Why I love cozy mysteries
oh, those little grey cells!
“Who’s your favorite writer?” My friend D asked me.
“Agatha Christie.”
Her face fell. “What? Why? But she’s so formulaic.”
I suppose to an Ivy League graduate, my literary choice lacked bite, beauty, and taste, but Agatha Christie was like my Beatles, that wonderful-wonderful I returned to year after year.
To be honest, I was surprised by her reaction. She acted like I had sucker punched her in the stomach, and maybe to sophisticated fancy cat types, I had. Maybe years later when she recalled the moment, she laughed at me on the ski slopes of Vail, telling her friends what a philistine I was. I don’t know, but it was one of the those exchanges that made me feel...well, kind of stupid.
Recently, I discovered my mom enrolled me in one of those learning centers because I struggled with reading. I have no recollection of this, but this was probably due to my father’s death when I was in kindergarten. And she couldn’t help me as she barely reads English herself. In fact, I like to joke that my first job was translating mail for her in exchange for room and board.
So, as much as I loved library visits during primary school, it wasn’t until I was forced indoors when we moved from the tropics to the desert, that I fell deeply in love with reading. I was 13 or 14. Childhood was challenging, and I read to not only learn, and be entertained, but to also escape. The latter feels like a dirty thing to want, but now I realize it’s perfectly natural and normal within healthy boundaries.
At first, I spent most of my time standing in the Waldenbooks’ Young Adult section, but inevitably grew curious about the rest of the bookstore. Agatha Christie stood out, and the rest, as they say, is cozy mystery history.
Cozy mysteries are defined as crime stories without the profanity, sex, or violence. The detective is typically an amateur and the killing takes place “off the page”, so to speak. Naturally, there are critics of this genre, and yet, isn’t it lovely that there’s something for everyone? I mean, if you dig on hard crime, then there are plenty of novels for you to devour.
I’ve had enough real life violence that I’m not interested in seeking it out. Life has also given me plenty of real life mysteries, so the idea of a cozy one is high-brow appealing. The fact that I am enamored by this genre at all is fascinating.
But I like happy endings, or ones that are left to my imagination. I believe in Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. I love to laugh and quirky is my wheelhouse. Comedians are my rock stars. But this doesn’t mean I can’t handle difficult subject matter, it’s just, I believe in the importance of humor as a relief valve. Cozy mysteries also don’t take themselves too seriously, which I believe is a mantra for life.
Part of my evening routine is to read before bed, not to reach for my baseball bat after imbibing true crime, ghost, or gory stories. Dark academia like The Secret History by Donna Tartt bored me, but I thought The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova and Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House were superb.
Confession: I actually haven’t read many cozy mysteries, just a lot of Agatha Christie. If someone were to ask me today who my favorite writer is, I wouldn’t know what to say. These days I’ve read the most from Ken Follett’s historical novels, and Piers Anthony and Leigh Bardugo who are considered a fantasy writers. Currently, I’m reading Richard Osman’s latest We Solve Murders, but I’ve read all of his Thursday Murder Club novels, too. A group of geriatrics solving murders? Yes, please!
Ultimately though, reading books is my safe place. It’s where I can live a thousand lives through the eyes of another. It’s where the mystery is solved and justice restored. Real life is much more sinister and super depressing, so I need to counterbalance it with good news in my inbox, and a steady diet of cozy mysteries. Thank you.
I totally agree with you on this, Lani. Life is violent, depressing and horrific enough. Who needs horror stories as entertainment?
Cozy mysteries sounds like a perfectly sensible choice. There is a good reason why Agatha Christie became so successful!
"I read to not only learn, and be entertained, but to also escape." I think fiction is a great way to escape. I know my mother, who had a childhood disrupted by the second world war, found solace in reading and it stayed with her for the rest of her life. I htink she liked being able to disappear into the world of a book.
I read my first ever Agatha Christie novel, Towards, Zero recently and enjoyed it. Better late than never.