This is an updated article from 2019. The term mystery or crime fiction covers many subgenres, cozy mysteries being a very popular one. What makes a mystery a cozy? Below are the four most prominent features of cozy mysteries, ones that I incorporated into my YA mystery, A Shadow on the Snow.
COZY MYSTERIES ALWAYS HAVE AMATEUR SLEUTHS.
One reason I think cozy mysteries are so popular is because, in the end, they are underdog stories, and these have huge appeal. The amateur sleuth can come in many flavors, but he or she can’t have any official standing within law enforcement, automatically making them the underdog. However, amateur sleuths do need some kind of advantage or skill they can rely on when they tackle a case. For more details on that special ability, click here for my post, “Three Tips on How to Build a Teen Detective.”
SECONDARY CHARACTERS ARE IMPORTANT.
Many cozy mysteries are series, and readers derive a lot of enjoyment from spending time with characters they regard as old friends. It’s important to develop secondary characters, who add a family feel to the stories.
I had a ton of fun creating secondary characters for Shadow. My main character Rae has just discovered who her father is and that she has a whole herd of relatives. As Rae gets to know her new family, so does the reader.
- Her worry-prone, protective dad who is the sheriff.
- Her three half-brothers: Rusty, the quiet, imaginative writer. Aaron, the enthusiastic inventor. Micah, the easy-going, practical first-grader.
- Her laid-back, unflappable grandmother.
Rae has more relatives but those are the ones I focus on in my novel. Because I’ve created this world of complex secondary characters, I have a great raw material to work with in my next novels. In my second book, maybe I’ll focus on Rae and her cousins or on the young deputies she jams with in a band. Two of my beta readers really liked Rae’s great-grandfather. That surprised me, but I’ll try to work him into future stories.
THE CRIME TAKES PLACE IN AN INSULATED COMMUNITY.
For many cozies, this translates into a small town, like St. Mary Mead where Miss Marple lives, or Three Pines, the hometown of Inspector Armand Gamache. But the setting can be any small, tightly knit community. The members of a community theater, a sorority, or a carnival would all fit in a cozy mystery. In fact, the amateur sleuth’s membership in this community may give her an edge. Such as the teen who is investigating threats at her high school. She would be able to questions suspects in a much different way from the police.
Rae Riley is a newcomer to rural Marlin County, Ohio. It’s the kind of county where a newcomer stands out, and several generations of a family live within its borders. One of Rae’s advantages in such a community is that she can judge people without any preconceptions that might come from knowing someone for twenty years.
Although small-towns might seem cliched, I think a majority of Americans don’t know what small-town living is like and find reading about it in fiction intriguing. This truth came home to me last week. I’d been invited to a Bible study in a town of about 700 people. We were going to meet in an old bank that’s been converted into rental office space. When I got there, I couldn’t find any of the ladies who’d invited me. But I knew one owned the salon across the street, so I poked my head in and asked if I’d gotten the wrong day. She said no. We were starting at 7:30, not 7.
Later the salon owner told me that when I stopped by, she had a couple ladies from a nearby big city waiting. One of them was surprised by my visit, remarking that everybody really did know everybody else in a small town. Her reaction made me smile.
NO GRAPHIC SEX OR VIOLENCE, PLEASE.
Readers of cozies do not want heads rolling down the stairs or couples rolling around in beds. That doesn’t mean they expect a G-rated story. They know someone will be murdered. They know adultery or other plots revolving around sex are likely. They just don’t want every grisly detail of the murder described or told exactly what the two-timing wife did in the bedroom with her boyfriend. Those details are not essential to solving the mystery.
What are some of your favorite cozy mysteries?
I like cozy mysteries in large part because there’s no graphic violence or sex. I don’t need to practically get sick reading every detail about a murder or knowing anything that happens after the bedroom door is shut. Yet, I do like reading a whodunit.
On television, I enjoyed watching “Murder, She Wrote”; the novels based on the tv show have the same feel and the same characters.
I think the Cat Cafe Mystery series by Cate Conte is fun to read. The first book in the series is “Cat About Town”.
As you wrote, I enjoy reading books in which characters become like old friends. Secondary characters give a sense of constancy to the series; in my mind, they help “anchor” the setting.
I’ll have to try the Cat Cafe Mystery series. “Anchor” is a great way to describe secondary characters.
I love Agatha Christie. She’s my “comfort read” – which might be odd with all of the murders involved but *shrug.* My mom enjoyed Lilian Jackson Braun (sp?)’s “The Cat Who” series. She and I also enjoyed Elizabeth Peters’ stories- cozy mysteries including Egyptian archeology.
I do enjoy how cozies seem to naturally lend themselves to series.
I’m certainly excited to check out the upcoming mystery “A Shadow on the Snow”!!!!
Your mom sounds like my mom–she liked both of those series. Agatha Christie is comfort reading for me too. Maybe because I discovered her books in high school, so they’re nostalgic for me. As a writer, I like to study how she constructed her plots. I hope you enjoy “Shadow”!