The 5 Crucial Ingredients of Cosy Crime
Cosy crime! It’s everywhere, or so it seems. Readers love it, booksellers and publishers certainly love it, and even established authors and now trying their hand at it.
But what exactly is cosy crime, I hear you say? What are its crucial ingredients? I’m so glad you asked…
1: That’s Impossible!
The most important element in any cosy is a baffling crime. Most often this is a murder, though not always (Vaseem Khan’s Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown revolves around a gem heist, for example). What matters is that the crime is truly mystifying; even seemingly impossible in the case of many locked-room murders. More than any other subgenre, cosy takes delight in the puzzle of the crime, and often encourages readers to try and ‘beat the detective’ by figuring it out for themselves.
2: Old Friends
Some might say this is even more important than the crime, and cosy series are hardly the only ones to rely on readers’ fondness for returning characters, but they’re no less vital. Readers will come to know and love (or love to hate) such recurring personalities, so they should have personalities and be interesting enough to spend lots of time with. This doesn’t mean they must be squeaky clean, or even particularly likeable. Claire, the medium in Alice Bell’s Grave Expectations, is neither – but she’s enormously sympathetic.
3: Live, Laugh, Love
A light touch is what marks cosies out from the pack, and takes many forms. We don’t focus on violence and nastiness (though bitchiness is another thing entirely, as amply demonstrated in JM Hall’s A Spoonful of Murder). Cosy often employs wit and humour, endearing characters to the reader and sometimes even offering a sly, self-aware wink to those paying attention. Finally, a thread of romance never does any harm – though you’re unlikely to see any ripped bodices.
4: Less Blood, Please, We’re Cosy
Cosy crime generally avoids brutality. This is somewhat intangible, but all I can say is that you know it when you see it. We don’t dwell on gore, graphic descriptions of violence, or bloodthirstiness. In my own The Dog Sitter Detective (which won the Barker Book Award for fiction) the victim is found bludgeoned to death in the library – but the focus of the scene and narration is on the clues revealed by his body, not the blood and brains of his corpse.
5: …And Justice for All
A confession: I lied at the start. This is the most important element in any cosy, and it’s a very simple one: justice will be done. Few things are less cosy than a villain getting away with murder, and it’s certainly not what readers expect. They want to see the villain have their comeuppance, often in a poetic and/or ironic way. Subverting tropes is all well and good, but mess with this one at your peril.
Does all that sound like fun? Believe me, it is. To see my own take on these five crucial ingredients pick up your copy of The Dog Sitter Detective Takes the Lead, the second book in the series, in which semi-retired actress and occasional dog-sitter Guinevere ‘Gwinny’ Tuffel must solve the (baffling, naturally) murder of an ageing rock star among a houseboat community in Little Venice. It’s on sale January 25 in hardback, ebook, and audiobook. You can get it here:
ANTONY JOHNSTON’S career has spanned books, award-winning video games and graphic novels including collaborations with Anthony Horowitz and Alan Moore. He wrote the New York Times bestseller Daredevil Season One for Marvel Comics and is the creator of Atomic Blonde which grossed over $100 million at the box office. The first book featuring Gwinny Tuffel, The Dog Sitter Detective, was the winner of the Barker Fiction Award. Johnston can often be found writing at home in Lancashire with a snoozing hound for company.
