One of the great early cozy mystery writers, Dorothy L. Sayers is most famous for her wonderful Lord Peter Wimsey series.

Margery Allingham was considered one of the great early cozy mystery writers.

Born in England in 1890, Agatha Christie was one of the pioneers of the cozy mystery.

Ngaio Marsh is one of the best examples of a great mystery author. Her books span from the early 1930s to the early 1980s, with all of them being exceptionally good. Too many times, an author loses steam after writing several books in a series, but still continues to publish books almost on automatic pilot. Not so with Ngaio Marsh!

Rather than let the cozy mystery genre die out, the cozy mystery authors have come up with substitutions which really seem to work! The new "home settings" where everyone knows (and talks about!) everyone else are now businesses and social organizations.

I know that when I am looking at the books of an author with whom I'm not familiar, I tend to be swayed by the covers of their books. Of course, that doesn't mean that I make my decision based on the book's cover. I read the synopsis of the given book AND I read what other people have to say about the book, and then I look at the book's cover.