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What is a Cozy Mystery?

© Terrie Lynn Bittner

Traditionally, the cozy was a British novel featuring sweet elderly women and other harmless protagonists. Now, however, cozies take place in every place and time. The genre is gradually broadening as popularity increases. Most cozies are written for women and are a series, probably appealing to women who once thrived on Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden.

As the name suggests, cozies are light mysteries. They nearly always have an amateur detective, although there is often a police officer or detective in a supporting role, such as a boyfriend or best friend. The amateur cozy sleuth gathers clues by listening to gossip, and by paying attention to the activities around her. She relies on her understanding of human nature, her natural nosiness, and her personality to help her gather her clues. She is seldom taken seriously by the police, her boyfriend or spouse, or anyone else, although best friends are sometimes supportive. In this respect, she is more like Trixie Belden than Nancy Drew.

The cozy sleuth seems to attract murder the way storytellers attract an audience. What was once a quiet, peaceful town where no one locked his door suddenly becomes a target for murderers, with crimes happening at least once a year. Normally, two people die before the book ends, and the connections between the two victims are the secret to solving the case. The sleuth has access to a large number of people, often through her career. Caterers are very popular these days, but amateur sleuths are also decorators, bookstore owners, contractors, archaeologists and even homemakers who run a murderous PTA.

Most cozy murder mysteries are tamer than their hard-broiled counterparts. The first murder is usually committed before the book begins or offstage, and the second murder is also committed offstage. Descriptions of the crime scene are normally toned down to avoid upsetting the stomach of the reader, who is likely to be having lunch or rocking a baby as she reads. There is usually less graphic sex, although books are becoming, sadly, more graphic in recent times. They are seldom more than a PG-13 read, however, and some are even PG.

The cozy is an intellectual puzzle. They are preferred by women who are intelligent and not inclined to read fiction. The books generally have strong, quirky characters and the people are at least as interesting as the plot. They are a study in human nature, rather than a titillating look into the sex and violence of life.