I've never figured out where the mysteries I like are actually filed.  I don't like pure fluff and I don't like gore.  But all I can find are cozies, which are usually too much fluff, or thrillers, which are usually too much gore.

The middle ground needs a name.  Mysteries with substance but limit the disgusting descriptions.

I don't like the gore at all.

So far, of the new authors I have tried, I like Victoria Laurie with the Psychic Eye series and Sarah Strohmeyer with the Bubble Yablonski (read the first one, Bubble Unbound, so far). I liked Sarah Strohmeyer a little better than Victoria Laurie.

I recently also tried, M. C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin And The Quiche Of Death, Maddy Hunter's Alpine For You. I thought both these authors were OK but not great.

The same for Joanna Fluke's The Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder. It was OK but not great. I had to quit reading it 1/3 of the way through. It was talking too much about cookies and it even gave receipes - I am trying to diet.

I tried but did not like, Elaine Viet's Shop Till You Drop, Rita Mae Brown's  Pawing Through The Past, and Meg Cabot's  Size 12 Is Not Fat.

I also tried and did not like Suzanne Enoch's Don't Look Down and Sparkle Hayter's What's A Girl Got To Do. Both these books were too graphic on the sex for me besides the fact that I just didn't like them.

I still haven't found anyone to beat Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series for what could be considered a chic lit mystery.

I just finished "Slummy Mummy" by Fiona Neill.  It has so great lol humor.  I got a case of the giggles that wouldn't stop during one scene in the book!

looking for more suggestions

I tried Joanna Carl's first book in the Chocoholic series. The main character's tendency to mix up her words when she becomes flustered is annoying, to me. I think it is supposed to inject some humor.  I am too busy trying to read the book and then when a word is messed up, I have to correct it, in my mind. It just ties up my reading pace and I don't find it to be that funny. Also, I am finding I do not do well reading mysteries that center around food or anything to eat. In this series that would be chocolate. I am too suggestable. I am trying to diet. I couldn't get past the first chapter in this book without having to eat a chocolate bar!

Ditto for the Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Hannah Swenson. The book is interesting enough, but it talks about different kinds of cookies and even gives recipes at the end of some chapters. I just can't handle it.

Forging weakly on,

Marla Maye

Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner is the best of both worlds....mystery and chick lit. Plus she is so funny! One of my favorite authors of all time!

Anne George with the southern sisters mysteries were pretty funny. There were only 8 books written though before she passed away.

My all-time fave humorous "mystery" writers are:  Carl Hiaasen.  His characters (especially "Skink") are outrageously over-the-top, laugh-out-loud funny.  Hiassen hates the over-development that has occurred in Florida, Disney World in particular.  Most of his stories take place in Florida. 

I also love the Lawrence Sanders Archy McNally series.  After Sanders died, Vicent Lardo took over the series, and he has captured Sanders' characters almost perfectly, which I didn't think was going to be possible.

Do y'all know that the Nancy Drew books of our childhood were written by many, many people?  The series was written by a syndicate of writers.

CleoAuthor

I just read today that Donald Westlake had passed away.  Now, there was one funny mystery writer!  I had completely forgotten about him.  Now, I want to go re-read some of his romps!

CleoAuthor