Children's Mystery Books: Lacey Pinkerton

Joshua Clark, father of 2 daughters, brings child sleuth Lacey Pinkerton to life. And does it gloriously. At least in this reader's opinion.

Granted, I'm not a middle grade student, but that didn't mean that I didn't love these stories. So far 2 are out in the series. The first is The Mystery of the Stolen Double Fudgey Fudge Ice Cream Sandwiches. The second is the The Mystery of the Stolen Mr. E. OK, you have great titles to begin with.

But, Clark didn't stop there. He writes with the kind of charm that makes any age reader enjoy these books. And he knows how to put together some good mystery books for kids.

If you're too embarrassed to claim you read kids' mystery books, then read one of these to a child. My own 10-year-old granddaughter and I had a great time discussing the mysteries. Yes, we have read them both and are anxiously awaiting the next one to be released.

Lacey Pinkerton is a fun child detective. Her mysteries are solved with great clues. The settings are her school, but they are well put together. In my opinion, you can't go wrong with a Lacey Pinkerton mystery book.

What Are Cozy Mysteries?

Oh, yes, we have heard the term cozy mysteries and wondered what that means. Does that mean they are all about teddy bears? Nope. The name comes from their setting and cast of suspects. Let me explain.

It was in the 1920s with authors like Agatha Christie that the term cozy began to apply to mystery fiction. The settings were confined to a single place and the cast of suspects were all known to each other. That created a very cozy setting for murder to take place. It also provided a nicely cozy way for the sleuth to gather the clues and arrive at the solution.

Cozy mysteries are hugely popular today as well. Think of all the modern mystery writers. Think of the series where one sleuth, usually amateur, goes about solving the crime. The settings tend to be small towns, resorts or bed & breakfast inns. Everybody tends to know each other in some way. All the suspects are typically known to our amateur sleuth as well. This is what makes them cozy.

Although cozy mysteries aren't a true sub-genre of the mystery fiction world, they do form a great category for those who love fun and interesting mysteries. Modern day writers like to add a sense of humor to the story. Which makes them even more fun to read.

Even more, cozy mysteries are short works of fiction. That doesn't mean they are short stories. They are still book-length fiction. But, they can typically be read in a single day. With a couple of hours of time to yourself, grab a cozy mystery and enjoy yourself.

Mistress by James Patterson

Any James Patterson fan will want to read this review of his latest, Mistress. Not one of any of his on-going series, this mystery is a stand-alone.

Very popular author James Patterson almost exclusively co-writes his mysteries. Mistress is co-written by David Ellis. Another very talented author, Ellis continues in the Patterson quality for intriguing plots and engaging characters.

The hero of Mistress is a new character in the James Patterson world known affectionately as Ben. Written in first person style, entirely from Ben's point of view, Mistress is another mystery with the kind of plot twists and turns we expect from a Patterson novel.

The review of Mistress is written by mystery reader and reviewer Mandee. As always, her reviews give you just enough of the plot without doing any spoiling. But, you also get her take on the story, the characters and the setting.

The bottom line is that Mandee is a James Patterson fan. She has a voracious appetite for any of his novels, mysteries especially. So you get this review of Mistress from one who should know whether we are talking about good book or not. Time to read it yourself: Mistress by James Patterson.

Discovering New Mysteries and Authors

As mystery book lovers, we are always on the watch for the next release in our current favorite series. We want to continue along with that amateur or professional sleuth and what ever exploits they are next up to. But, we also want a bit more.

Don't you love discovering a new series? Getting started with the first one that introduces us to the main characters, puts us in the setting and sends us hungering for more. As much fun as a new series is also the fun of discovering a new author.

Keeping up with the latest releases is easy. At Mystery Book World, we are keeping up with them ourselves. We love knowing when the next in our own favorite series are due out. We love discovering a new mystery series, one that is just starting out. It doesn't matter if it's a brand new author with his or her first published novel, or a seasoned author who has started a new series.

We are keeping track of those new releases in the mystery genre. What just come out, what is due out soon and who is new in the world or the series. If you love mystery novels like we do, you will want to keep up with the new releases as well. So come join us.

Children's Mysteries: A Fine Line

Authors of children's mysteries have a fine line to walk and the good ones do it very well. Every children's mystery, worth its salt anyway, needs to have some very specific elements woven through the story. But done without the violence of murder.

Violence as a rule is not part of the good children's mysteries. Puzzles are the order of the day. The story must still hold the twists and turns of adult fiction, plus plenty of intrigue and who-done-it-ness. That's a fine line to walk when you have to keep the violence out of the story.

The top authors of children's mystery books also work in lessons learned by the heros and crime-solvers of the stories. They learn the kind of lessons that are age appropriate for the reader level of the books.

Even though the hero might be a 12 year-old, the readership is younger, usually 9-10 year-olds. So the lessons learned by the older hero must still match the younger reader. But this gets woven in gently. Preaching to children through books is a no-no and doesn't achieve it's mark anyway.

Adult authors who can write for children in the mystery genre have my high praise. This is a tricky business and the good authors have done it well. Those are the books that child in me enjoys reading, too.

Mandee's Mysteries Comes to Mystery Book World

We have enjoyed the talents of a fabulous mystery book reviewer on Mystery Book World Live. Now we get to welcome Mandee to her own corner of the site.

Mandee's Mysteries is a fun and exciting world of all her novel reviews, with plenty more on the way. This reviewer is an avid reader of so many different series of mystery books in different sub-genres. Then she writes the kind of reviews that tell you enough about the story line without giving away anything. That's a real talent.

Her latest review is about James Patterson's latest Women's Mystery Series novel, the 12th of Never. Such an amazing story and one that I have on my reading list. Mandee's review, like all of them, is carefully laid out so you get enough information to know that you want to read it, but you still get all the surprises of reading the mystery yourself.

Take a few minutes to look at Mandee's Mysteries and see for yourself the latest and fun mystery novels just waiting for you to add to your own reading list. You'll see why we are thrilled to have her aboard.

The Female Sleuths in the Cozy Mystery World

Women as the sleuths in mystery novels have been popular almost as long as mystery novels have been written. The queen of the cozy mystery, Agatha Christie, even had her charming Miss Marple as an amateur sleuth.

Like Miss Marple, we enjoy reading the mystery, but also enjoy the way our female sleuths will outwit the professionals. Romance is not required to make these novels worth our read, but some romance is bound to be fun. Especially when that romance starts revolving around the professional.

Female sleuth cozy mysteries are light reads, but not light on plot and character. What makes a cozy mystery cozy is the setting and suspects. The setting is ususally a single location, in other words, we are not traveling around the country. And the suspects are usually less than a dozen and often known to each other. Twists and turns in the plot, along with little sub-plots, are fun to read, but not required.

A bit of wit, charm and humor make the amateur female sleuth mysteries fun to read. We like to smile, chuckle, even laugh at the antics that go on. Whether it's an historical mystery set in a time gone-by or a more modern female sleuth mystery, we can enjoy them curled up in our favorite armchair and get lost in a world of whodunit.

Mystery Book Reviewer

At Mystery Book World, we have had some great reviews of some fun mysteries. A friend of our site is a huge mystery novel reader. Mandee loves all kinds of mysteries in all kinds of genres. So you know when she reviews a mystery novel as one of those good ones, then you know she's found a good one!

She has done several guest reviews for us, just because she enjoys reading mysteries and loves to talk about those good ones.

The first one she wrote was because she loves James Patterson's books, just about all of them, but she got the chance to read his latest I, Michael Bennett and offered to write the review for us. We couldn't turn her down. James Patterson is a favorite of ours as well. James Patterson's I, Michael Bennett is her review. We hope you will enjoy the book as well as we did after reading Mandee's review.

Then, she got the mystery novel The Black Box for Christmas. Of course she devoured it quickly and came up with another stunning review for us. I had never read any of Michael Connelly's novels, but now I'm hooked. When I read her review I just had to get my own copy of read it for myself. I was not disappointed. Michael Connelly's The Black Box is her review.

When Mandee finds a good mystery novel, she happily shares her review of it. And we are quite thankful she does!

Mystery Novels of the Month

Getting a good recommendation for a new mystery novel to read is one of the best ways to find that next book. We all love recommendations. So mystery recommendations are great.

When I've been ready to get my next mystery, whether I'm in a local bookstore, at the library or online, I've been faced with way too many choices. Which one am I going to pick? Yes, you can read the publisher's blurbs on the book jacket, but that's a biased bit of info in my mind. They put those blurbs just to get you to read the book.

I would rather have a recommendation from someone who has actually read the book. That's what's going on at Mystery Book World. Personal recommendations for mystery novels every month. A new one, the start of a new series, the middle of a series, what ever the readers have chosen as good mysteries.

Thankfully, there aren't reviews of the bad mysteries. I don't want to read those, and I bet you don't either.

So stop by Mystery Book World, read the reviews of some of the fun books. Then go pick out your next mystery novel.

Finding Excuses to Read Mystery Novels

Alright, you don't really need an excuse to read mystery books. But, why not take some time out of your busy schedule to celebrate wacky holidays by reading a new mystery?

Many of today's mystery authors toss in some humor to their writing, so why can't we toss in a little humor to our reading? Silly things like Mud Pack Day, Junk Food Day, even National Adopt a Cat Month.

I'll take the example of National Adopt a Cat Month, which is June. OK, so we just passed it but you can still get the idea. Read a book that involves a Cat Sleuth. There are plenty of mysteries written from the cat's point of view.

Then take Mud Pack Day. It's on September 20th. I'll bet you can figure out how to use that day to sneak in some mystery novel reading.

There are literally thousands of these wacky holidays designated for some fun activities. You can join me in celebrating these by reading old favorite mysteries or starting a new mystery series. That's my kind of celebrating.

What is a Cozy Mystery Novel?

You may have heard of the term "cozy mystery" but what in the world does that mean? Somebody gets murdered and the murder gets solved. How can that be considered cozy?

Actually, we are not talking about getting a warm fuzzy feeling from the story or plot, or even the characters. This whole sub-genre of mystery fiction came about in the 1930's and 1940's when mystery authors were writing prolifically.

The coziness refers to the setting of where the cast of suspects is located, and also where the murder takes place. The suspects all know the victim and each other. Either they are all part of one family, or they are a group of friends or co-workers.

Then they all get trapped in basically a secluded spot. This is often someone's country home, a train or a resort. The suspects are typically a small number of people, like 8 to 10. And, of course, every one has a good motive for wanting the victim dead or at least out of the way.

Authors like Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers are popular examples of this kind of sub-genres. Think of novels like Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. A dozen suspects are trapped on a single section of the train the Orient Express. It's up to the famous fictional detective, Hecule Piorot, to find out why and who killed the victim.

So next time you want to read a fun whodunit-style mystery, consider a cozy mystery. They are fun to read and you get the clues necessary to solve the crime.

Mystery Book Collecting

Book collecting is a fun and popular hobby these days. You can certainly enjoy an eclectic mix of books to collect or you can specialize in something like Mystery novels. Since we love mysteries of all kinds, we are going to concentrate on collecting mysteries here.

You can collect for your own fun, which is what I love. I try to go for whole series of one detective or amateur sleuth or those from one author. I do this concentration mainly because I enjoy reading and re-reading some of the mysteries. Especially when they build on each other. It's enjoyable to me to go back and read the early books in a series, or just relive the fun and excitement of one particular episode in the life of the mystery solver.

But, collecting for profit has its merits. If you can get the first early works of a writer, always in hardback, you have the potential of getting some good profit from it. This is an investment, make no mistake. Hardbacks are the most expensive version of a book to get, but they are also the only ones that will appreciate in value for collectors.

You will have to do some speculation. It's difficult to know which authors are going to turn out to be great or prolific authors from their first mystery novel. And not all authors will be able to get their first book published in hardback. Your best option is to choose novels that you enjoy reading. That's where you start with mystery book collecting.

Why Amateur Sleuths Are So Popular in Books

We all love to read those mystery books where it's an amateur sleuth who solves the crime. But, why is that such a popular sub-genre of mysteries? What is it that makes them so fascinating for us to read?

Amateur sleuths have many values to offer us as readers of mystery books. Whether they are bumbling characters who seem to stumble their way through to the solution or they are talented, smart and charming investigators, we still love them. For some, it's the process of outwitting the police. That can be fun when we see the talent of our amateur sleuth going way beyond what the police can do. Agatha Christie's Hecule Poirot is probably the most famous at outwitting the police.

For some of us, it's the idea that even an untrained, ordinary person can be smart enough to solve the murder and discover whodunit. It's as though even someone just like us can be a successful sleuth. After all, wouldn't we love to be in their shoes and figure out the clues? There is something intriguing in that idea.

Many times, it is simply the way the amateur sleuths must poke their nose into the crime and what is going on. They often get admonished by the police detective investigating it. There is humor in that. Our amateur sleuth stepping on the toes of the police and we know they are going to be found out and get in trouble. It's like waiting for that second shoe to drop. That makes them fun to read.

Of course, interwoven through our amateur sleuth story is a good mystery. And reading a good mystery is what it's all about.

Mystery Book Lovers Have a Place to Visit

If you love mystery books like I do, then you need to visit Mystery Book World. Share in the fun of reading about your favorite mysteries, the great authors who write them, and what hot in the world of mystery books.

From the classics like Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, to the latest new talent of Abbey Sparkle, you can share in the fun. Even enjoy a Mystery of the Month!

If you have children, introduce them to mysteries as well. There is a whole section and article just for children's mysteries. Find out about the puzzle mysteries and the fantasy mysteries written just for children.

My personal favorites are the old-fashioned cozy mysteries. OK, what are cozy mysteries, I hear you ask. At Mystery Book World, they even answer that for you. But, I'll happy tell you that I learned cozies are not about the sweetness of the mystery, but about the cozy circumstances of the murder suspects. They all belong to one family, or are trapped in a secluded location. The number of suspects is small and they all know each other and all have a good reason for killing the victim. That's what makes them a cozy mystery.

Well, that's the short and sweet version of the explanation. You'll want to read more about mysteries of all kinds, not just cozies. So stop by Mystery Book World and tell 'em I sent you!