Cozy Mysteries discussion

In August, our featured author is Denise Swanson. Her official website is: http://www.deniseswanson.com/

Devereaux Dime Store Mystery series

Dev Sinclair, the new owner of an old-fashioned shop in a small town in Missouri, in the Devereaux Dime Store series:

#1 Little Shop of Homicide

#2 Nickeled-and-Dimed to Death: A Devereaux's Dime Store Mystery

A Scumble River Mystery series

Skye Denison, a school psychologist in Scumble River, Illinois:

#1 Murder of a Small-Town Honey
#2 Murder of a Sweet Old Lady
#3 Murder of a Sleeping Beauty
#4 Murder Of A Snake In The Grass
#5 Murder of a Barbie and Ken
#6 Murder of a Pink Elephant
#7 Murder of a Smart Cookie
#8 Murder of a Real Bad Boy
#9 Murder of a Botoxed Blonde
#10 Murder of a Chocolate-Covered Cherry
#11 Murder of a Royal Pain
#12 Murder of a Wedding Belle
#13 Murder of a Bookstore Babe
#14 Murder of a Creped Suzette
#15 Murder of the Cat's Meow: A Scumble River Mystery
#16 Murder of a Stacked Librarian: A Scumble River Mystery (Sep 3, 2013 expected release)




Other works:

Dead Blondes Tell No Tales
Not a Monster of a Chance

Yeah! This is probably my favorite, favorite author! I'm a school psychologist, so I love her Scumble River series. I've been to three or four of her book signings, she is super nice!

I have the dime store books and haven't read them yet, I will do it this month for the discussion.

I've read this series up to Murder of a Creped Suzette. That's the one I'll read this month.

Just ordered Murder of a Chocolate-Covered Cherry from the library. Love when I'm prompted to get to book in a series that I love.

Glad to be of service Linda. lol

Reading Murder of a Creped Suzette. One thing I love about Swanson's Skye Denison series is the clever chapter titles. Each book has a theme. This one is country music song titles (I think).

I just ordered the first two in the Scumble River series. This will be a new author for me!

New author for me also-as the others!! Look forward to getting started on these.

I will have to re-read something as I have read everything in both series. I think I will play book roulette and see if anything of hers in on the library shelf today, or at the used bookstore tomorrow. All of them are great, so I can't lose.

My local used bookstore, in honor of Kool-Aid Days (it was invented here) is having a $2 bag sale this Saturday. I'm going to see how many of these I can pick up then.

I just got copies of the first two books in the Scumble River series. I'll get to them as soon as I finish James Burke's Light of the World: A Dave Robicheaux Novel. It's very good.

Finished Murder of a Creped Suzette yesterday. Good entry in the series - plenty of motives, suspects and red herrings. There's a bit of a twist at the end when the killer is revealed. The questions are answered and suspicious behaviors explained.

Skye's relationship with her ex-boyfriend is handled well in this one. (In the previous book, I complained that his refusal to accept her decision had him acting like a stalker.)
*I'm not naming names since it will be a spoiler for those reading earlier books in the series. Keep reading. Swanson works out the love triangle.

I've just read Murder of the Cat's Meow and it's OK, but I don't know, no a lot of mystery.

Love the Scumble River series(read all but the one to be released next month) and read the first in the Dime Store too.

Just played book roulette. I have read all that are out, so I went to the used section of the bookstore and picked up the one they had there. It was Murder of a Royal Pain. I really enjoyed re-reading it. The mystery was complex, the characters great. Skye was heavily involved in this one. Liked that her parents were out of town, and she didn't have to deal with that as much in this book. We see a different side of Vince and learn some things about Skye's back story.

I am reading Little Shop of Homicide for the author of the month since I've read all the Scumble River books to date. At a book signing Denise Swanson said the Dime Store series would have a little different tone. Skye is a school psychologist so she can't say or do certain things but Dev doesn't have those restrictions.

It is true, I'm maybe halfway in and this book is a bit more "racy" or whatever than the Scumble River ones. I don't think it's over the line for a cozy or anything, it's just a little different than her books that I'm used to reading.

I'm wondering how people like the Dime Store series compared to the Scumble River one?

How timely, I just got a card in the mail today for Denise's book next book signing. She will be at Barnes & Noble in Bolingbrook on Sept 8th, with Joelle Charbonneau. I actually just bought the first two skating mysteries, so I will have to bring those with me.

Denise usually brings another author with her, the last two were Heather Webber and Molly MacRae.

Well, I just finished Little Shop of Homicide and started Nickeled-and-Dimed to Death.

I'm enjoying them, but it looks the author is setting up a love triangle for sure. I hope that doesn't go on too long. I don't know why we have to have all of these love triangles.

I have loved reading the Scumble River series, I am pretty sure I am caught up to the book to be released. Maybe I will double check whether or not I have read Cat's Meow.

I haven't started the Dime Store series yet either. I hope it's as good as Scumble River.

I'm slowly getting caught up on the Scumble River series. Just finished reading Murder of a Chocolate-Covered Cherry. I must say that I like Skye with Wally and am hoping she stays with him.

I've enjoyed the Scumble River series and cant wait to find out who Skye marries! I also enjoyed the first in the new series! Keep writing Denise!

Just finished the first Scumble River book Murder of a Small-Town Honey by Denise Swanson. This was the first of her books that I've read. It was very cute and cozy with great characters, especially Skye. The town seems a little hokey to me, but I guess that's part of the appeal of a small town. Even Skye admits to the town having "small-minded people with small intellects." I found the storyline a little slow to start, but once Skye starts poking her nose into the murder mystery part, I got interested. I have the second book in the series yet to read and will hopefully find time very soon to read that one too. Thanks, Cozy Group for introducing me to another fun author.

I'm listening to Murder of a Small-Town Honey on audio book. It's ok. I find Skye a touch bossy. lol But its not bad. Yesterday I noticed the used book shop by me has all of these books so I'm gonna work my way through them.

Just finished ...loved it!! Loved the characters..the town..looking forward to reading the rest of the series to see where the author takes us!!

Glad you're all enjoying this month's featured author