Anita Waller is a British author who was born in Sheffield, England’s fourth largest city, in 1946. She has lived all her life there. She has three adult children and seven grandchildren. Anita and Dave have been married since 1967. She published her first book at age 67, so no age is too old to start something new!

Anita Waller has written many books, mainly psychological thrillers. However, in 2018 she was commissioned to write a cozy mystery series, the Kat and Mouse trilogy. The Kat and Mouse series is what I have been listening to lately and thouroughly enjoying them!

I have not read any of Ms Waller’s other books, so I can’t vouch for them. I am not fond of psycholgical thrillers, so I probably won’t be reading her others. Wondering what the difference between a cozy mystery and psycholigical thriller is? I wondered, too. Here is what a quick search told me (in my own words, of course.)

Cozy mysteries focus on figuring out the crime. There is no build up to the crime, no mind games and fear in knowing something is going to happen, but you can’t tell where it is coming from. The crime has been committed and there are almost no gory details given in a CM. Usually the sleuth is a young female, which for some reason I enjoy. Most times things happen that miraculously help her figure out the crime. It isn’t all totally true to life, but I enjoy the genre anyway.

Psychological thrillers, on the other hand, have a lot of leading up to the crime. You feel the fear of the protagonist as they realize that something is profoundly wrong. These are the types of books that have me looking over my shoulder and locking my car doors at stop lights. The bulk of the book is building for the crime to happen. Some examples are The Family Across the Street, The Silent Patient, The Girl on the Train and The Woman in Cabin Ten. The reason I know I don’t like the PT genre is because I have read all of these books listed and they made me nervous!

I will take a cozy mystery any day. They are not scary and always end well. The bad guy is caught and the female sleuth saves the day.

Looking for a gripping and addictive cozy mystery series to enjoy this fall?

Katerina Rowe, a Deacon at the church in the sleepy village of Eyam, has a fulfilled life. She is happily married to Leon and her work is rewarding.

But everything changes when she discovers the body of a man and a badly beaten woman, Beth, in the alleyway behind her husband’s pharmacy.

Drawn to the young woman she saved, Kat finds herself embroiled in a baffling mystery.

When Beth’s house is set on fire, Kat offers the young woman sanctuary in her home and soon the pair begin investigating the murder, with some help from Beth’s feisty grandmother, Doris.

But neither the police, nor Leon, nor the criminals want Kat and Beth looking into their affairs and the sleuths quickly find themselves out of their depth…

Can Kat and Beth solve the mystery and walk away unscathed?

Goodreads

There are five books in the Kat and Mouse series. They can be read in order or as stand-alone-books. It will be better to start at the beginning so you understand the few references there are to characters the were introduced in previous books. These books are similar to Dervla McTeirnan and Agatha Christie.

Do you enjoy fall-themed reading? I usually read a few cozy mysteries every fall, although that isn’t the only time I read them. Which books do you think belong with Autumn?

-Ev

Other posts you might enjoy if you like cozy mysteries as much as I obviously do!

Books for Your Fall TBR

Author Spotlight: Dervla McTeirnan

An Explanation of Cozy Mystery

A Guilded Gotham Mystery Series