Cartoon of the Day: Common Mistakes made by the Inexperienced Romance Novelist

Cartoon of the Day: The Texting Bee

MURDER AT THE OSCARS: Mysteries set at the Academy Awards

Just in time for the Academy Awards, here's my Murder at the Oscars list! These mysteries take place during the Academy Awards or the time period surrounding the Oscars! Please let me know if I'm missing any titles.

Murder is not the only crime surrounding the Oscars. Read this article in Vanity Fair about 6 Amazing Oscar Heists!

MURDER AT THE OSCARS

Tight Shot by Kevin Allman
Best Murder on the Year by Jon P. Bloch
Screenscam by Michael Bowen
Murder at the Academy Awards by Joe Hyams
Best Actress by John Kane
Oscar Season by Mary McNamara
Murder at the Academy Awards by Joan Rivers and Jerrilyn Farmer
Jack Hightower by Will Vinton & Andrew Wiese

Want something CHOCOLATE to enjoy during the Awards? Make some Red Velvet Red Carpet Popcorn!

COMING TO MASTERPIECE PBS

Right now there are so many streaming services that carry my favorite British shows that it's sometimes hard to remember where to watch and often what to watch. There's Netflix, BritBox, Acorn, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and others. But ... Masterpiece PBS is the US original broadcaster of many of these shows. You can tune in to your local PBS station..or if you're a member of your local station (you donate to PBS), you can watch these shows at your leisure on PBS Passport.

So here's what's coming up on Masterpiece:

Baptise: 

Case File: While visiting his daughter’s family in Amsterdam, Julien Baptiste (The Missing‘s lead detective) gets drawn into the search for Englishman Edward Stratton’s missing niece…and before long, everything you think you understand about this mystery is upended!
 
Lineup: Leading Baptiste‘s cast is Turkish-born French actor Tchéky Karyo, whose career spans the stage, the big screen (La Femme Nikita), and the small screen (The Missing). Also starring as Edward Stratton is Tom Hollander (on film in Bohemian Rhapsody, In the Loop, and Pride & Prejudice, and on TV in Bird Box, The Night Manager, Taboo, and on MASTERPIECE in Any Human Heart and Wives and Daughters). Clare Calbraith (Downton Abbey, Home Fires) plays Stratton’s ex-wife, and Jessica Raine (Call the Midwife, Patrick Melrose, and on MASTERPIECE in Wolf Hall) joins the cast in Episode 3.

Scene of the Crime: The narrow, neon-lit streets of present-day Amsterdam’s red-light district—the seedy underbelly to the historic city of canals, bicycles, art, and flowers.
DNA: Baptiste is a spin-off of The Missing, putting the original series’ detective front and center. But you don’t need to have watched any of The Missing to watch—and get sucked in to—Baptiste!
Timeline: Baptiste premieres in 2020 on MASTERPIECE.

Grantchester Season 5

Case File: With God on his side and a motorcycle to ride, Grantchester’s crime-fighting clergyman Will Davenport teams up (voluntarily!) with Geordie Keating to solve a series of darker, grittier crimes than ever before…and face the challenges of celibacy head-on when journalist Ellie Harding enters the picture!

Lineup: One of Season 5’s new faces is Will’s love interest, Ellie Harding (Lauren Carse). Tom Brittney joked with RadioTimes.com that “Me and Ellie are going to be the Ross and Rachel of Grantchester…I want all Grantchester to be related to Friends, in some way!” Returning characters and cast include Will Davenport (Tom Brittney), DI Geordie Keating (Robson Green), Leonard Finch (Al Weaver), “Mrs. C” (Tessa Peake-Jones) and her husband, Jack Chapman (Nick Brimble), Cathy Keating (Kacey Ainsworth), Daniel Marlowe (Oliver Dimsdale), and Will’s mother, Amelia Davenport (Jemma Redgrave).

Scene of the Crime: As always, the titular Grantchester, the picturesque village on the river Cam.
Timeline: Grantchester Season 5 premieres Sunday, June 14at 9/8c on MASTERPIECE.

Endeavour Season 7

Case File: When we last saw Endeavour Morse at the end of Season 6, he was settling in at the station and the house that would become home to his character in the Inspector Morse series. But it doesn’t ensure happiness for our cerebral and solitary hero, who will face a series of enigmatic murders.

Lineup: At this time, we know that Shaun Evans and Roger Allam (Endeavour Morse and Fred Thursday) are returning for Season 7.
Scene of the Crime: Oxford’s spires and grassy quads, often its pubs, and all too often, its morgues.

Timeline: Endeavour returns to MASTERPIECE on PBS with three new mysteries in 2020.

Van Der Valk

Case File: Street-smart and unapologetic detective Piet Van Der Valk is an everyman of sorts, investigating high profile cases and gritty murders that immerse him and his team in contemporary Amsterdam’s fast-paced worlds of art, politics, addiction, mysticism, and fashion.

Lineup: Marc Warren (Beecham House) stars as Commissaris Piet Van der Valk, and Maimie McCoy (The Musketeers) is Inspector Lucienne Hassell. Other cast include Elliot Barnes-Worrell (Ready Player One), Darrell D’Silva, and Emma Fielding (MASTERPIECE’s Unforgotten Season 3, Les Misérables, Dark Angel, and Cranford.) Guest stars who MASTERPIECE viewers might recognize include Daniel Lapaine (The Durrells in Corfu) and Tom York (Poldark).
Scene of the Crime: Van Der Valk is filmed entirely on location in Amsterdam.

DNA: In a reboot of the original 1970s and ’90s Van Der Valk, which was loosely based on the novels by Nicolas Freeling, this reimagining departs almost entirely from the novels and thrillingly showcases today’s modern Amsterdam.
Timeline: Van Der Valk premieres on MASTERPIECE on PBS in summer 2020!

Miss Scarlet and the Duke

Case File: When headstrong Eliza Scarlet is left penniless after the death of her father, she has two choices for financial security: marriage or her father’s private detective agency. But no matter how well she knows the tricks of his trade, the trade itself is deemed entirely inappropriate for a genteel lady of the 1880s. Enter “The Duke,” Scotland Yard’s Detective Inspector William Wellington, a notorious drinker, gambler, womanizer…and a partner in running the agency and solving crime, all with a dash of will-they-won’t they energy, wit, and moxie!

Lineup: Kate Phillips (Peaky Blinders, The Downton Abbey Movie, Wolf Hall, and The Crown) stars as Eliza Scarlet, and Stuart Martin (Jamestown, Babylon, Medici) stars as The Duke.

Scene of the Crime: The dark underbelly of Victorian London.

DNA: Miss Scarlet and the Duke is created and written by Rachael New, who wrote for Grantchester Season 4.

Timeline: Miss Scarlet and the Duke comes to MASTERPIECE on PBS in 2020.

See mystery shows and more from MASTERPIECE when you watch with PBS Passport, an added member benefit. Find out what’s available in PBS Passport from MASTERPIECE.

 

Cartoon of the Day: Valentine's Day

VALENTINE'S DAY MYSTERIES: VALENTINE'S DAY CRIME FICTION

Here's my updated Valentine's Day Crime Fiction list. Be sure and check out my other blog, DyingforChocolate, for Valentine's Day Chocolate Reviews, Recipes, and Vintage Chocolate Ads.  

February 14, Valentine's Day, is also International Book Giving Day, so books are the perfect Valentine's Day gift. Bundle some of the following Valentine's Day Mysteries with a box of chocolate truffles, tie it all up in a red ribbon, and you're good to go!

Valentine's Day Mysteries

As Gouda as Dead by Avery Aames
Regulated for Murder by Suzanne Adair
Murder in the Paperback Parlor by Ellery Adams
Love Lies Bleeding by Susan Wittig Albert
Death by Baguette by Jennifer S. Alderson
Valentine's Day is Murder by Carolyn Arnold
In Cold Chamomile by Joy Avon
Death of a Valentine by M. C. Beaton
Hot Chocolate and Homicide by Cindy Bell
Marked Down for Murder by Josie Belle
Valentines and Murder; Killer Valentine Cookies by Patti Benning
A Manhattan Murder Mystery by Susan Bernardt
The Broken Hearts Club by Ethan Black
Murder Borrowed, Murder Blue by Stephanie Blackmoore
A Witchy Valentine by Danica Britton
Claws and Effect by Rita Mae Brown
Butter Off Dead by Leslie Budewitz
How To Murder The Man Of Your Dreams by Dorothy Cannell
The Chocolate Cupid Killings by JoAnna Carl
The Mortsafe by Lillian Stewart Carl
This Old Homicide by Kate Carlisle
Sucker Punch by Sammi Carter
Cat Got Your Secrets by Julie Chase
Lethal Treasure by Jane Cleland
A Holiday Sampler by Christine E. Collier
Red Roses for a Dead Trucker by Anna Ashwood Collins
St Valentine's Day Cookie Massacre by Elisabeth Crabtree
A Catered Valentine's Day by Isis Crawford
Murder on Valentine's Day by P. Creeden
Cupid's Curse; The Saint Valentine's Day Murders; Shamrock Shenanigans by Kathi Daley
Hard Feelings by Barbara D’Amato
Lucy and the Valentine Verdict by Rae Davies
A Valentine Murder by Steve Demaree
Love With The Proper Killer by Rose Deshaw
Valentine's Day by Liz Dodwell
The Saint Valentine's Day Murders by Ruth Dudley Edwards
The Stolen Valentine by K.J. Emrick
Plum Lovin’ by Janet Evanovich
My Funny Valentine by Caroline Fardig (novella)
Happy Valentine’s Day by Michelle Fitzpatrick
The Living Daylights by Ian Fleming
Addressed to Kill by Jean Flowers (Camille Minichino)
Peach Cobbler Murder by Joanne Fluke
A Flair for Truffles by Deborah Garner
St. Valentine's Night by Andrew M. Greeley
Caveman's Valentine by George Dawes Green
My Bloody Valentine by Alastair Gunn
Bleeding Hearts by Jane Haddam
Sweetheart in High Heels by Gemma Halliday
The Valentine's Day Murder by Lee Harris
Deadly Valentine by Carolyn G. Hart
Deadly Valentine by Jenna Harte
Death of a Chocoholic by Lee Hollis
The Ghost of Valentine Past by Bobbie Holmes
Cupid's Revenge; The Sham by Melanie Jackson
Ghoul You Be My Valentine? by Olivia James
Sugar and Spite by G.A. McKevett
Your Heart Belongs to Me by Dean Koontz 
Killing Cupid by Laura Levine
Valentine's Victim by Harper Lin
A Fatal Slip by Meg London 
February Fever by Jess Lourey
The Venom in the Valentine by Shea MacLeod
The Scent of Murder by Jeffrey Marks
Valentine's Cupcake & Murder by Ann S. Marie
A Valentine's Kill by Mona Marple
The Winter Mystery by Faith Martin
Sugar and Spite by G.A. McKevett
Buttercream Bump Off by Jenn McKinlay
The Valentine Victim by Dougal McLeish
Valentine Murder; Chocolate Covered Murder: Valentine Candy Murder by Leslie Meier
Love You to Death by Grant Michaels
Cat Playing Cupid by Shirley Rousseau Murphy
The Body in the Attic, The Body in the Snowdrift by Katherine Hall Page
A Judgment in Stone by Ruth Rendell
My Deadly Valentine by David W. Robinson
Valentined by Patricia Rockwell
The Valentine's Day Clue by Rupali Rajopadhye Rotti
Valentine by Tom Savage
The Treble Wore Trouble by Mark Schweizer
Sweet Hearts by Connie Shelton
Gilt by Association by Karen Rose Smith
My Wicked Valentine by Lotta Smith and Kelly Hartigan
Murder of a Pink Elephant by Denise Swanson
One Rough Man by Brad Taylor
The Coniston Case by Rebecca Tope
Paper Valentine by Brenna Yovanoff
Thou Art with Me by Debbie Viguie
The Lucy Valentine mystery series by Heather Webber
The Haunted Valentine by J.A. Whiting
Daughter Of The Stars by Phyllis A. Whitney

Short Stories
Crimes of Passion with stories by Nancy Means, B.J. Daniels, Jonathan Harrington and Maggie Right Price
"My Heart Cries Out for You" by Bill Crider
Valentine's Day Is Killing Me edited by Leslie Esdaile, Mary Janice Davidson, Susanna Carr
"Sweetheart in High Heels" by Gemma Halliday
Crimes of the Heart edited by Carolyn G. Hart
Love and Death, edited by Carolyn G. Hart
Valentine’s Day: Women Against Men-Stories of Revenge edited by Alice Thomas
Homicidal Holidays: Fourteen Tales of Murder and Merriment, edited by Donna Andrews, Barb Goffman & Marcia Talley

Children's Literature
Valentine's Day Disaster by Geronimo Stilton
Scooby-Doo! A Very Scary Valentine's Day

As always, let me know if I've missed any titles!