This week, I’m on vacation — but Red, my protagonist, never gets a break! She’s hard at work in another new novel that I’m drafting. In her honor, today we’ll look at qualities needed in a cozy mystery sleuth . . .
First: the fewer qualifications, the better!
I say this mostly to be funny, of course, but it’s true that being unqualified is an important quality of a cozy sleuth. There’s a completely different subgenre for folks who like to read about police detectives–it’s usually called “procedural” mysteries, and as you might guess, the focus is on the process and the laws and the work of solving crime. Cozy mysteries, meanwhile, focus on community. Having a sleuth who’s out of her depth makes room for friends and neighbors to contribute–and it also provides low-level tension in the story (as opposed to, for example, the high-level tension of chasing down a serial killer). This does pose one important problem–namely, why is your sleuth involved in the investigation in the first place, then? This needs to be answered right away. Usually, it’s because she or her friend/landlord/neighbor/family member has been accused of the crime or is in some other danger.
Second: a unique perspective
Cozy mysteries are notorious for being punny and centered around small businesses like bakeries, book stores, or *cough cough* alchemical shops. These themes are kitschy, but in the best mysteries, they’re necessary too, because the sleuth’s expertise in another field helps her solve the crime. Maybe she knows the main suspect was lying when he said he needed to run out and buy cream cheese to put in his ganache. Or maybe she read a book where the victim was killed by a poison that made it look like he’d had a heart attack, so she knows right off the bat that something’s fishy. (Or fox glove-y?) Or maybe her sense of perspective comes from being older, or from being new to a tight-knit community. Whatever the cause, she sees things differently than most of the community does.
Third: a complete disregard for safety–or a reckless, instigating friend
Okay, this is another funny one that’s kind of true, and kind of exaggerated. 🙂 A lot of readers hate it when the sleuth gets into lots of danger because she’s “TSTL” (Too Stupid To Live, a moniker that I first heard applied to Gothic/Romantic heroines). But often, to advance the investigation, the sleuth has to do something unsafe–poke around the suspect’s office, for example, or go undercover, or run out to that abandoned mansion alone at night in her nightgown (scratch that last one, maybe?). This poses a problem because usually, to be investigating in the first place, the sleuth is somewhat smart. Some authors solve this by giving the sleuth an impulsive friend who drags them into tight spots (“come on, let’s impersonate home buyers and check out the haunted house! It’ll be fun! Aaaand I’m already out the door!”). Another option I use with Red a lot is giving her something she cares about more than her own safety, like taking care of her friends. (Sorry, Red.)
Bonus! A sense of humor
Of course, there’s lots of other qualities a sleuth would benefit from–intelligence, persistence, a sense of justice. But we’re going to take those for granted and round out this list with humor. 🙂 Whether it comes from quippy friends, a rascally animal companion, comically bad luck, or the sleuth herself, humor is integral to a cozy mystery. (I think it should be integral to most books regardless of genre, but that’s just me!)
That’s it for now! Maybe in the future we’ll add to this list, but in the meantime, I’m going to get back to relaxing. And Red has to get back to work . 😉
