When I’m out and about, people often ask me what I do. After a brief history of how I’m a veterinarian who practiced small animal medicine for fifteen years and then began a writing and editing business, I always say I’m also an author. Then, they ask me what I write, and I say cozy mysteries.
That’s when I usually get a blank stare.
And I’m not surprised. It’s not a term that I had heard before I started writing them. I stumbled into the genre because it’s the type of story I love to tell, and I learned the moniker afterward.
So, here’s what it means when a book is a cozy mystery:
- There’s no sex, swearing, or on-page gore. Okay, I know there’s usually a murder (though sometimes it’s a crime caper, and so far, two of my books don’t have any death). But the murder usually happens off the page.
- There’s an amateur sleuth. Most of the time, the protagonist of a cozy mystery is just an average person (usually female), not a detective by trade. The main character is thrust into the role of solving the murder for some reason, usually because they or someone they love is a suspect and local law enforcement isn’t doing a great job of finding the real culprit.
- The setting is a small town. This isn’t always the case, but it often is. Cozy mysteries usually happen in small towns. The kind where everyone knows everyone else’s business.
- There’s a cast of quirky characters. This is part of what makes cozies so fun. The characters. Usually, there are a lot of fun, unique, quirky characters in a cozy mystery.
So, that’s the main, bare-bones definition of a cozy mystery. Additionally, many of mine are paranormal cozies. That means there’s some element of the supernatural involved. Since I’ve always loved stories about witches, wizards, ghosts, and other paranormal beings, it was only natural that I would write about them.
So, there you have it. Now you know what a cozy mystery is, and I hope you love them as much as I do. Check out all my current books at the bottom of the homepage here: Paula Lester’s Cozy Mysteries.
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