Cosy Mystery

Cozy mysteries (also referred to as cozies) are a sub-genre of crime fiction in which sex and violence occur offstage, the detective is an amateur sleuth, and the crime and detection take place in a small socially-intimate community. Cozies thus stand in contrast to hardboiled fiction, in which more violence and explicit sexuality are central to the plot. The term "cozy" was first coined in the late 20th century, when various writers produced work in an attempt to recreate the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.

Characters

The detectives in such stories are nearly always amateurs and are frequently women. Village policeman Hamish Macbeth, featured in a series of novels by M. C. Beaton and reporter Jim Qwilleran, featured in The Cat Who... series by Lillian Jackson Braun, are notable exceptions. These characters are typically well educated and intuitive, and hold jobs that bring them into constant contact with other residents of their community and the surrounding region (e.g., caterer, innkeeper, librarian, teacher, dog trainer, shop owner, reporter).What Makes a Cozy Just That?, Cozy Mystery List
/ref> Like other amateur detectives, they typically have a contact on the police force who can give them access to important information about the case at hand, but the contact is typically a spouse, lover, friend, or family member, rather than a former colleague. Dismissed by the authorities in general as nosy busybodies, particularly if they are middle-aged or elderly women, the detectives in cozy mysteries are thus left free to eavesdrop, gather clues, and use their native intelligence and intuitive "feel" for the social dynamics of the community to solve the crime.

The murderers in cozies are typically neither psychopaths nor serial killers and, once unmasked, are usually taken into custody without violence. They are generally members of the community in which the murder occurs and able to hide in plain sight, and their motives (greed, jealousy, revenge) are often rooted in events years or even generations old. The murderers are typically rational and often highly articulate, enabling them to explain or elaborate on their motives after their unmasking.

The supporting characters in cozy mysteries are often very broadly drawn and used as comic relief. The accumulation of such characters in long-running cozy mystery series, such as those of Charlotte MacLeod, frequently creates a stock company of eccentrics among whom the detective stands out as the most, perhaps only, truly sane person.

One subtle joke in such series is how the main character constantly becomes embroiled in so many high-profile cases, often by accident. A long-running joke about the series ''Murder, She Wrote'' was how the main character/detective (Jessica Fletcher) had to be the actual murderer in every case: "No matter where she goes, somebody dies!"

Content

Cozy mysteries do not employ any but the mildest profanity. The murders take place off stage, frequently involve relatively bloodless methods such as poisoning and falls from great heights. The wounds that are inflicted on the victim are never dwelt on and are seldom used as clues. Sexual activity, even between married characters, is ever only gently implied and is never directly addressed, and the subject is frequently avoided altogether.

The cozy mystery usually takes place in a town, village, or other community small (or otherwise insular) enough to make it believable that all the principal characters know and may well have long-standing social relationships with one another. The amateur detective is usually a gregarious, well-liked individual, who gets the community members to talk freely about one another. There is usually at least one very knowledgeable, nosy, yet reliable character in the book who is intimately familiar with the personal history and interrelationships of everyone in the town and can fill in the blanks of the puzzle to enable the amateur detective to solve the case.

Cozy mystery series frequently have a prominent thematic element introduced by the detective's job, pet or hobby. Diane Mott Davidson's cozies, for example, revolve around cooking, Parnell Hall's around crossword puzzles, and Charlotte MacLeod's "Sarah Kelling" series around art. Other series focus on topics including fishing, golfing, hiking, fashion, antiques, and interior decoration. Cat-lovers are well represented among the ranks of cozy-mystery detectives, notably in the work of Lilian Jackson Braun and Rita Mae Brown; herbalists appear frequently (of whom the best known is Ellis Peters' medieval sleuth Brother Cadfael). There are also cozy mystery series with themes of Christmas, Easter, and other holidays.

While de-emphasis on sex and violence, emphasis on puzzle-solving over suspense, the setting of a small town, and a focus on a hobby or occupation are characteristic elements of cozy mysteries, the boundaries of the subgenre remain vague.

Examples

Literature

* Nancy Atherton's Aunt Dimity novels feature American Lori Sheppard, who settles in an English village thanks to an inheritance from "Aunt" Dimity (an old friend of her late mother's). Dimity communicates with Lori, via a magical journal, to help solve mysteries involving Lori and her neighbors.
* Lilian Jackson Braun's '' Cat Who...'' series began as a more "hardboiled" mystery series in the late 1960s but transformed into cozy mysteries when the author resumed writing them almost 20 years later.
*Rita Mae Brown wrote three cozy mystery series:
** The Foxhunting Mystery Series, set in Virginia, features "Sister Jane" Arnold, a 70-year-old Master of the Fox Hunt.
**The Mags & Baxter Mystery Series, set in Nevada, features Mags Rogers, ex-Wall Streeter; Baxter, Mag's wirehaired dachshund; Jeep Reed, Mags' Grandmother Rancher; and King, Jeep's German Shepherd cross.
**The Mrs. Murphy series of animal cozies, set in the Deep South, is "co-authored" with Sneaky Pie Brown, the talking cat whom the main cat character, Mrs. Murphy, is based on.
*Sarah Caudwell's Hilary Tamar Series features Professor Hilary Tamar, and a cast of clever and trouble-prone young London barristers.
*The Miss Marple character, created by Agatha Christie, appears in 12 novels which have been adapted numerous times for film and television.
* Blaize Clement's Dixie Hemingway Mysteries chronicle the adventures of a cop turned pet-sitter in Siesta Key, Florida.
* Cleo Coyle's Coffeehouse Mysteries feature Greenwich Village coffeeshop owner Clare Cosi, who sleuths with help from her coffee-hunting ex-husband and her staff of quirky baristas.
* Carola Dunn

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