That Mysterious Cozy Mystery

Yesterday, my newest neighbor came over for a cup of coffee and a chat. It was fun, a sort of “get to know your neighbor” get together. She is interested in writing and she looked through my six cozy mysteries. But, you know what she asked? “What is a cozy mystery?” she said. “I mean, I know what a mystery story is but what makes them cozy?”

So, I tried to explain. Cozies are not graphically violent. If something violent happens, it is “off stage”. The characters in the book talk about it and try to solve the mystery of it but the author doesn’t dwell on the truly terrible aspects. The main characters (in my case, Darcy and Flora or Ned) discuss clues and suspicions with each other or a friend. Sort of like my neighbor and I were doing yesterday; she with a glass of tea and me with a cup of coffee.

Of course, Darcy, being Darcy and Ned, being Ned, are hands-on people and the cozy chats around the dining table lead to active involvement. Which results in tumbles down Deertrack Hill and being pursued by bad and lawless people or being kidnapped or…well, you get the picture.

This is the basic premise of a cozy. Usually, there’s a romantic interest but it is not the focal point of the story. Darcy has Grant, Flora has Jackson Conner, Ned has Cade Morris. These men are all quite masculine, and protective and they are there when Darcy, Flora, or Ned need them. Think Margaret Mitchell’s Rhett Butler or Lillian Jackson Braun’s Qwilleran 

I’ve never found that profanity or graphic love scenes do anything good for a story line and when I encounter them in a book I’m reading, they do nothing at all to move the story along. So, my cozies don’t have them. Darcy, Flora, and Ned, all the way from The Cemetery Club through By the Fright of the Silver Moon, have a bedrock Christian faith. Believe me, in the situations in which they find themselves, they need prayer!

I guess, for those readers who really don’t understand what a cozy mystery is and would like to know, the best thing to do is not read about one, but read one! The books themselves are their own best explanations.

Observing clues is very important to solving a mystery. In the picture of my coffee mug this morning, you might surmise the writer of this blog likes coffee. If the picture were larger, you could see the time on the coffee maker and deduce that I am an early riser. The cabinet top is not granite or any of the newer materials so another guess would be that I’m not particularly affluent or maybe live in an older house. If you turned the empty mug upside down and looked at the bottom, you would see it is St. George fine china, made in England. Now, where did I get that? Where did it come from? Is it a help in knowing more about me? What do you think?

Nemo, although he is a cozy type of dog, is usually straightforward and not mysterious at all. (Except for his strange dislike of the computer.) For example, by looking at this picture, it’s a pretty safe guess he’s barking at his arch-enemy the bushy-tailed squirrel. The time of the year, judging by the leaves, is fall, and due to the fence in the background, he’s probably in the back yard. That’s what cozy mysteries are. They offer clues to solving an unknown and, along the way there’s plenty of coffee or tea and friends and, a large measure of just plain fun.