Good call, JZ. I'd recommend much of Deb's work as fitting your description, flea.

Patricia Cornwell asks her readers to prove that they are true fans by posting positive reviews on the internet. Because the government has organized a bad-review conspiracy against her.

Flea - what about Tony Hillerman? a little cozy, a lot of southwest. they're a good friend's 'airplane books'.

I haven't read Hillerman, but I like the adaptations on PBS, starring Adam Beach and Wes Studi (who is amazingly sexay in them).

I'd recommend CF Roe's books about a Scottish doctor, whose name I can't remember. It's sort of country house murder stye, with the doctor juggling responbsilities of being a doctor, a mom, and solving crimes.

My dad likes those and he really liked the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency stories as well.

Patricia Cornwall has lost what remains of her shit. I think she is down to forensics and a three. Which makes me sad, at the risk of sounding like one of those "I used to love x, but then he/she did y" posters.

Something remained?

If you like the forensic mystery book, I can recommend Eileen Dreyer. Her books are all meticulously researched (she took an extended break from writing to get her forensic investigation certificate), they share a dark, almost bleak, sense of humor, and are usually set in St. Louis. She started out writing romances under the pen name Kathleen Korbel, which I also recommend--the Harlequins she wrote were equally dark, dealing with Vietnam PTSD (for her nurse heroine, one of the first times I've seen female PTSD addressed outside of China Beach), illiteracy, child abuse, and Down's Syndrome.

Hmmm, for the cozy-but not too girly, maybe Donna Andrews? The series that starts with Murder with Peacocks is fun, but not too fluffy. Her other series is a bit darker and crosses over to SF.(The main character, Turing Hopper, is a sentient AI)

Turing Hopper, is a sentient AI

grumblecakes. that riff is getting old.