'Tis the season to put a fire in the hearth (whatever that is), lean back in a soft chair, and read a good book. Only remember to turn on a reading lamp, because Lincoln might have studied by fire light, but you, 21st century person, need some lumens.
If you've just spent the last few days gathered together with a mass of family and friends, you may be in a joyous, holiday mood. Maybe you're so full of love that you can't stop yourself from following Rum Tummy Tummy with a Ho Ho Ho. But maybe not. Maybe you're contemplating just how well the almond slivers on top of that green bean casserole might hide the taste of cyanide, or whether a little turkey grease on the top step of the ladder might make hanging the Christmas lights just a little more interesting, or whether going over the river and through the woods might not be interrupted by a slight modification to the brake fluid. Under the river or into the woods? Hmmm.
Maybe you're in a mood to read a cozy mystery.
Mystery novels have more breeds than this week's National Dog Show. On a broad scale, you have your police procedurals (represented in TV land along the spectrum from Dragnet to Law & Order), you have your hard & soft boiled versions of professional detectives (everything from Mike Hammer to the Rockford Files), and then there are the cozies. In a cozy mystery, the main "detective" character is often anything but. She (and most cozy detectives are shes) is generally an expert at something, but not a pro at the murder game. Yes, you may slip in a Monk or two, with an actual background in detecting, but the standard cozytective has no more exposure to police matters than you get from a rerun of CHiPs. However, a strong background knowledge in some area of life, a good dash of general cleverness, and an admirable dose of spunk combine to make your cozy detective into an unstoppable force.
Cozy detectives can have day jobs scattered all over the map. They may be bakers, teachers, writers, actors, researchers, or neighborhood busybodies. Compared to the population at large, an inordinate number of them live in quaint small towns. These days, a good many cozy detectives can count among their friends (or suspects) a few vampires or werewolves. Only one thing is sure: if you suspect that someone you know may be a cozy mystery detective, get away from them. Now. It doesn't matter if it means losing your job and moving. It doesn't matter how sweet the detective seems. Run. Because once someone has been revealed as a cozy detective, you can bet this murder is only one of a series. Don't believe me? Just ask any of Jessica Fletcher's neighbors. What's that? You can't because they're all dead? Exactly.
Partners in Crime by Agatha Christie
I believe there's a rule that says if I mentioned cozy mysteries and didn't follow up with a discussion of an Agatha Christie book, my own death would be no mystery at all. However, I'm not going to talk about the teeth-edge irritation I get when reading Miss Marple, or the red hot fury generated by any exposure to that cheating bastard, Hercule Poirot. Instead, I'd like to introduce you to a pair of Christie detectives that are a good deal less familiar. Thomas "Tommy" Beresford and Prudence "Tuppence" Cowley are a husband and wife team that start off in the 1920's and carry on through three decades of novels and short stories. Over that time the characters get older, raise a batch of kids, and verge on a violation of the cozy rules by actually opening a detective agency. This collection of T & T shorts was written by Christie as a tribute to other writers, and each story reflects a somewhat different style. However, you'd have a hard time finding anyone these days who could recognize the subject of these literary tributes. Instead read them for the dialog and situations, which are very much of the late 20s period. If you must read a Christie novel (and we all give in eventually) try The Murder of Roger Ackroyd for an absolutely classic twist. Be warned: if you read this book and want to come after me with a dull knife, I am armed.
Family Skeletons by Rett MacPherson
Believe it or not, I often go for weeks without recommending a book by someone I know. This isn't one of those weeks. Rett MacPherson channeled her own love of genealogy (and a good bit of the rest of her life) into the character of Torie O'Shea and the result is a detective almost as likable as her creator. If you don't think genealogist works as kickoff for a mystery, just think about what all those all ancestors on the family tree have in common. Yup, all dead. Now wonder for a moment how they got that way. In Torie's world, a little digging into closets and under rocks often turns up skeletons and hidden motives. And even a murder that happened a century ago can have someone with a vested interest in seeing that it never gets solved. These are fun books, not just because the mystery works, but because they illustrate one of the prime differences between cozy mysteries and the other sorts -- the personal life of the detective is as important, and as interesting, as solving the crime. Some of the reviewers of the book rolled their eyes at the description of Torie's mom who, despite being restricted to a wheelchair, takes care of the family, contributes to handling the case, and is the subject of the series' biggest ongoing romance. These reviewers obviously never met the author's mother, a shockingly beautiful woman who never let the fact that she had been stricken with polio as a child keep her from raising a family and mothering everyone she met.
The Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke
Small town? Check. Feisty main character with a sharp tongue and sharper wit? Check. Improbable whistling and twiddling of thumbs by local police while our detective does her detecting? Oh, triple check. In some ways this novel comes off a bit weak on "suspension of disbelief" grounds, but hey, you're not in the real world. You're in cozy mystery land. And if it should happen that the police are always handy to provide a bit of information when needed, but never take the effort to hang things together without the help of a zingy red-haired baker, who's to say that's not the way things work? Besides, who would you call on to solve the murder of a beloved milkman but the town's best provider of chocolate chip cookies? This book really could serve as a primer on writing a cozy -- keep the dialog light and keep events moving along, and even dealing with murder seems like a fun pastime. Plus, the cookie making Hannah Swenson even has a cat, meaning she may come closer to hitting every cozy mystery meme than any character ever written. And it still works.
Storm Track by Margaret Maron
Just because it's a cozy doesn't mean the plot can't be convoluted, complex, and downright clever. Deborah Knott is a judge in a North Carolina district court. In the small town where she lives, it seems as if half the people are Deborah's siblings (she's the youngest of twelve, and the only girl in the bunch) the other half are second cousins. If you've never been south of the Ohio River, you could do a lot worse in getting a good education in all things Southern than by reading the books in this series. Maron's plots twist through interwoven families, grudges that go back through generations, and social pressures that put stresses on institutions (good and bad) that have persisted for decades. It's a picture of a family and a community in transition, and the motivations for the series of murders arise directly out of these issues. This one is my favorite of the series, but if you want to start at the start, read Bootlegger's Daughter, which ran off with every prize in the business -- why it did is no mystery at all.
Book Club Update: the many fans of Anathem by Neal Stephenson drove it to the top of the poll this month. So we'll look to discuss it next month. I'm thinking Dec 18th might, for obscure reasons, be better than the 25th. So get cracking if you haven't read this already -- it's a bunch of book to read in three weeks.