Cozy Mysteries discussion

I love listening to audiobooks, esp the cozies. :)

So, I'm on audible and I've searched my library's catalogue. But I'm 1. Tired of forking out tons of cash for a book I could read my self (but can't cuz of my health) 2. The library only having 4/10 books from a series and your lucky if there in perfect sequence.

Do y'all have any suggestions? I prefer mp3's...

Kathleen wrote: "I love listening to audiobooks, esp the cozies. :)

So, I'm on audible and I've searched my library's catalogue. But I'm 1. Tired of forking out tons of cash for a book I could read my self (but c..."

Kathleen, does your library offer Inter-Library Loan for audio books? If so, you can check other libraries' catalogs and ask yours to get them for you.

Hope this helps...

It's difficult following an audio book because I always think if it as a multi-tasking opportunity and miss some details.

I love using Audible they have so many and I only pay $15/month and get 1 book/month. Also, they have great daily deals.

I don't normally get cozies from them unless it's a really great narrator. They're great for larger books or books set in foreign locales.

I found a lot of Agatha Christie titles at my library. I really enjoy the ones narrated by the man who played Captain Hastings to David Suchet's Hercule Poirot (can't remember his name right now). I've also found several of Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody series. Some of the new cozy series are lacking, though.

Try Paperbackswap.com. They have audiobooks for 2 credits. You can trade your own books for credits or buy 3 credits for approximately $10, so very affordable way to acquire used books.

I love audiobooks. Mine has a huge audiobook selection so I get most there. Are you in the US? I also get a lot of books from the Free Library of Philadelphia. It's $50/year for an out of state card. They have a huge selection of digital audio and ebooks. You can check out up to 6 at a time. The Brooklyn Public library also sells out of state cards for $50/year.

I also get some from paperbackswap.

I enjoy audio books when I'm traveling. The problem is my husband usually listens to spy type books and I have this uncontrollable desire to laugh when I hear a man narrating a woman's dialogue. I can't help it, it just cracks me up.

I like to use Audio books when driving or when cleaning the house. I have found that lighter books work better than more serious ones. Books you don't have to pay close attention to. Romances or humor books for example. The kind of thing that you pretty much know were it is going so if some idiot pulls out in front of you it's O.K. to lose the train of thought of the book.

The Cat Who... series by Lilian Jackson Braun, narrated by George Guidall is great to listen to.

The only audiobooks I've ever been able to stay interested in are Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden books. They're excellent! James Marsters (he was Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer) is the narrator and he is absolutely perfect!

Some of the Stephanie Plum books are very well done. One of the readers has a strong Jersey accent and has a very good sense of comic timing.

Juliette Blackwell's books in audio are excellent! The narrator, Xe Sands is outstanding.

I'm also currently listening to A Monstrous Regiment of Women by Laurie R. King. Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes. Also excellently narrated but I can't think of her name at the moment.

The In Death books have an excellent narrator as well in Susan Ericksen. Also, Audible puts out some excellent editions of classics narrated by celebrities. They have an excellent A Christmas Carol narrated by Tim Curry, and a Dracula done by Tim Curry and Alan Cumming.

I find reading a book for the first time in audio format to be a problem mainly because I get distracted. Holding a book (or e-book) in your hands and reading is multi-sensory. It is harder to get distracted. Instead I find that I listen to them during long drives, usually as a reread. And occasionally, when I am too tired to read but I often end up falling asleep because....no light...you know.

I also sometimes pop one in at work when the office is too noisy to concentrate. I use headphones then. Everyone thinks I am listening to music but instead I put on an favorite book and it provides enough sound to cover up the conversations around me.

I can only listen to Audio books in the car or if I'm walking; if I try to listen at home, I'm too easily distracted or I fall asleep.

Shawn wrote: "The Cat Who... series by Lilian Jackson Braun, narrated by George Guidall is great to listen to."

I agree, these were the first audiobooks I ever listened to - they were fun. I also agree that the Agatha Christie books are also good "listens".

I get all my audiobooks from the public library. There is a two-week lending period, and I can often renew an audiobook for two additional weeks if needed.

The earlier Plum books are hilarious on audiobook. But it's basically the same book over and over and over again.

If you also like non-cozy mysteries these are excellent on audio:

Hamish Macbeth by MC Beaton, Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James by Deborah Crombie, Prey & Virgil Flowers series by John Sandford.

Kathleen, I see that you are in the US. Have you checked out paperbackswap.com? You can trade audio books there.

I find that many books that are what I call a Cozy are not available in an audio format or the cost is more than I want to spend for a book that is only 3-4 hours long in an audio format. A good source for finding audio books on CD is at used book stores or when the library has a fund raising sale.

Hmm, nobody has mentioned Overdrive? I get almost all of my audiobooks that way. Lots of cozies available.

Overdrive runs most library e-audio-book systems, but the holdings for each library are different (libraries have to pay, so smaller library systems will have fewer books). Getting a non-resident card for a library system with large holdings might be the best you can do, but I have access to one of the largest in the nation, and have to agree that they still don't have a lot of the cozies. Many publishers aren't real cooperative with the electronic library business so far. I'm hoping they'll eventually catch on and catch up.

I truly LOVE the Hannah Swensen series by Joanne Fluke (Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder etc.) on audiobook. The narrator is great and it's a really easy series to listen to.

Luckily my library has this series on audio-cd. I can't seem to find any other cozy mystery series there tho (other than Agatha Christie)

Jamie Lynn wrote: "RebeccaS I don't know why but libraries (at least ours) are very stingy with cozy mystery audio cds. It's frustrating."

I gave up on my library systems on trying to find cozy audios. I belong to 2 library systems, one pretty bad and one pretty good. A couple of years ago I decided to join Audible because there were too many cozies on audio in which I was participating in book discussions. I love being able to complete a book by listening to cozies during my daily commute.

Greetings, all! I'm an audiobook narrator, and I LOVE performing cozy mysteries! I'm glad to see that cozy fans are seeking out audiobooks.

TODAY'S YOUR LUCKY DAY! I've got some promo codes and would love to GIFT EVERYONE ABOVE ME in this thread one of my audiobooks from Audible!

All you have to do is look through my list of audiobooks . If you see one you'd like to have, send me a PM with the title of the book. I'll send the gift to you within the next few days.

My cozy mystery series:
Dixie Divas
Blue Suede Memphis (Drew Commins, my director and hero of my life story, voices all the male parts, making them even more fun)
Dirty Harriet
Pampered Pets

You don't even have to pick a cozy or promise to write a review (though I certainly appreciate reviews). It's truly a no-strings-attached FREE gift!

Edited to add 2 things!

1) You won't have to buy anything from Audible to accept the gift book. If you don't already have an account, you'll set up one that uses your Amazon login. Of course, they would like for you to join as a member, but you don't have any obligation.

2) I'll need your email address in the PM.

I look forward to hearing from you!


Cordially,
Karen Commins

I actually stumbled on cozy mysteries by accident. I picked up The Cat Who Talked Turkey in the audio section of my library. The narrator, George Guidall is phenomenal!! I have listened to the entire series twice now. I love the way he brings all the characters to life. I was able to get them from library too.

I adore George Guidall. I consider him more than just a narrator. He is a voice actor because he is able to bring all of the characters to life for me.

My library lets me requests books and audiobooks from other libraries in the area. Maybe yours has something similar?

I have to be sneaky about my ILL (inter library loan) audiobook requests. My library doesn't share or get AV materials so I have my audiobooks from other libraries shipped to the town where I work about 30 minutes away and pick them up there! I feel bad about it but the library where I work knows me because I used to live there and they are super nice about it -- they all know me because they go right to the holds area when I walk in! What can I say...I love audiobooks!

I don't think that's sneaky, it's smart. I became so enamored with George Guidall & The Cat Who series that I actually drove to a library an hour away to get the only copy of one of the audiobooks. They wouldn't inter-loan it but were fine with me borrowing it from them. It was worth it :P

The ILL in my state does not allow for anything on CD or tape. They said because the media is too fragile. I guess they've experienced many CDs that were broken by careless library members and it's rather expensive to replace.

Kathleen wrote: "I love listening to audiobooks, esp the cozies. :)

So, I'm on audible and I've searched my library's catalogue. But I'm 1. Tired of forking out tons of cash for a book I could read my self (but c..."

Do you know about librivox.org? It is an online library of free audio books that no longer have a copyright and are in the public domain. All the books are read by volunteers and my husband has recorded several books for them. One he narrated is called "The Agony Column" and while the title makes it sound scary, I think it falls into the cozy genre pretty well (written in the late 1800s- early 1900s).

Agony Column, by American Earl Derr Biggers, is also available free on kindle. His writings include the Chinese American detective Charlie Chan (something I just learnt myself). The reviews for his collected works, which do not include Charlie Chan, are not good tho. One needs to remember when these were written.

Sjvalleygrl wrote: "I don't think that's sneaky, it's smart. I became so enamored with George Guidall & The Cat Who series that I actually drove to a library an hour away to get the only copy of one of the audiobooks...."

Thanks Sjvalleygrl!

Jamie Lynn wrote: "I love the old Charlie Chan movies. I never knew they were based on books. Thanks Irene!"

You're welcome. I learnt something as well:)

Rebecca wrote: "Overdrive runs most library e-audio-book systems, but the holdings for each library are different (libraries have to pay, so smaller library systems will have fewer books). Getting a non-resident ..."

I'm lucky... my library's Overdrive site is very diverse. I love it!

Jamie Lynn wrote: "I love the old Charlie Chan movies. I never knew they were based on books. Thanks Irene!"

My mom is a HUGE Charlie Chan fan! (The movies.) She's been collecting them on DVDs. They've released almost all of them.

I've read four of them. I have an omnibus. If anyone is interested I will mail it to them for the price of the S&H...

Karen wrote: "Greetings, all! I'm an audiobook narrator, and I LOVE performing cozy mysteries! I'm glad to see that cozy fans are seeking out audiobooks.

TODAY'S YOUR LUCKY DAY! I've got some promo codes and wo..."

Have you run out of codes yet Karen?

Bec, I've got a gift book with your name on it! Send me a PM with your email address and the name of the book I narrated that you'd like to have, and it's yours!

Karen

Hi, Bec! Look for a private message from me here on GR. You may want to remove your email message from the message above so it can't be harvested by spammers.

Thanks so much for your interest and also for referring my audiobooks to someone else! :)


Cordially,
Karen Commins

I hope this is the right spot for this post. A Well-Kept Family Secret is now available in AUDIO format and I'm really excited. It was narrated by Jennifer Grace and I think she did an excellent job! Now available at Amazon.com, iTunes and Audible.com.

If I'm announcing this in the wrong place, just let me know. Thanks!

Audible.com is having a "Discover a New Series" sale. I noticed they had many mysteries, many of them cozies. I'll list the ones I consider as cozies (or close to):



All book are on sale for $5.95 a piece!

I'm giving away two audio books on my blog (A Well-Kept Family Secret). If you're interested, check it out at http://marjamcgraw.blogspot.com/
A Well-Kept Family Secret

I found a couple of what look like cozies in Audible.com's Thrills & Chills sale. The audiobooks are on sale for $6.95/each and the sale ends on Halloween evening.




The entire sale list can be found here: http://www.audible.com/mt/Thrills-and...

Today's Audible Daily Deal!

Guy Noir and the Straight Skinny by Garrison Keillor

http://www.audible.com/pd/Fiction/Guy...

Our library, in Evanston, IL, has the overdrive media with print and audio books that can be read on the kindle.

I love audiobooks. If anyone wants a free cozy mystery audiobook in exchange for a review, let me know. I have a few coupon codes left for reviewers. Just email me at lwc@lindaweaverclarke.com and I would love to give you a copy of The Bali Myatery. It's a Romantic Cozy.

KM, audio and print are both wonderful! I devour both (I spent about an hour this afternoon just sitting and listening to a book I couldn't put down!). I even find that sometimes I want to both read and listen to the same book--the experience is definitely different, and I get different things. It's a particularly good exercise when I'm reading something to pay attention to how it's put together (something I do as an author).

I love audiobooks and listen to them daily but I also read in print daily. I think there is room for both - especially if you commute to work like I do. I think everyone should try an audiobook at least once but for sure should ask other audiobook listeners for a recommendation because a narrator can make or break a book.