Cozy mysteries are best summed up as Murder, She Wrote. The protagonists are usually women, almost never cops themselves (they’re actually usually dismissed by cops), they’re almost always beautiful but never think so (everyone else thinks so for them), and they’re criminally under-appreciated.
There’s little actual violence, there’s rarely any cursing, and sex isn’t really a thing.
They feel like they’re written for grandmas with fragile sensibilities.
But I like them.
For the most part.
The thing that kind of irks me is that modern cozies usually feature gimmicks. This one includes cookie recipes as the protagonist sleuth works at a cookie shop but I’ve also read books framed with recipes by region like French or Chinese, one where a woman ran a coffee shop, a quilting store in Amish country, and a whole series about a book publisher.
There’s also usually a cute animal and they’re sometimes there for the protagonist to bounce ideas off of about the crime so we don’t live in her head too much or they’re there to give off cute vibes.
The coffee shop one (easily my least favorite in the genre) had a cat named Java.
But my least favorite is trying to make an arc that spans multiple books with the inclusion of a relationship - usually a love triangle with a lot of “will they / won’t they,” bullshit. I hate it. I came to read inconsequential books about people being murdered, NOT to read some quasi-romance with a protagonist that gnaws on her nails as she strings along two dudes and can’t decide whether she should go with the ruggedly handsome one or the surer bet that maybe isn’t as exciting but still attractive in his own way.
Ugh.
They often go overboard with these.
Luckily for me, that last bit is only in the epilogue of this book but it makes me REALLY hesitant to read on.
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Already read it!
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