There are a lot of great mystery blogs out there, and if you’re like us, you already know them and love them. But what are our go-to blogs when we want a break from our chosen genre? Here are some of our favorites, spanning a whole bunch of different topics!

 Kellye Garrett

Even though I no longer work in Hollywood, I still love my fair share of Hollywood gossip. I get my fix from sites like The Shade Room and DListed. I love it so much that I actually have a gossip blog called Anani Miss in Hollywood Homicide. Although it’s not based on any one particular blog, it does have the essential elements of any good gossip site—photos, humor and, my personal fave, blind items! Blind Items are tidbits so juicy (and, sometimes, lawsuit-worthy) that names can’t be used. So instead, the site just gives us lots of hints of the subject’s identity. As a tried and true mystery lover, I love trying to figure out the “culprit.” In real life, I get my blind item fix from sites like Crazy Days and Nights and Lainey Gossip. Are they always accurate? Who cares—as long they’re entertaining!

---

Ellen Byron

I’m obsessed with pretty much any blog having to do with Louisiana – neworleansplantationcountry.com and beyondbourbonst.com being two favorites — but aside from mystery and political sites, my favorite blog is curbed.com. When broke my addiction to all versions of the TV show, House Hunters, I had to get my housing porn from somewhere less time consuming, and found Curbed. I get e-blasts for three cities: New York, New Orleans, and Los Angeles. My dream would be to someday own homes in all three cities, but until that miraculous day occurs, I’ll have to settle for doing Curbed.com’s quizzes that ask you to choose between five properties all priced the same but in different parts of a city.  And maybe one day, one of those homes will be mine… sigh.

---

Lisa Q. Mathews

Like all of us, I read a ton of mystery blogs. I’m also a member of another mystery blog, Not Your Usual Suspects. And I keep up with several general publishing blogs, because that used to be part of my day job and it’s a habit. I spend way too much time reading in the morning when I should be writing. But I do sometimes (ahem) fall off the literary wagon. From a guest post by Drew Barrymore on lifestyle site Refinery29 I learned about the secondhand clothing site ThredUp. Upon request, they send you a cheerful, NASA-style polka dot bag so you can stuff everything you want to get rid of from your closet into it. Then they pay you for any items they take and offer for sale on their site. With your earnings you can buy “new” used clothes (which also arrive in cute polka-dot bags and boxes), build up credits, and also donate to charity. Anything they don’t use automatically gets recycled responsibility (literally, fabric gets snipped up to make useful stuff if it’s less than donation-worthy). I still donate items locally, of course, but hey, ThredUp is just plain fun (and addictive). Plus, it helped me come up with characters’ outfits for FASHIONABLY LATE (pubbing in August and available for pre-order now!)

---

 Marla Cooper

I hop around to a lot of different blogs, but I’d love to give a shoutout to The Bloggess, AKA Jenny Lawson. Jenny is brutally honest, curses like a sailor, and can make me laugh like few other people. My favorite posts seem to involve her indulging her id, like the time she asked her editor to buy her a taxidermy goat named Totes Magoats, or the time she bought a giant metal chicken and named it Beyonce. Fun fact: Jenny has a love for insane taxidermy, like the manic stuffed raccoon that graces the cover of her book, Furiously Happy. When I went to her book signing, I was welcomed by a six-foot cardboard cutout of the raccoon. I was also there an hour early, so I sat in the cafe and worked on Dying on the Vine. Careful readers might notice that taxidermy makes its way into a conversation between Kelsey and Brody—and that’s not a coincidence!

---

Vickie Fee

In addition to several mystery blogs I frequent, lately I’ve been wasting time on Jessica Fletcher’s Closet. This blog features photos of Angela Lansbury’s wardrobe from the TV show (by episode) and sources clothing to help you achieve the same “look.” I’ll admit that during the show’s original run (1984-1996) I never thought of J.B. as a fashion plate, and Cabot Cove certainly isn’t Paris. But now that I’m a published author looking for fashion role models—or maybe it’s just because I’m a more *mature* woman, I’m poring over this blog thinking, “This is really cute!” (Note: I don’t think the blogger is adding new content to the site, but I’m mining the archives.)

---

Cynthia Kuhn

I think I’m the odd Chick out this week. I usually just read mystery blogs!  Before I started writing mysteries, though, I spent a lot of time on the academic blogosphere with a merry band of folks who wrote under pseudonyms in often-hilarious ways about life in the academy. Also about random things like herkies, unicorns, Cheetos, leotards, undesirable PowerPoint fonts, and more. So grateful for the friends I met during that era. For something of the same flavor, check out #AcademicTwitter.

 

 

---

Readers, let’s hear yours! In addition to all the great mystery blogs out there, what blogs do you read? 

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe to Chicks on the Case and never miss a post. Just click the button on the top right side of this page and let the fun begin!