American/Cozy Mysteries

Essays:
§ Cozies: An Especially American Art Form
§ When is a Cozy not a Cozy?
Kenneth Abel
§ Cold Steel Rain
Alina Adams
§ Murder on Ice
Donna Andrews
§ The Penguin Who Knew Too Much
Nevada Barr
§ High Country
Larry Beinhart
§ The Librarian
Claudia Bishop and Don Bruns (editors)
§ A Merry Band of Murderers
Meredith Blevins
§ The Hummingbird Wizard
Lawrence Block
§ The Burglar in the Rye
Jan Brogan
§ A Confidential Source
Judy Clemens
§ The Day Will Come
Joan Coggin
§ Who Killed the Curate?
Jeffrey Cohen
§ As Dog is My Witness
§ Some Like it Hot-Buttered
Thomas Cook
§ Into the Web
Gordon Cotler
§ Artist’s Proof
Casey Daniels
§ Don of the Dead
Diane Mott Davidson
§ Dark Tort
§ Double Shot
Aaron Elkins
§ Good Blood
Sharon Fiffer
§ Buried Stuff
Kate Flora
§ Stalking Death
Christine Goff
§ A Rant of Ravens
Denise Hamilton
§ Last Lullaby
§ Savage Garden
§ Sugar Skull
David Handler
§ The Cold Blue Blood
Charlaine Harris
§ Grave Sight
§ Grave Surprise
§ Shakespeare’s Counselor
Rosemary Harris
§ Pushing Up Daisies
Ellen Hart
§ An Intimate Ghost
§ The Iron Girl
§ Night Vision
Libby Fischer Hellmann
§ An Image of Death
§ A Picture of Guilt
§ A Shot to Die For
Martha C. Lawrence
§ Ashes of Aries
Marc Lecard
§ Vinnie's Head
Laura Lippman
§ To the Power of Three
Mary Logue
§ Maiden Rock
Margaret Maron
§ Last Lessons of Summer
Sujata Massey
§ Girl in a Box
Alexander McCall-Smith
§ The #1 Ladies Detective Agency
Deborah Morgan
§ The Marriage Casket
§ The Weedless Widow
Marcia Muller
§ Cyanide Wells
Kem Nunn
§ Tijuana Straits
Nancy Pickard
§ The Virgin of Small Plains
David Skibbins
§ Eight of Swords
Jessica Speart
§ Blue Twilight
Julia Spencer-Fleming
§ All Mortal Flesh
§ A Fountain Filled With Blood
§ I Shall Not Want
§ In the Bleak Midwinter
§ Out of the Deep I Cry
§ To Darkness and to Death
Denise Swanson
§ Murder of a Sleeping Beauty
§ Murder of a Barbie and Ken
§ Murder of a Snake in the Grass
Sarah Stewart Taylor
§ Judgment of the Grave
§ Mansions of the Dead
§ O’ Artful Death
§ Still as Death
Elaine Viets
§ Dying to Call You
§ Just Murdered
§ Murder with Reservations
§ Murder Unleashed
§ Shop Till You Drop


The Cold Blue Blood, David Handler, St, Martin's, $6.50.

David Handler is Peter Lovesey's only match for sheer story-telling skill. He tells a story in such a straightforward, clear way, that's also immensely entertaining and is so easy and fun to read he makes the whole darn thing look easy - which I'm sure it's not. This is one terrific series opener - it's about recently widowed New York film critic Mitch Berger who is banished by his editor to the wilds of Connecticut. He ends up living in a barn on an exclusive island enclave populated by rich Yankee bluebloods; only problem, he digs up a dead body while gardening. Add to this mix the delicious character of Des Mitry, a six foot tall, beautiful, African American woman and police lieutenant, and you get the whole yin and yang of mystery, made new again by Handler's trademark humor and seamless storytelling skill. I can think of very few people who would not enjoy this novel.

The second installment, The Hot Pink Farmhouse, is out in hardback.

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