Recent Cozy

Just finished up Turkey Tracks by Lizbie Brown. This book was given to me and is first of this series I have read. The sleuth is Elizabeth Blair, an American living in England. She is a quilter who just stumbles upon murders. Her neighbor is a handsome private eye. Not bad. This book is better than average and I would read another one in the series.

Are you sure I have 9 Lives?

Joe Grey. Sounds so human. Well not exactly. Joe Grey is a cat,a talking cat. Now Joe who is directed by Shirley Rousseau Murphy, isn't exactly cozy either and you can bet he needs each and everyone of those nine lives especially when there are murderers about. It really gets sticky when a killer also realizes that certain cats are- how shall I put it extra talented. Joe has a lady friend, Dulcie, who also talks. Then there's the Kit. However not all the cats talk. None of Dulcie's siblings do.

As with Tony Hillerman, these books are gripping, spellbinding. You always have the feeling Joe may be on his last life.

I think these books are best read in order, starting with 'Cat on the Edge.' My favorite is 'Cat Cross Their Graves'. Let me warn you though, it might give you shivers. You may never look at cats the same way again.

Cat on the Edge '96
Cat under Fire '97
Cat Raise the Dead '97
Cat in the Dark '99
Cat to the Dogs '00
Cat Spitting Mad '01
Cat Laughing Last '02
Cat Seeing Double '03
Cat Fear No Evil '04
Cat Cross Their Graves '05
Cat Breaking Free '05
Cat Pay the Devil '07
Cat Deck the Halls '07

Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman, is my favorite author, even though his books don't exactly qualify as cozy. His Navajo sleuths, Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, find themselves in tense, spine tingling situations.With cozies you know the hero/heroine is going to survive. With Hillerman I am only 95 per cent sure. I think he read Zane Grey himself. He has this terrific sense of place. So did Emily Bronte but I will save her for later. My favorite Hillerman book is 'Coyote Waits'.

Maybe it's Chee or Leaphorn, the plot twist, or just my admiration for the stubborn, adaptable coyote. Anyway it's a great read as is Dancehall of the Dead, Hunting Badger and A Thief of Time. Heck they are all great. Start reading.

The Blessing Way '70
Dance Hall of the Dead '73
Listening Woman '78
People of Darkness '80
The Dark Wind '82
The Ghostway '84
Skinwalkers '86
Thief of Time '88
Talking God '89
Coyote Waits '90
Sacred Clowns '93
The Fallen Man '96
The First Eagle '98
Hunting Badger '99
The Wailing Wind '02
The Sinister Pig '03
Skeleton Man '04
The Shape Shifter '06

Mysteries and Me

I discovered Mysteries somewhere between Zane Grey and Louis L'amour, To be more exact it was between third grade (Zane) and sixth grade (L'amour). Yes I read westerns in the third grade. I took the habit up from my Grandmother's sister. She had seven? eight? Husbands. Whatever- one of them left her a comlete set of Zane Grey. She had read Grey herself when she was younger. To be sure she named her only son,Wansfell, after the character in Wanderer of the Wasteland. That became my favorite Grey novel although she herself preferred the more heralded book, Riders of the Purple Sage. Maybe she should have named him Lassiter.

Then I discovered Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Trixie Belden and The reinvented Bobbsey Twins. Later came Louis, who I still love as I do Zane Grey,but the magic of who done it had crept into my bones or maybe my blood and there it remains. Mysteries are everywhere now. I can't possibly read them all, especially since the computer has hexed me, but I shall keep trying,valiant to the end.