The Cozy Mystery
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Just What Is A Cozy Mystery? villages like Miss Marple’s St. Mary Meade, but contemporary American writers have managed The cozy, also known as a village, domestic, to convey a similar claustrophic atmosphere in The Cozy or traditional mystery, is one which employs small towns in New England, the South, and the characteristics popularized by the Grand elsewhere. Dame of Detection, Agatha Christie. This * The sleuth is most often an amateur, like the formula is still a bestseller today, with many Mystery prototypical nosy little old lady, Miss Marple. talented contemporary practitioners He or she brings personal resources such as successfully entertaining cozy fans with their keen curiousity and a knowledge of human modern version of this classic form. nature to their detection, rather than the more Classic & The main features of a cozy are: technical skills and tools of the professional detective. When “pros”, such as “consulting * There is always at least one death by Contemporary detective” Hercule Poirot or CID Inspector unnatural causes; indeed, it sometimes seems Alleyn, appear in a cozy, the focus is on the Favorites as if no one could possibly still be alive in quirks of their character and their relationship to Joan Hess’s Ozarks town of Maggody or the the community under investigation rather than in the sleepy Scottish village of Lochdubh policed by on advanced crime-fighting techniques. Constable Hamish Macbeth. But the violence Traditional Style is always kept “off-screen”, in deference to the * The murderer in a cozy is generally an reader’s sensibility. Likewise, the language is amateur as well, killing for love, an inheritance, genteel, with little or no profanity. And while or to hide a secret transgression which would there is often a romantic element, steamy sex “ruin” him or her. The choice of weapon reflects is virtually non-existent. this amateur status, with poison or a nearby blunt object (the ubiquitious poker) far * The victim and the murderer are usually well- outranking more “professional” methods such known to each other, members of the same as shooting or strangling. family, village, or social circle (usually of the “better” classes). Indeed, the entire action is * Good always wins out over evil in a cozy, the usually confined to a country estate, small culprit is always found out, and generally, love town, or similar setting. Even those stories triumphs over all. While domestic murder is with more exotic locales, such as Christie’s hardly an advertisement for “family values”, the Ridgefield Library “Murder on the Orient Express”, tend to focus cozy generally reinforces an old-fashioned 472 Main Street exclusively on a small group of people who, belief in the rightness of the social structure and when thrown together by fate, quickly come to the essential goodness, if weakness, of most Ridgefield, CT 06877 love and hate each other as thoroughly as if people. (203) 438-2282 they were long-time family or neighbors. The classic cozies took place in small English Contemporary British Masters The Classic Cozy Malice Domestic, American Style Marian Babson Margery Allingham Lilian Jackson Braun Trixie Dolan & Evangeline Sinclair, aging ex- Albert Campion, upper-class amateur sleuth Jim Qwilleran, newspaper columnist & the movie stars, who find the roles of their lives as who is aided in his detection by the somewhat wealthiest man in Pickax County, and his uncanny amateur sleuths dubious talents and connections of his manservant Siamese cats Koko & Yum Yum Lugg, a reformed crook M.C. Beaton Jill Churchill Agatha Christie Agatha Raisin, romance-hungry Cotswold Jane Jeffrey, Chicago homemaker retiree Miss Jane Marple, the elderly marvel of St. Mary Meade, whose keen eyes and warm heart help Diane Mott Davidson Hamish Macbeth, unambitious Scottish village her to uncover crimes that baffle the experts Goldy Bear, Aspen Meadow, CO caterer constable Hercule Poirot, Belgian detective whose “little Earlene Fowler Michael Bond grey cells” enable him to solve any mystery, ably Bennie Harper, ex-cowgirl & quilter M. Pamplemousse, undercover food critic, and assisted by his friend Captain Hastings and the long- his faithful canine companion Pommes Frites suffering Inspector Jappe of Scotland Yard Sarah Graves Jacobia Tiptree, former NYC financial whiz, Simon Brett Tommy & Tuppence Beresford, “Partners in Crime”, a British version of Hollywood’s Nick and now restoring an old house & solving murders in Mrs. Pargeter, irrepressible widow Nora Charles Down East Maine Rhys Bowen John Creasy Carolyn Hart Evan Evans, village constable in the mountains “The Toff”, an elegant and roguish young man Annie Darling, owner of the SC island mystery of North Wales “down from Cambridge with half a million and a bookstore, “Death on Demand” Dorothy Cannell hatred of dullness” which involves him in many a Henrietta O’Dwyer Collins (Henrie O,) retired crime caper “The Thin Woman”, the formerly fat Ellie newshound Haskell, along with her handsome husband Ben, a Ngaio Marsh Joan Hess chef, and the other denizens of the suitably gothic Inspector Roderick Alleyn, who has forsaken his Merlin’s Court Arly Hanks, chief of police in Maggody, upper-class upbringing to become a policeman Arkansas (pop. 755) Caroline Graham tasked with investigating murder in his former social Jane Langton Tom Barnaby, mild-mannered chief inspector in circle a small English town Dorothy L. Sayers Homer Kelly, Harvard lecturer & former Boston police detective Martha Grimes Lord Peter Wimsey, the quintessential “upper Charlotte MacLeod Inspector Richard Jury & a village pub full of class twit”, whose foolish appearance masks a cunning mind and a heroic spirit eccentric characters Max Bittersohn, art detective, his wife Sarah Kelling, and her loony if blue-blooded Boston family Anne Morice Josephine Tey Tessa Crichton, actress & wife of Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant, who enjoys being a Professor Peter Shandy, Maine college botany inspector Robin Price policeman despite a sizable inheritance because it professor & his librarian wife keeps him mentally active John Mortimer Margaret Maron Patricia Wentworth Horace Rumpole, grumpy but lovable barrister, Deborah Knott, North Carolina district judge Miss Maud Silver, former governess & private who gets to the bottom of many a crime despite the Sharyn McCrumb nagging of She Who Must Be Obeyed — his wife detective Hilda Elizabeth MacPherson, forensic anthropologist & enthusiastic fan of all things Scottish Patricia Moyes Katherine Hall Page Henry Tibbett, globe-trotting Scotland Yard inspector, & his wife Emmy Titles by these authors may be found in the Faith Sibley, minister’s wife & gourmet cook Mystery section of the Fiction Room on the Elizabeth Peters Nancy Pickard second floor of the Library. Amelia Peabody Emerson, turn-of-the-century Jenny Cain, seacoast New England civic Egyptologist & feminist foundation director Please ask the staff for assistance in finding Dorothy Simpson Virginia Rich these or other books for your leisure reading Luke Thanet, police inspector & amiable family Eugenia Potter, world-class cook (series con- man in Kent enjoyment. tinued by Nancy Pickard after Rich’s death) .