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Do you love a good mystery but need a break from the gruesome details? Try the Cozy Mystery genre where you can settle in with an amateur sleuth in a homey setting such as a charming Irish village or a Chinese restaurant in Ohio.
“The cozy mystery (sometimes simply called a cozy) is a subgenre of crime fiction that gives readers a chance to delight in vicariously solving a murder—without graphic violence or sex. Protagonists are typically amateur (and usually female) sleuths solving small-town crimes with old-fashioned detective work rather than forensics. These unlikely heroes are often small-business owners who find themselves drawn into detection by crimes impacting their work; sometimes their investigative efforts are aided by a significant other with police connections.” From Writer’s Digest 12/3/20.
Agatha Christie is usually credited with being the (unintentional) mother of the cozy mystery genre with her Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple series. The term “cozy” was first coined in the late 20th century when various writers produced work in an attempt to re-create the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. Cozies as we know them today “frequently hang on a hobby or activity “hook” such as knitting, scrapbooking, cooking, etc. It’s a marketing ploy that enables publishers to refer to “the Mall Cop mysteries” or “the Dead-End Job series.” This style became popular in the 1980’s and continues today.
Info from lauradisilverio.com/cozy-mysteries/
Cozies stand in contrast to hardboiled fiction, which features violence and sexuality; violence and sex occur ‘off stage’ in the cozy mystery genre. Cozies are books that people read when they want to feel cozy, there is a sense of balance in the world being restored, of righting a wrong, always concluding with triumph of the amateur sleuth over evil (the murderer). The sleuth always figures it out (with the help of her family and friends and usually with a knitting needle or spatula at the ready) and the murderer gets what’s coming to him or her. They include clues and red herrings (clues that lead you down the wrong path) and are the perfect books for readers who are smart and enjoy trying to work out ‘who done it’ and why. Info from lauradisilverio.com/cozy-mysteries/.
