Cozy Murder Mystery | What does that even mean?

Murder mysteries are like ice cream.

Cold and irresistible.

As you know, ice cream comes in many different, wonderful flavors.

The recipe for every scrumptious bite of the frozen treat is essentially the same. A blend of dairy products, sweeteners and rainbow unicorn kisses, mixed to a nice consistency, before into the freezer it goes. A little bit later, voila, ice cream.

The real magic, however, happens when the flavor gets added.

Yum.

Everyone has a favorite. For most people, it’s vanilla.

And so it goes with murder mysteries.

Wrap suspense into a whodunit and you’ve got a mystery. Kill a character and Bam! you’ve created a murder mystery.

By nature or by practice, these works of fiction share key ingredients such as a crime, a detective and a series of clues that the reader can follow to discover the culprit.

As with ice cream, tastes vary in the type of mysteries a reader prefers to read. So the genre has been scooped into a sundae of sub-genres that range from mild and humorous cozies to tough and unsentimental hard-boileds.

My books, the Color Book Mysteries, are cozies.

Cozy. What does that even mean?

Cozies enjoy the adoration of most mystery readers because, as you know, vanilla goes with everything and tend to be more palatable than their counterparts.

Here are a few of the main points that make a cozy, a cozy.

No on-screen violence.

Sure. It’s a MURDER mystery. Murder is as bad as it gets, right?

In cozies, the violence takes place in a way the reader never sees it. A character in the story, like the sleuth, stumbles upon the body, similar to what you might see on the nightly news. The reader is spared a bloody, gory misfortune and the impact may be shock, but never explicit gross-out.

Here’s a link to an excerpt from AZURE Death in the Texas Hill Country. You won’t have to read far to find how the first victim in the Color Book Mysteries meets his tragic, left-to-the-imagination end.

Sex is discouraged and only mild %#&* swearing is allowed.

This “rule” is becoming more of a suggestion for some writers than a hard and fast rule.

As society changes, so does our art. Or is it the other way around? Anyway, cozies rely on psychological intrigue to move a story. My protagonist Maeve Clarke does mumble a mainstream cuss word now and then, but only because I think most anyone else would too, given her circumstances.

As far as sex goes, it’s graphic sex that is discouraged.

Like the violence, any extreme physical romance takes place out of the reader’s view in a cozy. Kissing and flirty, at least in my opinion, add another layer of interest to the story. In my series, Maeve has already met a man she finds attractive. Like the cussing, I can’t imagine a world where a woman in her twenties would not want to explore a relationship with a handsome, successful man.

The reader knows the killer.

Unlike police procedurals or suspense novels, cozy mysteries give the reader all the characters they need to solve the crime along with the protagonist.

Cozies take place within a closed community, meaning the reader is introduced to the killer somewhere in the story. The story structure is based on the style introduced by the brilliant Dame Agatha Christie.

Book One of the Color Book Mysteries is set on a Texas Hill Country dude ranch during a corporate retreat.

I drew a printable map of how to get there, if you’d like to print your own copy to accompany your book.

My readers meet the killer within the first few chapters of AZURE Death in the Texas Hill Country and very few realize who it is until the end.

No spoilers here!

The clues, however, are all there for you to sort through.

BLONDE Death in an Upscale Gym is set in an upscale Dallas gym. What?!? Just so you know, I’m not a big fan of the working out. And neither is my protagonist. However, Maeve’s sidekick is a fitness instructor and if you enjoyed Tiffany Albright in book one, you’ll be spending some time with her in her home environment during BLONDE.

You will not meet the killer as quickly in this novel as you did in AZURE, but they’re there. Lurking. Wrecking havoc. Cutting into some patrons’ workout time.

A cozy’s protagonist tends to be smart, female and an amateur detective.

My series protagonist is Maeve Clarke, an artist who is unsuitable for framing, and she’s all those things.

The style of the story and the choice of protagonist, are what separate one sub-genre from another.

I do not mean to imply there is a sub-genre of murder mysteries that has only dumb, male detectives. Not at all. I’m only saying, cozy mysteries tend to be peopled with clever, resourceful, smart women.

An amateur detective is generally true, at least at the beginning of the series.

I have twenty-six books planned in my Color Book Mysteries series. I fully expect Maeve to remain an amateur, in that she will not be paid to solve crimes. However, I would expect someone who must solve dozens of murders would give up their beginner status at some point : )

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I’m wondering.

Is anyone else hungry for ice cream? heehee