Curl up with a cozy

IN our real world of global violence, the cozy murder has maintained its intellectual escapism. The cozy began in England in the time of Queen Victoria and has been popular ever since. As opposed to hardboiled crime, the cozy downplays sex and violence. A baffling puzzle, with clues for the reader, give it the special appeal.

Agatha Christie remains the best known cozy author, yet there are modern writers just as good. And, with today’s internet browsing, it is easy to track them down.

Ann Morven (six cozy novels, several short stories) leads the field in my opinion. Her bio and titles can be found on  her web page at Amazon, http://www.amazon.com/Ann-Morven/e/B008GREDDE

She does the standard English village crime, but also locates her whodunits in erotic settings that vary from the Borneo jungle to the remote Highlands of Scotland. This reflects her lifelong career as a world journalist. This, I suppose, is also the source of the various hostile police characters who resent her amateur sleuthing.

A few more cozy authors of interest: Simon Brett, Jeanne M. Dams, Christianna Brand, Nicholas Blake, W.J. Burley, Christopher Fowler. Also, the late PD James, applying unique gentle prose to the gory evils that beset the human mind. Unlike most cozies, hers feature a professional police detective. The usual cozy sleuth is amateur (a trend set by Miss Marple). Their ages, jobs and backgrounds vary, often providing the link to the fatal deed.

The killers in cozies are generally members of the group or the community where the crimes occur. Their motives—greed, jealousy, revenge—are often rooted in past events.

But, of course, it is the writing that makes a cozy you simply can’t put down, and some of these creations surely must qualify as great literature. To critics who claim crime writing cannot be literary I say: Shakespeare wrote some lovely murders.

Happy reading! From Cathy.