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Advent of Mystery, Day 7: Murder Under the Mistletoe
Sometimes, you’re looking for something short and sweet that immerses you in the familiar traditions of the holiday season. The Reverend Richard Coles’s Murder Under the Mistletoe does just that, taking the readers to an English country parish. This novella continues the story of Canon Clement and his family in the days leading up to…
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Advent of Mystery 2024, Day 4: The Case of the Ghost of Christmas Morning
Last year, just as I was wrapping up the final Advent of Mystery post, a recommendation from crossexaminingcrime landed in my inbox. Not only that – a comedic Christmas mystery with a strong rating from a blogger who cares just as much (if not more) about the puzzles! Despite having just binged several Christmas crime…
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Advent of Mystery 2024, Day 3: The Mistletoe Mystery
For day 3 we’ve got a short and sweet novella that continues the Maid series by Nita Prose. The Mistletoe Mystery catches us up with Molly the maid and her cinnamon roll boyfriend Juan as they celebrate the holidays together. This one is really tiny, clocking in at just 128 pages. (I’ve also seen a…
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Advent of Mystery 2024, Day 1: Everyone this Christmas Has a Secret
Every year, I tell myself that this is my last year with the Advent of Mystery. And every year, new Christmas mysteries pop up on my radar that I feel I have to read. And if I’m already reading them, why not share my thoughts with y’all? Two years ago, we did Golden Age murder…
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A cozy mystery lover’s gift list, Part 2: For the joy of the solve
Welcome to the second part of my gift list for the cozy mystery lover. A quick recap: I realized most gift lists “for readers” felt both under-useful and under-explained. So I decided to make my own list of my favorite reading / cozy mystery-related items – and quickly realized I had too many ideas to…
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A cozy mystery lover’s gift list, Part 1: For the love of cozy reading
Every year, around this time, I find myself trying to decide what presents I want for the holidays. Inevitably, I end up searching through lists of gift recommendations to see whether anything catches my eye. Inevitably, I can’t find any list of presents that speaks to my own personal tastes in reading paraphernalia. Plus, most…
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Jill Paton Walsh, Peter Wimsey, and the perils of ghostwriting
Generally speaking, I’d consider myself a Golden Age mystery purist. I find it very hard to believe that modern authors can replicate the particular charm of the genre-starters. Modern authors have tried to expand the Holmes and Poirot canons, even officially – but with limited success. Such adaptations frequently stick too closely to the “original”…
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Chasing puzzly coziness with The Last Word
Sometimes, you’ve got to just relax and let yourself read. https://www.the52book.clubThis year I’ve been trying the 52 Book Club Challenge, which is a structured way to get a lot more diversity into your reading diet. The challenge has 52 prompts to finish, many of which requiring exploratory reading. When I started the year, I thought…
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Authorial snark and serendipity in The Murders in Great Diddling
Many of the best cozy mysteries take place in an out-of-the-way village. From the earliest days of Miss Marple and Miss Silver, amateur sleuths have been digging up the roots of crime in small hamlets. Inevitably, what seems like a sleepy town is actually full of personal intrigue and even scandal. I assumed The Murders…
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Prophecies, puzzles, and legacy hijinks in How to Solve Your Own Murder
As a mystery fan, I constantly find myself wishing for books with both a human element and a really tricky puzzle. Modern mysteries frequently seem to focus on one or the other. Cozies love human connection, but their puzzles are often predictable, especially reading at a meta-level. And modern stories that focus on the crime…