Cozy Mysteries discussion

I started watching the TV show Longmire on A&E network. I discovered it's based on a mystery series by Craig Johnson. It's about an old fashioned sheriff in modern day Wyoming, a western mystery series basically. The first book in the series is The Cold Dish.

I'm not sure these could be classified as cozies simply because the sleuth isn't an amateur but a sheriff. However, he doesn't use alot of modern methods (although his deputies do occassionally suggest it) and the sheriff relies on his old techniques of intuition and sluething. His oldest friend, Henry Standing Bear has a unique outlook on life and helps him.

I've read the first in the series and really love it. I'm looking forward to starting the second one soon. I have the first 7 on paperback, along with the novella ebook. All I'm missing is the latest new release that came out in hardcover earlier this year.

#1 The Cold Dish (2004)
#2 Death Without Company (2006)
#3 Kindness Goes Unpunished (2007)
#4 Another Man's Moccasins (2008)
#5 The Dark Horse (2009)
#6 Junkyard Dogs (2010)
#7 Hell Is Empty (2011)
#7.5 Divorce Horse (2012) (51 page ebook novella)
#8 As The Crow Flies (2012)



Is anyone else reading this series?

Would you consider it a cozy? I think that point could be debatable, which is why I havn't choosen this as our featured author of the month, but making it a buddy read instead. I really like the old fashioned detective work he does to solve the crimes. I rather like that although it's in a modern setting, I still get a western feel to it since I grew up watching westerns.

I read the first books a couple of years ago and have the 2nd one. Liked the book when I read it and my husband & I both really like the show. Cozy isn't what comes to mind when I think of these books. Don't quite know how to classify them, though I know a couple of people who are big-time hardboiled fans who enjoy these books.

I should have recognized the series name. I've read the first one, too, and really enjoyed it. I'll need to catch the series.

No, I wouldn't label these as cozy, not even close. They're very gritty and realistic, so, no, not cozy.

I caught #5 on sale as audible ... loved it and have #1/#2 and #7 ... waiting to catch the others so I can start from the beginning. Love the series and watch it every week.

#1 The Cold Dish (2004)
#2 Death Without Company (2006)
#3 Kindness Goes Unpunished (2007)
#4 Another Man's Moccasins (2008)
#5 The Dark Horse (2009)
#6 Junkyard Dogs (2010)
#7 Hell Is Empty (2011)
#7.5 Divorce Horse (2012) (51 page ebook novella)
#8 As The Crow Flies (2012)

Everyone seems to define what's a cozy differently, but most tend to agree that at the very least it's usually an amateur detective. Since our detective here is an almost retired sheriff, I figured that had to rule it out. However, this series does more sluething and detecting than most modern day thrillers do, in a western setting, so it doesn't feel like a thriller or suspense novel per se to me. Yet it's not a cozy mystery either. "Mystery western" is probably the best description yet that isn't exactly a catagory in itself since it combines two others. I found the books at a bookstore shelved under Mystery. Then again, same bookstore shelved the Sookie Stackhouse, ie Southern Vampire series under mystery too. (They are, to me at least, paranormal suspenseful romances.)

I know this series isn't exactly a cozy, but I am enjoying watching it on tv compared to the normal garbage that's out there right now. lol And once I read the fine print of the opening credits properly and discovered it was based on a book series, well I just couldn't resist checking them out. :)

It's interesting to me how we all have a different way we look at different series. I've always looked at the Sookie books as paranormal mysteries and never thought of them as romances at all. The different viewpoints are what make them appeal to such a wide variety of people, and also makes them so popular. Since my husband enjoys the Longmire TV show so much I had hoped I could get him interested in reading the books....but no such luck!!

I look at the Sookie books as Paranormal mysterie too but it's hard for me to deny all of her romances as her love triange fills so much of the series.

Tell your husband that others have said the books are better than the series and see if that will help him pick them up. The book's author did consult on the first few eps and wrote the screenplays for a few as well.

There has been a lot of discussion on DL concerning the Longmire series. General consensus seems to be it's good but the books are different (as in better). The series is based on the characters rather than the actual books which are too long to use but I have read that Craig Johnson did supply some plots that he never used himself. I've been enjoying the series and plan on trying the books. Hopefully the series will be renewed.

I looked it up online and he, the author, was a consultant on the first several epiodes, and also wrote 3 screenplay, ie eps for them as well. Read an interview with Lou Diamond Phillips and in it, it was said the author wanted him for Henry because he was the only one who auditioned for the role that didn't use contractions as he spoke, meaning that Lou had read the books. So that tells me they involved the author to some degree in casting as well. So, you're right, they aren't the same. But they've done a great job so far receating the same characters, the town, the feel of it all.

Karen M wrote: "There has been a lot of discussion on DL concerning the Longmire series. General consensus seems to be it's good but the books are different (as in better). The series is based on the characters ..."

I was born and raised and spent much of my life in the same general area where the author lives and where the books are set. I got hooked on the books from the first one ... Craig Johnson is one of the very few authors who has books set in the current time in that area that really does get it right all the time and in all ways ... weather, the country and the characters and attitudes.

It is that realism in the books that pulled me in and I think it is for that reason I simply can't get involved with the TV series. The countryside doesn't look 'right' for where it is supposed to be set and also, while the characters are probably as good as you can get when you're looking at actors, they really aren't Wyoming natives ... or Cheyenne or Crow that have lived on the reservation.

I did watch the first two episodes and agree that it is much better than most of the programs airing now as I did watch it all the way through. However, it didn't have the 'real feel' of the region and the characters for me that the books have. For me, reading one of these books is like a visit back home and the TV series just simply is not.

I haven't been able to figure out why they didn't actually film the show in Wyoming. They film down around Santa Fe, NM. If you're not familiar with Wyoming it doesn't matter, but if you are it does! We lived in NM for awhile and spend some time in Wyoming, so that part kind of bugs me, but I work around it!

Bargains for filming in that state probably made it much cheaper to film there.

Yes, I'm disappointed they didn't actually film in Wyoming. As for the actors, the man playing Walt is from Australia. Lou Diamond Phillips himself is actually (from the magazine Cowboys & Indians interview) half Filipino-Hawaiian and has some Cherokee (one-eighth), Spanish and even Scottish-Irish blood.

Compared to the other garbage on tv, this series to me is pretty damn good. And if it wasn't for the tv series, I wouldn't have been introduced to the books. So for that, I'm grateful.

I think the series is good and I'm sure it has introduced people to the books, all of which is good. My 'lukewarm' response to the series is strictly personal and not something most people would recognize since it is due to having lived there in that region, with those people, most of my life.

I think the best casting was for Walt. While not exactly what I had pictured in my mind, it works for me. However, that is really the only one that fits my images from the book.

Unfortunately, having started with the books, just have not been able to wrap my mind around a "blonde Vic" as she is dark/Italian in the series and I can't see her otherwise.

Lou Dianmond Phillips is the other cast member I simply can't bend my mind around. Having grown up between the Cheyenne and Crow reservations and graduated from high school from a Crow Reservation school, he is so *not* what I visualize Henry to be from the books.

I realize there are not many 'native american' actors to choose from but it is situations like this that make me a a reader rather than a movie or TV fan.

Melodie wrote: "I read the first books a couple of years ago and have the 2nd one. Liked the book when I read it and my husband & I both really like the show. Cozy isn't what comes to mind when I think of these ..."

I've been a fan ever since I read the first book of the series, but then I grew up in that area, lived most of my life there, worked in law enforcement (dispatcher) and was married to a police officer for years. I would not really call this series cozy either but it isn't really mystery/thriller exactly either. Modern west police procedural/ realism maybe?

What strikes me with this series is that I have walked, ridden or driven over much of the actual country where these are set and have actually known people that are very much like the characters in the books ... real country, real people, real attitudes.
The author has lived there long enough and listened carefully enough that he gets it right. If he mentions a specific place or event ... it's there where he says it is or it really happened.

Many of the plots have centered around in the past, which does often happen in real life there since there isn't a big transient population, with many of the ranchers going back 2 and 3 generations. Another thing he does very well is the the Cheyenne and Crow populations, a good understanding of many of the issues and interactions between white and Indian as it exists.

I agree Sharon that it's hard to place this series. It doesn't fit our textbook definition of cozy, certainly isn't extreme enough to be a suspense/thriller, but to me it's more than just a standard mystery. It's not as hardcore as most police procedurals tend to be, more laid back in some ways because of it's western setting, and I like how he follows rules of deduction to help him figure things out.

I've only read the first book so far. Hoping the books might shed some light on the flashbacks we keep getting glimpse's of in the tv series as I want to know what's going on.

ஐ Briansgirl (Book Sale Queen)ஐ wrote: "I've only read the first book so far. Hoping the books might shed some light on the flashbacks we keep getting glimpse's of in the tv series as I want to know what's going on.
"

I only watched the first two TV episodes so I'm not familiar with the flashbacks. The author doesn't use flashbacks much in the books. He does use Native American spirituality, and some things that are at the edge of paranormal at times, but flashbacks are not a common pattern except in the one book that is based on issues going back to Viet Nam.

In the book series, Henry is presented as having some links to shamanism, which is a part of Walt's trek down off the mountain in The Cold Dish. This continues on to some extent in most of the other books in the series.

In the tv series the flashbacks are just snippits in each episode. So far, I've managed to piece together that his back was all stitched up, and Henry was there and he asked him not to tell his daughter. He went to Denver I think it was, since he refused to read a letter from the Denver PD but burned it unopened. There are glimpses of him taking his gun out of a hotel wall safe and putting his badge in it. And next week a reservation policeman asks him, "Didn't you ever do the right thing, even if it was against the law? So they keep eluding to all of this, one small vague piece at a time. It's the one part of the series I don't like because so far it doesn't really add much to the series. It just continues to annoy faithful viewers as we keep wondering what piece of the puzzle we'll get next without knowing what the puzzle is about. Very frustrating. I wish they'd just leave all the flashbacks out entirely.

I need to find time to read the next (ie second) in the series. Just busy watching Olympics for two weeks.

ஐ Briansgirl (Book Sale Queen)ஐ wrote: "I started watching the TV show Longmire on A&E network. I discovered it's based on a mystery series by Craig Johnson. It's about an old fashioned sheriff in modern day Wyoming, a western mystery se..."

I just finished the last book of the series, As the crow flies and loved all the books! If there is ever a discussion for the series, I won't mind reading the books again. :-) And no, I have never seen the series on TV since I don't have cable TV.

I've read the first but own them all now and need to get back to reading the series.