The cozy mystery concerns itself with—above all else—murder. Plain and simple. Who murdered whom, by what means, and for what reasons.
To help guide the author as she crafts her murder mystery story—or merely to inform the curious reader looking for what makes this genre so popular today—this series of articles will explore the essential elements of the modern cozy mystery, comparing and contrasting them to those conventions in place during the heyday of detective fiction. Perhaps we will even venture to make a prediction or two as to the direction this popular genre may be heading.
The Cozy Mystery, Then and Now
Today’s cozy mysteries bear obvious differences—as well as some important similarities—to the classic murder mystery stories published one hundred years ago, during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. Writing styles have certainly changed since those long ago days, as have many of the other mechanics of the craft, such as plot development, dialogue, character, and viewpoint. Undeniably, the pace of today’s mystery story is brisker, making for a quicker and—some would argue—more satisfying read.
But perhaps nothing illustrates the difference in writing conventions between the two ages quite like a comparison of the manner in which cozy mystery authors—past and present—have chosen to people their stories.
After decades of evolution, the message of the cozy mystery is as loud and clear today as it was one hundred years ago: The murderer is one of us, and it is up to us—together—to make things right again.
Setting aside cases of intentional parody—and the ever-popular Period Fiction sub-genre—largely gone now is the upper crust man or woman of leisure turning idly towards detection to stave off boredom. Many of today’s cozy mystery readers prefer their detectives to be rather ordinary folk, much like themselves, all the better if that detective happens to be saddled with some personal or professional tragedy—or at least some non-trivial hardship—especially when that tragedy or hardship is one of their own device.
Mostly gone too are the ornate walking sticks, the meticulously waxed mustachios, and (sadly) the unapologetic conspicuous consumption, all of which in the past instantly branded a character’s social status in the reader’s mind and, rightly or not, indelibly marked that character a suspect until proven otherwise.
Continuity with the past is retained, however, in the strict adherence to one of the genre’s signature elements: the closed setting. While the dashing English Lord of the Manor may have been replaced by the dotty maiden aunt, wearily going about her daily routine oblivious to the fact she is entirely out of her depth, the original intent of the closed setting remains as an unmistakable symbol, ubiquitous as ever throughout the genre: A realization that the evil we all face comes not from the outside; rather, it lives here among us. After decades of evolution, the message of the cozy mystery is as loud and clear today as it was one hundred years ago: The murderer is one of us, and it is up to us—together—to make things right again.
What is a Cozy Mystery?
Despite these stylistic transformations, the modern cozy mystery is essentially a classic murder mystery, employing a conventional set of fictional elements, broadly described here as the crime, the milieu, and the play.
Let’s take a moment to further define these fictional elements in order to set a structure and common language for exploring them in more detail in future articles.
The Crime
The crime in the cozy mystery (usually one or more murders, but sometimes some other felony) has three essential parts: the means to murder (how the crime was perpetrated), the motive for murder (why the crime was perpetrated), and the opportunity for murder (who among the cast of characters had occasion to perpetrate the crime).
Future articles will visit each of these parts in detail to describe what makes each one fit so elegantly into the whole and why, without all three, we have no cozy mystery story.
The Milieu
A milieu consists of the people, setting, social conditions, and events that provide the environment in which a person acts or lives. In the cozy mystery, this is represented by the cozy mystery characters—including their backstories and relationships—and the cozy mystery setting.
Today’s rather unique settings and characters are considered hallmarks of the cozy mystery; indeed, some would argue that today’s characters and settings are the modern cozy mystery. Of all the essential elements of the cozy mystery, it is within the milieu that we witness the most restlessness among modern authors. Future articles will explore both characters and setting, and the important role they play in establishing new sub-genres.
The Play
In constructing their stories, many successful cozy mystery authors hesitate to stray far from the time-honored three-act formula. Others—wanting to place their creative mark on the genre—elect to add minor derivations, such as additional acts, prologues, epilogues, denouements, and the sort.
This is the vast playground of the cozy mystery author. Our delving into what constitutes each act of the play (plotting the cozy mystery) will be but one, albeit biased, example of a structure capable of representing infinite variety.
What the Cozy Mystery is Not
To help guide the reader towards the kinds of entertainment she is likely to enjoy, fiction is conveniently categorized into genres. Based on the generally accepted rules of genre fiction, the cozy mystery is not at all a thriller story. Nor is it, strictly speaking, a romance—and it is most certainly not a horror or slasher story. Except in those cases of intentional crossover, the cozy mystery could not be mistaken for a story from practically any other genre.
Part of deciding what falls into one particular genre, and not another, is how closely a work adheres to the rules, or conventions, defined for that genre. While the points listed above are by no means meant to be interpreted as rules—they are merely one writer’s musings on what may be considered essential elements of a modern cozy mystery—rules do exist. Mostly these rules set the expectation for what should not be done by the cozy mystery author rather than what should be done. One might think of them as anti-rules.
- No profane language, explicit violence, or descriptions of sexual activity is allowed.
- No clue known to the detective can be withheld from the reader (though a deft author will not always immediately disclose the detective’s interpretation of a clue she has recently discovered).
- No divine intervention, spiritual intuition, or illogical coincidence can precipitate the solution to the mystery.
Other conventions do exist, of course, but the general idea is that the reader can approach the genre with an expectation of fairness and a level playing field. Whether the author chooses to adhere to the rules—or indeed, if she even should—is a subject for another set of articles.
Thanks for visiting! This is the first in a series of articles that explore the question: What is a cozy mystery?
Up Next: The Means to Murder