Enjoying Cosies?

Would Alexander McCall Smith's Number One Ladies Detective Agency stuff be cosies?

texttussi said:

Hi everyone!

I just browsed this forum and found a thread (from way back when) about cosies. And I realised that this is exactly what I like to read (and would like to write). I love reading Miss Marple and fortunately tend to forget whodunnit so I can re-read the books once in a while
I am looking for contemporary authors who write cosies. Can anyone recommend good reads in this genre?

Julia

Click to expand...

I like may cozy mysteries, as well, and I've read all the Miss Marple novels. I'm currently reading several of them again. It's tough finding good cozy writers. Librray websites tend to have good info on cozy writers, so you might try some of the ones on this list: http://www.madisonpubliclibrary.org/booklists/cozies.html

another one for the list

Hi, I enjoy cozies too. My current fave are Katherine Hall Page's Faith Fairchild mysteries. But Agatha Christie is always worth reading again.

I hope others post some suggestions.

Oh, and I love the #1 Ladies Detective Agency books. Who says you can't be commercial and still write great fiction.

Happy reading

texttussi said:

Hi everyone!

I just browsed this forum and found a thread (from way back when) about cosies. And I realised that this is exactly what I like to read (and would like to write). I love reading Miss Marple and fortunately tend to forget whodunnit so I can re-read the books once in a while
I am looking for contemporary authors who write cosies. Can anyone recommend good reads in this genre?

Julia

Click to expand...

I don't know of contemporary authors... but have you read Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver mysteries? Wonderful books.

Here's one...

Well, if you can wait awhile, I am halfway through my cozy... I just need to finish it off, find an agent, get it published, and then have it on book-shelves. The sleuth is an English barrister teaching law here in Texas and the killer is... well now, you'll just have to wait and see...

Cozie?

What's a cosie?

Cozy or cosy (either is acceptable) are generally understood to be an amature detective in a closed setting. Not a lot of sex or violence. It is a mannerly, deductive plot moved about by engaging but harmless characters. It feels safe and, well, cozy. Think Ms. Marple or the Murder She Wrote series (as a T.V. version of the cozy).

I want to write cozies as well and this thread has really helped me. I find them very interesting...not sure how easy they are to write, but hey i'll give anything a try once.

Susan Wettig Albert's China Bayles series.
M.R.Sellars (not really a cozy, but a good series)Rowan Gant Investigations.
Earlene Fowler
Yasmine Galenorn
I forget the author, but she writes the Ophelia and Abby series.
There are many sleuths that are cooks or caterers, they own coffee shops and tea shops too.

Then of course, there is mine. Only it's not in print...yet.

What about Margaret Maron's Deborah Knott series? Would this fit cosy, given that Deborah's a judge? I love this series and definitely think of it as cosy - interesting likeable characters, vivid realistic setting, violence pretty much offstage.

Going back a few years, what about Emma Lathen's John Thatcher series. I know Thatcher was a Wall Street banker - which is hardly cosy - but I find the series as reassuringly sharp yet humorous as the best cosies. Plus Lathen had a good eye for the social mood of the time. So she set mysteries within social issues eg Catholic change of post Vatican II, "Ashes to Ashes" and the civil rights movement, forget the book for the moment. I'd love to be able to capture current social issues with such an apparently effortless style. Does anyone have any suggestions of current cosy style authors with this sharp socio-political eye?

Jenny

I think anything with a cat protag - Rita Mae Brown's Sneaky Pie Brown series, the Lillian Jackson Braun Siamese kitties "The Cat Who..." series, and the Midnight Louie series by Carole Nelson Douglas - qualifies as cozy.

Some of my other cozy Favorites:
Too Big too Miss by Sue Ann Jaffarian (sharp eye for social attitudes toward big women and funny, too)
Blessed is the Busybody by Emilie Richards
The Flaming Luau of Death by Jerrilyn Farmer (ANYTHING by Jerrilyn Farmer!)
You May Now Kill the Bride by Deborah Donnelly

am I wrong?

Am I wrong in thinking that "cozy" also derives from "tea cozy," as it relates to those genteel types like Miss Marple?

No, you aren't wrong - Miss Marple is a favorite of the cozy set. I love her in all her incarnations, especially in the original books. A *cozy* is a little warming blanket or cover to keep a teapot, cup, or other item warm and/or protected. (Victorian single cup cozies were often very ornate, with beading even, and meant to protect the contents of the cup from contamination.)

Lloydyboy said:

What's a cosie?

Click to expand...

I always thought a cosie was one of those things you stick your beer can in at the beach to keep it cold.

huggie

Gee, I've always called mine a beer "huggie." Not to be confused with the diaper variety.........

I've recently discovered -- and completely by accident -- Carrie Bebris' Mr and Mrs Darcy mysteries. It's Jane Austen's P&P characters after the wedding, and Elizabeth and Darcy are constantly finding themselves embroiled in these mysteries, which of course are resolved by Lizzie's wit and Darcy's---- um, Darcyness.

They're quite fun, light reading, and even though I've never been a huge fan of the "cozy" mystery and lean more towards JD Robb, I'm really enjoying the series.

I love mysteries that cross freely between genres, use characters from other times/places/universes and expand the notion of what a mystery tale can be.

PattiTheWicked, the Darcy mysteries sound like fun.

Donna Andrews and her "bird" themed mysteries; and Charlaine Harris has two older series-- Aurora Teagarden (don't remember individual titles) and Lily Bard (the titles are things like "Shakespeare's... whatever").

I think 'Rosemary & Thyme' - the gardening mysteries on BBC/PBS with Pam Ferris & Felicity Kendall could qualify as cozies.

Donna Andrews and her "bird" themed mysteries; and Charlaine Harris has two older series-- Aurora Teagarden (don't remember individual titles) and Lily Bard (the titles are things like "Shakespeare's... whatever").

Click to expand...

__________________


oooh I loved the Aurora Teagarden books. I think one was called "Real Murders" and another one was called "Three Baths and a Murder."

What about Nancy Atherton and the Aunt Dimity books? Another Brit favorite is Dorothy Cannell (not sure I spelled her name right).

"The Fractal Murders" by Mark Cohen is a great read.

I finished The Ghost and Mrs. McClure and the sequel (by Alice Kimberly) the other day. The gimmick is that a perfectly respectable bookstore owner is being haunted by the ghost of a hard-boiled PI.

It was cute, and I'd definitely label it a cozy (the hard-boiled stuff was all filtered through the cozy perspective). Had some editing issues, and some clumsy parts, but overall, it was a fun read. And there was some interesting stuff about the publishing industry in general (the heroine worked for a publishing house before moving to the small town).

That's the most contemporary one I've read. For some older stuff, you could try Charlotte MacCleod, although I think that's skirting the edge of true cozyness. But The Curse of the Giant Hogweed is probably my favorite mystery of all time.