I picked this one as it seemed to be an extreme example of the genre, but do you know what? I rather enjoyed it. Hence a dive into the deep end of the cosies with this, the first of the (drumroll) Haunted Yarn Shop mysteries! Haunted because of on top of most of the above points, our heroine has a ghost as a sidekick!
And there wouldn’t be so many of the things if there wasn’t a readership for them, so they deserve a look every now and then. The genre consists primarily of books that, initially at least, were designed to emulate what people thought Agatha Christie was like, but now has become its own genre. So in fact the majority of the books that this genre is trying to emulate are, for me, not classified as cosy mysteries.
Certainly the phrase “the jam in this cupcake tastes funny” will never appear.ħ) The story must be presented as a whodunit for the reader to guess the killer. Nothing to say that the body can’t be found rammed into a giant cupcake mixer, but if so, we won’t dwell on it. The romance is allowed to fizzle out if it’s a one-off character.Ħ) No gore. If an ongoing character, then it will probably have a happy ending unless the series goes on and on and on. NB The official investigate is allowed to suspect them, but they will be found innocent by our hero – actually, normally our heroine.Ĥ) There must be an animal somewhere on the scene – preferably a cat, possibly capable of solving the crime themselves.ĥ) There will be a love interest for our hero/heroine. This extends to isolated village policeman (Hamish Macbeth) or village busybody.ģ) The sleuth must have an entourage (of varying size) who the reader will know is never going to be the murderer. Well, my rules are as follows.Ģ) The sleuth must have a slightly odd career. (I made one of those up – can you guess which one?) Curtis has been writing on his blog recently as to what constitutes a cosy (UK spellings here) mystery. I’ve mentioned it before, but I love the array of cosy mysteries that you’ll find if you go into any US bookshop. Occasionally, I dip my toe into the cosy waters.
Oh, and Ivy’s bequeathed her magical powers onto Kath as well… Kath finds a strange man breaking into the house that she is staying in, and he’s not the only unwanted guest…
But that’s not the only problem.Īgainst all expected behaviour, she seems to have sold her house and her cat has vanished into thin air. Enter Kath McClellan, her granddaughter, who arrives at her grandmother’s funeral to find that Ivy was suspected of poisoning a local man when she died. Blue Plum, Tennesse and Ivy McClellan, the owner of The Weaver’s Cat, a fibre and fabric shop, has dropped dead of a heart attack.
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