries she\u2019s presented with as well as her ongoing one to discover just why she does see ghosts.\u00a0 Mel is a great, specific character, and Blackwell is a natural, easy storyteller. \u00a0The San Francisco setting doesn\u2019t hurt either.\u00a0 The ghosts only require a tiny bit of suspended belief.<\/p>\n

A Big Fat Greek Murder, <\/em>Kate Collins (December) Athena Spencer is part of a big, bossy Greek family, and when her sister is suspected of killing the groom before a friend\u2019s family, the whole family is all in trying to clear her. Adding real spice to the book are blog entries by Goddess Anon \u2013 a.k.a. Athena \u2013 running as It\u2019s All Greek to Me.\u00a0 <\/em>While Athena peels away the threads of the \"\"<\/a>mystery along with an obvious future love interest, this specific detail of her also being a blogger really made the book a standout for me.\u00a0 Even better, some of the other characters have figured out it\u2019s Athena and operate on a nudge and wink basis with her, but not in an obnoxious way. For Michiganders, added incentive: this is set on Michigan\u2019s west coast, in a town that sounds very similar to Saugatauk.<\/p>\n

Death at High Tide, <\/em>Hannah Dennison (September) I really, really loved this one.\u00a0 Dennison is a master at narrative and pacing, but I was also drawn to the premise: two sisters head to a remote island to check out a hotel one of them seems to have inherited.\u00a0 The setting is unusual \u2013 the Isles of Scilly off England\u2019s southern coast \u2013 and the hotel is remote enough to provide its own small coterie of interesting, unusually memorable characters, the most fascinating being the cranky hotel owner Jago.\u00a0 He of course is quickly dispatched, and main character and recent widow Evie must discover the many reasons Jago was feared, resented and hated before she can solve the murder, as well as the mystery of why her beloved sister Margot is acting so distant.\u00a0 This is the first in what I devoutly hope will be a long-lived series.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The Man in the Microwave Oven, <\/em>Susan Cox (November) This one is a real standout.\u00a0 This author is in her own, freak flag flying country, and it\u2019s a visit I recommend. Series heroine Theo Bogart has fled from a family tragedy in England.\u00a0 In her new life as a small business owner in San Francisco, she\u2019s sort of under cover in that she\u2019s told none of her new friends who she really is.\u00a0 At the moment she, as a member of the neighborhood association, is battling with an unpleasant lawyer who wants to put up a fancy new Condo Tower, which would destroy the character of her friendly, diverse neighborhood.\u00a0 The lawyer, of course, is murdered and that\u2019s about the only predictable thing that happens in the joyful romp of a book which includes spies, Russian priests, an orphanage, a visit to a strip club (but a really nice one), a mysterious homeless man, and Theo\u2019s delightfully mysterious and regal grandfather.\u00a0 There\u2019s also a matter of a couple of hands discovered in the microwave oven at her buddy Nat\u2019s coffee shop.\u00a0 Nothing is expected, the resolution was great, and the writing sparkles.\u00a0 This is book 2, the first book, The Man on the Washing Machine, <\/em>was published in 2015, and was the winner of the St. Martin\u2019s Minotaur\/Mystery Writers of America<\/a> first novel prize.<\/p>\n

Dial \u201cM\u201d for Maine Coon, <\/em>Alex Erickson (August) This is the rare-ish cozy that tackles some heavier issues.\u00a0 The main character, Liz, runs a pet rescue (and she\u2019s married to a vet). In this book she\u2019s dropping off a newly adopted Maine Coon cat when she discovered the adopter dead in his study.\u00a0 He\u2019s African American, and Erickson takes on the issue of small town bigotry in this nicely told tale.\u00a0 The man\u2019s wife had disappeared long ago, and he\u2019s never given up looking for her \u2013 or been cleared of suspicion that he may have killed her.\u00a0 Liz is believably drawn into the case as the local private eye is training her daughter, and the two had been working to help the man find his wife.\u00a0 Liz just joins in.\u00a0 Very affecting.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Still Knife Painting, <\/em>Cheryl Hollon (June) Character, character, character.\u00a0 Hollon has created a great one in Miranda Trent, who has come home to Appalachia to live in her uncle\u2019s house and start a new business, Paint & Shine.\u00a0 She takes tourists on a nature hike, sets them up to create a plein air<\/em> painting, and then takes the home for a home cooked meal, paired with moonshine.\u00a0 It\u2019s a different premise for sure, and Hollon, a glass blower by passion (her other series is about a glass blower), is obviously comfortable with the visual arts.\u00a0 What makes this a real standout is her character, Miranda Trent, who has such real, believable emotions and reactions that she\u2019s immediately endearing.\u00a0 Even better, she utilizes her skill as an artist (i.e., a committed observer) to solve the crime.\u00a0 This is a great series kick off for the talented Hollon.<\/p>\n

Mousse and Murder, <\/em>Elizabeth Logan (May) I loved the pace of this book, which was set in an Alaska diner. New owner Charlie Cooke has taken over from her mother, promptly has a fight with her chef \u2013 who then turns up dead, leaving Charlie to run everything on her own as well as try and solve the crime.\u00a0 Fairly standard set up but the pacing is excellent and Logan has a real eye for small town life.\u00a0 The Alaska setting is great too.\u00a0 There\u2019s a nice mix of characters, and Logan makes the central character cooler and younger by having her interact with her neglected cat at home through an app on her phone.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Murder in the Margins, <\/em>Margaret Loudon (October) This was a totally delectable bon-bon for the Anglophile reader of cozies.\u00a0 American Penelope Parrish is working as a writer in residence at a book shop in a small British village.\u00a0 There\u2019s plenty of tea, there\u2019s a f\u0207te, there\u2019s a dead person in a wine cellar, and a cat, Mrs. Danvers, who helps solve the crime.\u00a0 Penelope is kind of adorably awkward and insecure, even though she\u2019s written a bestseller, and the details of life in this little village as well as her crime solving abilities are completely and utterly charming.<\/p>\n

Buried to the Brim, <\/em>Jenn McKinley (January) Jenn McKinley is a total pro, which means she can tell an enjoyable story.\u00a0 This was the first book I\u2019d read in this six book series, but I had no trouble sorting my way through Scarlett Parker\u2019s UK hat shop, where she\u2019s challenged to create a hat for a corgi in a dog show.\u00a0 Backstage at the gossipy, backbiting world of dog shows is a real blast in McKinlay\u2019s talented hands.\u00a0 This hints it may be the last in this series, but I really hope that\u2019s not the case.<\/p>\n

Thread and Dead, <\/em>Elizabeth Penney (August) There are all kinds of cozies involving small businesses, but this is the first series I\u2019ve read where the small business in question sells vintage aprons and other types of vintage linens \u2013 sheets, dishtowels, etc.\u00a0 As described by Penney, the shop sounds not only mouthwatering but fairly realistic.\u00a0 Iris and her Grammie, who brought her up, run the apron store in Blueberry Cove, Maine.\u00a0 Penney skillfully blends the rhythms of small town life into her novel \u2013 there\u2019s a lobster festival going on, and as a business owner she\u2019s involved in some of the promotions and some of the events, most notably, a lobster bib contest.\u00a0 While Iris is drawn into the mystery, it\u2019s pretty believable \u2013 she knows a lot of the people and there\u2019s no silly going into a dark house alone with no backup.\u00a0 It\u2019s mostly solving relationship puzzles. \u00a0 I totally enjoyed the fairly deep dive into vintage linens – the specifics made the book stand out.<\/p>\n

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“Cozies certainly provide solace from many of the dark edges of the actual world.” — Edith Maxwell in Mystery Scene I read a lot, and I read lots of cozies, partly thanks to my column in Mystery Scene.\u00a0 There I am restricted to reviewing mass market paperback originals, and I am generously showered with advance … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,19],"tags":[432,433,344,437,434,391,345,423,436,429,430,435,438,431],"class_list":["post-3826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of","category-essays","tag-alex-erickson","tag-cheryl-hollon","tag-cozies","tag-drus-book-musings","tag-elizabeth-logan","tag-elizabeth-penney","tag-fantastic-fiction","tag-hannah-dennison","tag-jenn-mckinlay","tag-juliet-blackwell","tag-kate-collins","tag-margaret-loudon","tag-mystery-scene-magazine","tag-susan-cox"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3826"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3828,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3826\/revisions\/3828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}