Last year I heard Susan Keene describe her cozy mystery series, High Heels Homicide. Susan has a no-nonsense grit in her voice that mixed with her witty humor just makes her a delight. She’s also unpretentious and more than willing to offer insights on writing cozy mysteries. Here is what I learned from Susan: If an NCIS crime series episode had a child with a Hallmark movie, the result would be a cozy mystery.
Cozy mysteries do involve murder, but the author must kill the characters nicely. There is no gore or blood on the pages, but a character can find a dead body. Then we have a cozy mystery. It’s murder, but not. It’s edgy but not… at all.
There is romance in the cozy mystery–and perhaps it is an essential ingredient–but it rarely goes beyond flirting or hand holding or an innocent kiss. The main character is female because the readers of cozy mysteries are largely women. They enjoy relatable female sleuths in sticky situations (Yes, you read that right. I used the term “sticky situations,” and I am resisting the urge to revise it).
A cozy mystery is typically written in first person, and it’s a quick read. They can be around 50,000-60,000 words, which is closer to a novella than a novel. According to Susan Keene, cozy mystery readers prefer short, easily digested chapters as well, and the main character can’t be a professional investigator. She may consult with an attorney or a friend in law enforcement, but she is an everyday woman drawn by her circumstances and curiosity and intellect into heroism.
The motive for murder in a cozy mystery can be one of three possibilities: greed, revenge, or fear, and the victim should be killed in the first chapter so the focus is on solving the mystery. The victims in “cozies”–yes, writers affectionately call them this– cannot be children or animals. That would be too gritty for the reader seeking an entertaining and light-hearted escape, which is typically the motive for reading.
If you are interested in writing a cozy mystery, immerse yourself in the genre by reading them first.
Jodi Whitehurst 
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