I listen to a lot of cozy mystery audiobooks in a year and I usually don’t review them. But I’m starting to worry I won’t hit my cannonball if I don’t start reviewing some more of the books I read, and so here we are. Earlier this year I finished the Agatha Raisin series by M.C. Beaton (well, at least what was written to that point), and needed a new series of cozy mysteries to listen to while driving. I’ve found that cozy mystery audiobooks […]
Is That All There Is?
I read the first 5 books in the Agatha Raisin series as a stress reliever during a busy summer. I liked them, but I didn’t love them. I read 6-10 (and actually I’m up to 12, now) out of ennui, because they’re always available from the library and they’re easy listening for my frequent long car trips. Six through 10 were not as enjoyable as the first five, unfortunately. Books 6-10 see Agatha leave her small village in the Cotswolds and do some traveling (which […]
Cozy Cotswolds
Wow, it feels like forever since I posted a review. We bought a house last month and everything else has been on hold while we moved and settled in. In that time, I discovered Agatha Raisin and found that she was perfect for stressful times of life. The Agatha Raisin series is about a middle-aged woman, Agatha, who retires from her high-powered job in London for a quiet life in the Cotswolds. Unfortunately, chaos and murder seems to follow her and she finds herself mixed […]
A rare instance of good fun in book and tv form
Thank goodness for cozy mysteries. I was in need of something light and fluffy to get the taste of previous blech reading out of my head, and this did the trick. I had accidentally recorded the tv version of Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death a while back, and really liked it, so I picked up the original novel. I was not disappointed. The basic premise is that Agatha, the owner of a successful PR firm, moves to a small countryside village because of […]
Hamish Macbeth the First
Yup, yet another cozy mystery. This one set in the Scottish Highlands, in the village of Lochdubh (pronounced Loch-doo), at the Lochdubh School of Casting: Salmon and Trout Fishing. A varied cast of characters has come to the little village for some relaxation and fly fishing. Except for one of the party, nasty old Lady Jane. She’s come to stir shit and chew gum, and she’s all out of gum. Lady Jane is horrid to everyone, and seems to have some dirt on every person […]
Midsomer Marple tries her hand at ghostbusting
The other day, I looked at my “Already on the Kindle” shelf over on Goodreads and I thought to myself “you know, I have a LOT of crime books here. Like a LOT”. So I decided, there and then, to make 2015 my Year of Crime. While I’m not going to devote myself solely to reading crime novels, they will make up the majority of my Cannonball 7 input. The plan originally was to end Cannonball 6 with Station Eleven, but it was so good I burned […]