Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in. We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.
Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered. We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.
Tonight I thought we might try something different. One of our BJ peeps is a cozy mystery writer, and I invited her to help start a conversation about cozy mysteries. You may recognize Vicki from the recent post on Shelock Holmes mysteries. The photo below is Vicki Delany on the occasion of publishing her 50th book!
So let’s see what Vicki has to say about cozy mysteries and then we can go from there.
What, exactly, is a cozy mystery?
by Vicki Delany
On one hand, that seems to be an easy question to answer. A cozy mystery is often described as a mystery novel or story containing no overt violence or sex on the page, or as a character-and-community based mystery featuring an amateur sleuth.
But I believe a cozy mystery is far more that than.
A crime or mystery novel without sex and violence is not necessarily a cozy. Plenty of intense psychological dramas have no sex and violence, but they can be very grim indeed. Books that are character-and-community based can also be dark and disturbing. Mysteries with a frightening supernatural or horror element, for example.
In my interpretation, to be a cozy, the story must have no sense of tragedy or impending doom.
People in cozies do not live tragic lives, and they don’t fear tragic happenings. They live in a very pleasant, close to idyllic, community, surround by good friends and close family. Not everything is perfect in their lives (how boring would that be?) but generally they are good and happy people.
Someone is murdered, and that’s never funny, but that person is (usually) not much liked by the community or strangers to it. Their death needs to be solved so that the perfect, orderly community can go back to the way it was – perfect and orderly. The characters live in an essentially good world that needs to be put back to rights. No human trafficking rings, child prostitutes, mob hit men, gangs, or assassins here.
A cozy mystery will never feature organized crime (unless handled with a humorous touch), child-endangerment or abuse, terrorists, or natural disaster. The murder is intimate and personal, and committed for personal reasons. There are no far-reaching or long-lasting implications. At the end of the book, order has been restored and all is once again right in their world.
This is dramatically opposite to a noir crime novel. In a noir the characters live in a dark and disturbing world. “Down these mean streets a man must walk who is not himself mean.” The criminal can be brought to justice, the crime solved, but the streets remain mean.
Cozy mysteries are not trying to make an important statement about the human condition, or hoping to change the world. A cozy mystery tells a story that attempts to be entertaining, that’s about people much like us (or like us if we were prettier, or smarter, or younger!) and our friends and family.
In terms of structure, cozy mysteries are very much ‘puzzle mysteries’: a game of wits between the author and the reader as to whether or not the astute reader can solve the crime before the amateur detective does (i.e. before the author reveals it). Clues must be laid down in such a way that the reader has a chance of reaching the conclusion on their own. The author lays red herrings in such a way as to hope to distract the reader from reaching the truth before all is revealed.
Cozy mysteries are about real people living real lives (except for that pesky murder bit), although writ large. Everything is exaggerated. The nosy neighbour is nosier, the ditzy friend is ditzier, the mean girl is meaner. And the handsome man is, well, handsomer. Even better if there are two of them.
Readers who enjoy cozies often tell me that they read them to escape from the real world. They get enough bad news on TV, and sometimes even in their own life. Cozy mysteries really are an escape. Most (but not all) cozies feature a female protagonist, but they are widely read by men too, and I love that about them.
I began my career writing gritty police procedurals and intense psychological thrillers and I switched to cozies about seven years ago. I’m having a lot of fun with them. Keep it light, keep it funny, and have a good time with it.
The word I often use for the cozies I write is FUN. They should be fun for the author and fun for the reader as well.
What’s wrong with that? I ask.
So pull up a pull up a comfortable armchair or get out your deck chair. Light a fire in the fireplace, or slap on that sunscreen, pour yourself a mug of hot tea or something icy and simply enjoy the adventures of a cozy heroine and her friends as they try to put their world back to rights.
I’m not sure I’ve ever read a cozy mystery. If you have, chime in with your favorites. If you don’t read cozy mysteries, what is your favorite kind of mystery?
Anyway, I’m not sure where this is gonna go, or how this is gonna go. I guess we’ll find out!