Cozy Mysteries 101 | What is a cozy mystery?

I feel like cozy mysteries are one of those genre that some readers shy away from because they either don’t understand what they are or because the kitschy titles can sometimes throw them off. I’m here to tell you that if you’re a reader, you’ve probably encountered a cozy mystery along the way! Does Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple sound familiar? What about Jessica Fletcher from the hit television series Murder She Wrote (and the books as well)? How about Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, or Trixie Belden?

Cozy mysteries can pop up anywhere and in different forms! I find British cozy mysteries to have less kitsch to them, for instance, than the American variety. I also think there are certain authors who go towards a bit more of a message with their books, while others keep it breezy.

Cozy Mystery 101

There are a few hallmarks of the genre though, and I want to highlight them here since I do read and sometimes review cozies for my blog. This isn’t an exhaustive list and you’ll definitely find exceptions, but here is what to expect from cozy mysteries and what makes them their own lovable sub-genre.

Tone | It’s all about the vibes

The vibe of cozy mysteries is much lighter than the broader Mystery / Thriller genre. Despite nearly always involving a murder (or more than one), cozy mysteries tend to be light on violence, gore, and sex. In fact, you’ll rarely find more than an allusion to sexual activities. In terms of the murders, cozies don’t cover any graphic details. We get the method, but not a description of the gory aspects to it. And methods like “falling off of a high ledge” and “poison” are pretty common, while it is much less common to see death by gun or other more gruesome demises.

Even in cozy mysteries with a more serious tone, the forensics of the murder itself are not prominent. This makes the genre very accessible to a wide variety of readers, who may love mysteries but feel uncomfortable with darker subject matter surrounding them.

Setting | Small town life

Cozy mysteries rely heavily on the main character being integrated into a relatively small community, and for that reason they are often set in small towns or villages. This is very important to the mystery, because the main character should be able to reasonably have access to and know most of the main characters and suspects as part of their daily life.

The character can likely bike or walk to anywhere they need to go in town (though this is not a pre-requisite by any means). Or they live out in the country where there are few residences around making the community small by default. If they happen to be in larger cities, the mystery will center around a subset of the community that has a specific connection that makes them well-connected within the plot.

Diversity | Everyone is included

Cozy mysteries are in my opinion one of the original champions of diversity in mainstream fiction. Often underacknowledged, cozy mysteries love to celebrate diversity, both through the main character and the supporting characters. Expect to see characters that span the cultural, ethnic, racial, religious, age, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status spread.

This is actually one of the best parts of cozy mysteries, because the diversity is there as part of the community building for the series. Cozies tend to celebrate people from different cultures, origins, and ethnicities. They champion LGBTQ+ relationships, feature different religious beliefs co-existing in harmony, and have characters of every cultural origin you can imagine. The main character can and often is of varying demographics (over 60, from a different culture, ethnically diverse, and even non-traditional body types).

Main Character | Sleuthing on the side

With very few exceptions, cozy mysteries feature a leading character who is firmly an amateur sleuth, and not a member of the police force. In fact, they may be a bit at odds with the local police (or end up flirting with them!).

The main character is typically female, can be of any age demographic, and has a career that will give them access to a lot of people within the community. Common professions for the leader include owning or working in a restaurant, café, or bar, libarian or bookseller, shop owner or employee, hotel worker, assistant at some sort of city establishment, or a journalist. Their profession is as much a part of the series as the mysteries are, with many cozies leaning into it to provide a theme for the series (if indeed it is a series).

The main character will be bright, intuitive, and social. The lead is often a mix of very caring and fiercely protective of others. Bold action is required to insert themselves into the mystery, often against the wishes of the authorities. They may described as tenacious, courageous, nosy, or resourceful. They usually have a college degree (though they may not be using it in their chosen profession) and are very socially connected and their network will include many of the town people that keep the clues coming during the mystery.

Supporting Cast | It takes a village

Many cozy mysteries will be part of a series of some sort, and because of that they tend to have a large and always growing cast of characters. In fact some cozy mysteries will have a character list included for reference or a guide to key terms or locations that are part of the world that has been built throughout.

Many of the characters will recur, and new ones are introduced to keep each mystery fresh. While most of the core cast is part of the community, there are often outsiders entering the scene. These people may be relatives of other towns people, new residents to the town, someone traveling through on tourism or business, or a former resident retuning after time away. These characters may become part of the core cast, be suspects in the mystery, or even may be the victim. Afterall, they can’t kill off every member of the town!

The core characters are largely likeable or at least have a growth arc at some point that makes them so. Although there may be a rival or two for our lead to keep things a bit spicy! The victim can be the reverse, and may be unlikeable. This is part of keeping the tone on the lighter side (so we don’t spend the book devastated about the death) and also serves up a lot of motives if the victim has wronged otherwise good people.

As far as the whodunnit—there is no formula for what type of character it is, though it will always be someone present in the story. Cozy mysteries rely on social connections to solve the crime, so you’ll pretty much never see a villain who is an anonymous murderer or serial killer.

Structure | Taking on the case

The structure of cozy mysteries is almost always linear in time and centers around one central narrator. It is very rare to see alternating narrators in a cozy mystery. Cozies may either have the lead character narrating first person, or have a third-person narration style. The story will start around or just before the murder occurs, and will tell a bit of backstory, but typically won’t have official then-and-now structure backwards and forward in time.

The case will move forward from the point it starts, and it isn’t as step-by-step as other mysteries might be (particularly police procedurals). Depending on the style of the mystery, there may even be breaks in the main sleuthing to showcase other things going on in the town or with the main character. Often these lead to pertinent information to the case, but not necessarily. Sometimes they further relationship dynamics across the series.

The evolution of cozy mysteries

It is interesting to follow cozy mysteries over the decades. It’s a genre that I can’t see ever going away, but as new generations of writers begin to find their voice within the genre I’ve noticed that there is more diversity in how they approach their mysteries. The foundations to cozy mysteries are the Agatha Christie style of book. These have very little kitsch to them, and cozy mysteries from Europe (particularly the UK) have stayed closer to those origins. The U.S. cozy mysteries have leaned into the fun of their themes and they love to have a punny title for the books.

This doesn’t mean there isn’t anything serious, though! I’ve noticed that over the recent years, cozy mysteries have at times gotten a bit more edge to them. They aren’t graphic, but they may introduce political or social topics that would be less common in older series. They may explore, for instance, the emotions of the lead around loss or grief. Sometimes the second or third will deal with the mental health struggles the lead may experience as a result of the first book. And I’ve even seen some dive into current political issues, such as police misconduct and brutality.

Cozy mysteries have always pushed the boundary with diversity, but this has become even more true as the genre evolves. And they may make more of a point about certain aspects of that diversity (for example, what it is like to be one of the few Black families in the town, despite how accepting most of the town is).

I could go on and perhaps eventually I’ll write a follow up to this. I hope reading this has convinced you that at a minimum, you know what a cozy mystery is and how to spot one, and may even convince you to add a few to your TBR list!