Comments on: The Men of Cozy Mysteries, Part Two

By: Danna - cozy mystery list

Danna - cozy mystery list — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:49:31 +0000

Thank you, Albert, for reminding us about Philip R. Craig's Martha Vineyard Mystery Series. Another good example of a male lead...

By: Albert

Albert — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 02:10:19 +0000

Philip Craig has a good series of books (Vineyard Mysteries) that are more male oriented.

By: Danna - cozy mystery list

Danna - cozy mystery list — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:00:26 +0000

I'm glad you're enjoying the site… Hopefully part one of this entry has some authors you might enjoy.

By: Bill McCleery

Bill McCleery — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:15:42 +0000

I appreciate the comments I'm seeing. This is a very cool web site, by the way.

By: Danna - cozy mystery list

Danna - cozy mystery list — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:19:32 +0000

Aha, Bernadette, I know the series you're thinking about: Donna Andrews' Turing Hopper Mystery Series.

By: Edie Dykeman

Edie Dykeman — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:15:50 +0000

I think, at least in the beginning of an author's writing life, they tend to stick with what they know. Whether that is cooking or knitting or show dogs, or whatever, they write what they know as they hone their mystery writing abilities. Later they may change up their characters and move into other types of mystery stories.

Also, there probably is pressure from the publishers to follow the money, so to speak. The publishers know what sells, and they are going to want authors who will provide those kinds of stories.

There may be other reasons, but IMO those two reasons may play a large part in what theme a cozy writer chooses.

By: Bernadette

Bernadette — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 03:14:08 +0000

I forgot to add – there's a cosy series where the main protagonist is a computer and her/his offisder is a male – the subject matter is definitely not the traditional female cosy anyway – it's by Donna Andrews and the first book was called You've got Murder (I think) – it's a separate series to her one about the angel.

By: Bernadette

Bernadette — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 03:08:42 +0000

I think it's probably a lot to do with your last bullet point – publishers think all men want the same thing – sex and violence and fast cars. Just as for many years publishers assumed all women want to read romantic books and didn't want anything to do with cars or gadgets. They seem to be slowly realising the latter isn't true but that has been largely because of women writers I think. I'm thinking of Sue Grafton, Sara Paretsky, Patricia Cornwell etc who were all women writers writing the sort of thing that some women might like to read even though they weren't 'cosy'. Women readers clearly liked this kind of thing and the industry boomed. So it's probably up to the men who want to read something other than fast-cars-and-naked-women books to write them for their fellow men!

I think you've raised an interesting point though – I tend to only read cosy series that I can relate to a little – cooking ones or, like the person who commented above, the coffeehouse series. I'd never bother with a series where the person's job or hobby was something I'm not into (e.g. scrapbooking, knitting etc) because in cosy books that does tend to occupy quite a bit of the content.

By: -V-

-V- — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 22:43:52 +0000

My reading choices are odd-ish. I read paranormal, thrillers, suspense, cozies for the most part. I love my cozies!
I choose my cozies because of the 'theme', Cleo Coyle's because I like coffee, Laura Childs' series because I like tea, but I don't care for scrapbooking so I don't feel like picking up her Scrapbooking mystery series. Or the ones with knitting, needlepoint, etc. So I guess I like the ones I feel I have something in common. Now why I like Madelyn Alt's series, I don't feel compelled to be a witch, nor am I haunted by a ghost yet I enjoy the heck out of Alice Kimberly's series.
I wonder if publishers conjure up a certain type of person who reads the cozies and they push the author to go that route?
Cozies for me are a sorbet between my heavier courses of thrillers, paranormal, suspense, etc.
I love my cozies.