What Makes a Mystery a Cozy Mystery?
Guest Post by Karen C Whalen, Cozy Mystery Author Extraordinaire
Hi, Patty Pagers! My guest host today is Karen C. Whalen, the award-winning author of three cozy mystery series. The Dinner Club Mysteries features Jane Marsh, an empty nester who hosts a gourmet dinner club. The Tow Truck Mysteries stars Delaney Morran, a super feminine shoe-a-holic who drives a tow truck. Both are about strong friendships and family ties set in Colorado. The Sea Oats Beach series is a cozy mystery – beach read set in Coastal Carolina. Her books are similar to those written by authors Jessica Beck, Joanne Fluke, Leslie Meier, Cindy Bell, and Laura Childs.
What Makes a Mystery a Cozy Mystery?
Three things: sex and violence occur offstage, the detective is an amateur sleuth, and the crime takes place in a small, cozy community. That’s where the term cozy comes from, so let’s focus on setting.
Setting involves two separate elements, the physical location and the feeling of community within the location. The tale takes place in a locality the reader might wish to visit, or better yet, to live.
Successful American cozies are set in locations such as Maine, where the leaves on the tall oak trees change from green to red, Arizona, where the desert adds to the mystique, or one of my favorites, Minnesota, where the snow is deep and the fireplace is blazing. The community within the location is achieved when the characters work together, such as at a bakery or library, or when the characters have a common hobby that brings them together, such as cooking or gardening. For the British cozy, the location and community are the same—such as a small English village in the Cotswolds.
If the setting is too cozy, it may require too much of a stretch of the imagination. How many people can be murdered in one small town, such as Cabot Cove in the television show, Murder She Wrote? Toward the end of the series, Jessica was required to visit friends in different cities in order for her to discover yet another dead body. Some mystery writers use fictional settings to avoid the problem of too many murders in one place. When the book is set in a real location, readers already have a feel for the place, but in a fictional location the author must describe the setting well enough to convey the cozy feeling. It may be more work, but with a fictional location the writer doesn’t need to worry about giving the town a bad reputation when the dead bodies stack up.
Whether fictional or real, a cozy setting generates a feeling of belonging and a desire to visit, so much so, fans of the Doc Martin television series travel to Port Isaac in northern Cornwall, the actual location of the fictional village of Portwenn.
In my series, The Dinner Club Murder Mysteries, the club is the basis of the community. Steadfast members, plus my protagonist and her various dates, make up the club in an imaginary, small suburb of Denver. Others apply and try out for membership, adding and taking away new characters for variety. In The Tow Truck Murder Mysteries, the community revolves around a group of characters who frequent a coffee shop in a small mountain town between Denver and Vail. The protagonist drives a tow truck while wearing high heels!
Nothing thrills me more than when I receive comments from readers who tell me they’ve added a visit to Colorado to their bucket list after reading my cozies.
Since I’ve recently moved from Colorado to North Carolina, my latest series takes place on an east coast barrier island, where the protagonist volunteers at an animal shelter. The imaginary town contains a colorful cast of characters including the island of Sea Oats Beach itself.
If the reader loves my book settings enough to want to travel to those places, then I am pleased and confident I’ve made my murder mystery a cozy!
Karen’s first book in the Dinner Club series, Everything Bundt the Truth, tied for FIRST PLACE in the Suspense Novel category of the 2017 IDA Contest. The third in the Tow Truck series, Eyes on the Road, was a SECOND PLACE winner of the 2023 Firebird Book Awards in the Cozy Mystery category. The first in the Sea Oats Beach Mysteries, Murder at Sea Oats Beach, won the 2024 Firebird Book Awards in the Summer Beach Read category.If you would like more information on Karen or to find out about her books and where to purchase them visit her website: https://karencwhalen.com/
BOOK REVIEW: Washed Up at Sea Oats Beach by Karen C Whalen
Recently I was lucky enough to snare an advance copy of Karen C Whalen’s new cozy coming out in April, Washed Up at Sea Oats Beach, on BookFunnel in exchange for a fair review. I loved it and know you will, too!
Washed Up at Sea Oats Beach by Karen C Whalen starts with a dead body of a female surfer found on the beach by Bree Hart during an early morning walk with her friend, Roscoe. The tension doesn’t slow down until the mystery is solved. The two also find a dehydrated chocolate lab floating on another surfboard nearby which Roscoe rescues. Who was this woman and why was she killed? And who could leave a pet to perish in the water?
Her love for animals will push Bree to foster the lab she names Milo and investigate the mystery woman so she can reunite the traumatized pet with its owners. Bree meets people in her new town as she works to solve the mystery, but someone is determined that Bree and Milo stay out of the murder investigation. What will happen next?
I loved the first book in this new series, Murder at Sea Oats Beach, and loved this one as well. Karen C Whalen paints a vivid picture of the citizens and town of Sea Oats Beach. Her depiction of Breanna Hart’s struggles with a social anxiety disorder ring true to life. Who is Bree attracted to most, police officer, Ty, or surfer-dude, Roscoe? Who killed the young female surfer? And will Milo ever find his way home? Read this adorable cozy mystery to find out. A Salty 5 Stars!
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loved Murder on Sea Oats Beach and can't wait to read Washed Up on Sea Oats Beach.
Enjoying Everything Bundt the Truth but cant beat the combination of beach and dogs!
Love Cozy Mysteries, especially when they are set in England. It has motivated a trip this summer to the Cotswalds and Bath. Patty, enjoying the substack.