Sunday, June 26, 2016

BW26: British Village Cozy Mysteries

young Agatha Christie

Woot! Woot! We have reached the half way point in our reading year. How are you enjoying your armchair travels so far?  With the historic vote this past week in the United Kingdom, figured it is apropos for Sandy, our very own mumto2, who hails from England, to talk to us about British Village Cozy Mysteries.  


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When I first heard the title for my introduction week, I thought it would be easy because I love Miss Marple and have read many mystery series.  For those who aren’t familiar with the term, Cozy Mystery generally refers to a mystery that features an amateur sleuth who seemingly stumbles onto their mystery.  The setting is frequently limited to a small geographical area, hence my village heading.  The characters are normally likable, and there is a serious sprinkling of red herrings throughout the books.  The books are generally not graphic either in terms of murder descriptions or adult content. 

So my search for British Village Cozy Mysteries began.  I felt pretty confident because I have been reading mystery series since my childhood obsession with Nancy Drew and Trixie Beldon.  The first thing I did was take a look at many lists of cozy books and start separating out those set in the United Kingdom.  To my surprise many of the popular authors listed did not meet my graphic criteria because of violence (Elizabeth George and Stephen Booth) which was a bit of a concern for my project.  I went through many lists and started ordering the first in many series from various libraries; then I started reading.  I recently discovered that since joining BaW, I have read well over 100 British Cozy Mysteries according to the huge variety of lists available on the internet.

Some of my favorite lists are:


Criminal Element, starting with this article

Stop You’re Killing Me Newsletter’s list which can do counties


Over the course of my research, I came to the conclusion that my British sleuths have a hard time staying in one place and have an occasional tendency to swing to the more graphic side of things. Even Agatha Christie had some topics that I really wished she would have skipped when my 11 year old was reading them!  I have put together an assortment of mystery series that to the best of my knowledge are as cozy as Christie because she is definitely the queen of the genre.

I have decided to let a few professionals mix with the amateurs if they have village settings because Christie had her share of Inspectors.

To start with we have the classic authors like Josephine Tey, and her Alan Grant Series, Ngaio Marsh and Patricia Wentworth. Dorothy Sayers is classic but not always cozy.


Then we progress to Catherine Aird’s long running series, Inspector Sloan, Deborah Crombie’s Duncan Kincaid, and Robert Barnard’s Perry Trethowan (adult topics in the first book) which features a policeman within village settings; at least some of the time.

Professional sleuths of a village variety also exist in M.C. Beaton’s Hamish MacBeth who never wants to leave his Scottish fishing village.  The Welsh equivalent is Rhys Bowen’s Constable Evans  who just wants to live in his village at the base of Snowden.  Then there is G.M. Malliet’s Max Tudor, a former MI5 spy turned village vicar.  

There are also numerous post-WWI cozies with woman who have turned to crime-solving after losing their significant others in battle.  My favourites in this sub genre are Carola Dunn’s Daisey Darymple, Frances Brody’s Kate Shackleton, and Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs.

For someone looking for a more traditional village cozy mystery Simon Brett, Hazel Holt, Margaret Mayhew, Veronica Healy, Elizabeth J. Duncan,, and M.C. Beaton, all have series to choose from.

If you desire royal connections, Her Royal Spyness series by Rhys Bowen , C.A. Belmond’s Penny Nichols, and Sharyn McCrumb’s Elizabeth McPherson can offer some of those.

For a crime solving ghost try Aunt Dimity by Nancy Atherton. Or for a sweet widow of a crime lord who keeps moving house, try Mrs. Pargeter by Simon Brett.

A rather young sleuth is Flavia De Luce in Alan Bradley’s wonderful series.

For a truly odd cozy sleuth there is Suzette A. Hill’s Reverend Oughterard. He did it in the first book and apparently spends the rest of the series trying to cover up his crime!

Happy exploring!

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Sunday, June 19, 2016

BW25: Summer and Winter Solstice

Josephine Wall - Summer Breeze 

Happy Father's Day to all our dads and welcome to the beginning of Summer for those in the northern hemisphere and Winter for those located in the southern hemisphere. It is  time for a bit of seasonal reading and/or revisiting old friends.  You'd think with all the time I have, now that lessons are done for a while, I'd be reaching for all those new books waiting on my shelves.  Summer busyness is different from all the other busy activities we're involved with during the year.  Don't you think?  So my mind turns to all things fluffy and light. Mind candy! Chick-Lit Romances and cozy mysteries or a visit to flufferton abby!

Flufferton is a term coined by one of our Well Trained Mind mom's in relation to all things regency, both classic and modern.  Regency stories revolve around romance, mysteries, and the Napoleonic war. Modern fiction is set in the regency era and can run the gamut from historical romance fiction to horror to paranormal.

Here are a few lists to spark your reading taste-buds

Best Beach Reads for a Summer Getaway

Goodreads Popular Light and Fluffy Reads

Summer Themed Cozies


and for my friends in the Southern Hemisphere 

Fall into Winter: Ten Coziest Cozy Mystery series

So check your shelves or even the library's shelves and settle in with a beverage of your choice and enjoy!


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Sunday, June 12, 2016

BW24: Philosophical rabbit trails

Courtesy of Josephine Wall - The Water Jug


Happy Sunday!  I followed a few philosophical trails today and in my meandering discovered 


Philosophy Now's The Wood that Finds itself a Violin as well as the Philosophy of Poetry which lead to Philosophical Society's article on Philosophical Poems and T.S. Eliot's Burnt Norton.  

This week is also the anniversary of William Butler Yeats, Pearl S. Buck and Dorothy Sayer's birthdays.


And surprisingly Existential Comics How to Study Philosophy as an amateur. 


Don't miss the donut by looking through the hole. ~Author Unknown

Have fun following rabbit trails! 

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Sunday, June 5, 2016

BW23: think about it fiction




“Rabbit's clever," said Pooh thoughtfully. 
"Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit's clever." 
"And he has Brain." 
"Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit has Brain." 
There was a long silence. 
"I suppose," said Pooh, "that that's why he never understands anything.” 
― Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh


Do you like reading philosophical fiction?  I've unintentionally read philosophical style stories in many science fiction books, as well as intentionally in utopian, dystopian or Bildungsroman type stories over the years.  Never did I expect to run across philosophy in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Philip Dick's When Androids Dream of Electric Sheep or Leo Toystoy's War and Peace.  I sort of expected it with Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.  I didn't appreciate Gaarder's Sophie's World, nor Sartre's Nausea, or Atwood's Handmaid's Tale, reading them far too quickly to absorb.  Looking back on the books I've read over years, some deserve a second, slower read, time to ponder and discuss.  Now that we are through with lessons for the summer, it would be good time to pull out one or two or three old reads and give it the attention deserved.  

Shall we have a reread summer and visit old friends or maybe those that weren't so friendly the first time and give them a second chance?  Time to contemplate our packed reading shelves again.  *grin*

For ideas and to contribute to the delinquency of your pocketbooks, check out Goodreads  Popular Philosophical Fiction,  Philosophical Science Fiction,  as well as 25 Works of Fiction every philosophy student should read and The Splintered Mind's discussion with 4 philosophy professors and their choices for best philosophical speculative fiction

Happy reading! 

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