What is a Cozy Mystery?
Cozy mysteries can be referred to as cozies, murder mystery, or whodunit. If the Clue game or even the movie Clue comes to mind, then you're exactly on the right track! Agatha Christie is another one — she is the queen of cozy mysteries, selling over 2 billion copies.
The first author credited with writing a locked room mystery is often considered to be Edgar Allan Poe. In 1841, Poe published a short story called "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," which is widely regarded as the first modern detective story and features a locked room mystery as its central element.
In "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," a seemingly impossible crime takes place within a locked room, where two women are brutally murdered. The room is securely locked from the inside, and the windows are nailed shut, leaving investigators puzzled about how the killer could have entered or exited the room. The story follows the detective C. Auguste Dupin as he unravels the mystery through careful observation and deduction.
Poe's contribution to the genre established the locked room mystery as a popular trope in detective fiction and influenced numerous authors who followed, making him an important figure in the development of the mystery genre as a whole.
There are certain rules and expectations when it comes to cozy mysteries. Referring to the book How to Write and Market a Christmas Cozy Mystery by T. Lockhaven, there are key elements to a cozy murder mystery.
Key Elements to a Cozy Murder Mystery
| Family Friendly | There's no gratuitous violence, there's little or no profanity, and if there is sex, it's behind closed doors. |
| Small Community | Most cozies take place in small rural communities where everyone knows each other. That doesn't mean that it has to be a small fishing village in New England, it simply means the story revolves around a fixed location with a thriving community. |
| Murder is at the Beginning of the Book | The murder usually takes place in the first third of the book. This gives the reader plenty of time to investigate along with the amateur sleuth and figure out the crime. |
| No Gory Murders | Some of the favorite ways for cozy mystery authors to kill their victims are stabbing, poisoning, pushing the victim downstairs, shooting, bludgeoning, drowning and strangulation. |
| Multiple Suspects | The reader wants to match wits with the protagonist and try to figure out who the killer is. Cozy mysteries tend to have at least three murder suspects. |
| Convincing Reason for the Protagonist to Investigate | Usually, if it's an amateur sleuth investigating the murder, there needs to be a compelling reason for the protagonist to get involved. |
| Murders Made Simple | Cozies can have complex plots, but they usually don't get involved in topics such as human trafficking, international terrorist groups or crime syndicates. |
| A Fulfilling Conclusion | A cozy mystery should be a complete story with a murder, a trail of clues, and a satisfying ending whereupon the murderer is caught, justice is served up like a freshly baked loaf of bread, and the community returns to a state of normalcy. |