Getting cozy with British mysteries
Also, CW Nancy Drew!
‘He’s hiding something,’ says Neil, driving carefully over the speed bumps that surround the perfect village.
‘You think?’ says Harbinder.
‘Yes, I do,’ says Neil, who can’t do irony and drive at the same time.
—The Postscript Murders, by Elly Griffiths
Hi, friends,
How goes your week? It’s supposed to be 60(!!!) here tomorrow, but patrons have also been telling us all day that we might get a snow day on Friday, so… winter in Maine continues to be winter in Maine.
I just finished up Elly Griffiths’ The Postscript Murders, a cozy-ish—or cozy-adjacent, anyway?—and bookish British mystery starring Detective Sergeant Harbinder Kaur. While The Stranger Diaries, the first book featuring DS Kaur, was centered around Gothic fiction, this one is more about crime and cozy mystery novels—the suspects are crime writers and publishing folk, and the amateur investigators are a motley crew consisting of an elderly retired TV producer, a Ukrainian elder caregiver, and an ex-monk who owns a coffeeshop. It’s smart and funny and clever and warm and, like all of my favorite reading experiences, left me wanting to find more, more, more along the same lines.
And because it involved a group of very different amateur sleuths joining forces to try to uncover a murder, it reminded me a bit of Richard Osman’s absolutely wonderful Thursday Murder Club books—which are ALSO smart and funny and clever and warm and ALSO feature a quirky cast of amateur sleuths and an affectionately put-upon police officer. (Seriously, his characterization and narration is absolutely stellar, these books are a gd DELIGHT. If you’ve found something that scratches the same sort of itch, PLEASE let me know. All I want is another one, but alas, Book #3 is only due out in September.)
In the meantime, maybe I’ll shift over to middle grade cozies?
I’ve been meaning to get caught up on both Robin Stevens’ Wells & Wong mysteries and Elizabeth C. Bunce’s Myrtle Hardcastle books—Josh has read all of the Myrtle books twice and recommends them to EVERYONE, he loves them—and I just put in interlibrary loan requests in for Marthe Jocelyn’s The Body Under the Piano and Julie Berry’s The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place, so I’ll keep you posted on how all of that goes.
Watching:
Nancy Drew (CW, watching on HBO Max): I just watched the first two episodes of this one today before work, and it is wonderfully absurd and pulpy and fun, basically like if Veronica Mars and Riverdale had a haunted baby.
Wellington Paranormal (TVNZ 2, watching on HBO Max): It’s a mockumentary spin-off of What We Do in Shadows, what more do you need to know??
Space Ghost Coast to Coast (Cartoon Network, watching on HBO Max): I wish I had a picture of the looks of absolutely gleeful joy on our faces when we realized that this was available again, oh my GOD. The Jonathan Richman episode ALONE, good lord. I’ve always been a Brak girl, but hoo boy, this time through, Zorak is really growing on me.
“Nothing for me, thanks. I'm on a seafood diet. When I see food, I hate Space Ghost.”
—Zorak
A random giggle:
It’s a longstanding joke/theory in our house that the world of Lego City is a bizarrely crime-ridden police state. Soooo when we spotted these at Target the other day, we saw these two sets and started laughing and then we could. not. stop.
Like, people were looking at us.
But, come on. How could we be expected to keep it together when confronted with these???:
I kind of want both sets?
Talk to you soon,
Leila
I didn't love Aggie Morton as much - granted I only read the first - but the Stevens set is my jam and Prickwillow Place and the Myrtles do not disappoint.
You might like "The Maid". It's not entirely cozy, but was very good. Kind of like "Strange Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime" meets "Magpie Murders".