Cosies are my favourite type of mysteries. They tend to be about a character - usually a woman - who isn’t a professional detective. Mostly, the character has a boyfriend who is. Kerry Greenwood, for example, has written a series about baker Corinna Chapman, who lives and runs her business in the Melbourne CBD. Her boyfriend, Daniel Cohen, is a private detective. The books usually end with recipes baked during the course of the story - and a party held by all the inhabitants of the lovely Roman-style block of flats, Insula. There are quite a few American cosies with bakers or cooks, though to be honest, I prefer Kerry Greenwood’s recipes. She enjoys baking and writes it into her stories. The American ones I have read have rather fatty recipes I couldn’t eat.
There are a lot of occupations carried on by the heroines of cosies - cleaners, booksellers, caterers, florists and many more. Quite often the detective boyfriend is a police officer. She stumbles into whatever case he is handling.
Then there is Kathy Reichs’s Tempe Brennan, who has even had her own TV series, though I haven’t seen it. I’m not sure you could quite call these books cosies, as there is a murder in each, but Tempe Brennan isn’t a professional detective. She is a forensic anthropologist, though, and checks human remains in the course of investigation into murders. The author is herself a forensic anthropologist.
Tempe has a niece, who features in a novel that reads very much like The Goonies and, in one scene, is watching a TV show that’s cheekily based on Bones, the Tempe Brennan show.
In each of the Tempe Brennan novels I have read, she has at least one scene where the killer traps her in a room and snarls, “Ha ha, now I’ve got you, you interfering bitch!” So, not a professional detective, no. But she does escape the villain and appear in another novel.
The Corinna Chapman novels are more obviously cosies, though, as there is no murder in any of them. There is, admittedly, one where there is an attempted murder in the middle of a witches’ gathering, but the main issue is some jewels stolen by the Nazis and somehow turning up in the present day in Melbourne!
So, do you have a favourite cosy series?
I did watch Bones, it was quite the fun show! They messed up the romantic plots, but I enjoyed the characters. And in the show, Tempe is also an author, and the hero of her novels is Kathy Reichs... :D
ReplyDeleteThe Multicolored Diary
I like watching cozy mysteries on TV if the characters are interesting.
ReplyDeleteI really need to check it out. I do know that when she was in Melbourne she told us that she was asked to do a cameo on the show and wasn’t really interested till they said David Boreanaz was in it. Then she asked how soon she could do it! So there is at least one episode in which Kathy Reichs appears.
ReplyDeleteHi Debra! Do you have a favourite?
ReplyDeleteFun facts about Bones! I'm watching Balthazar, a French series about a forensic medical examiner. He's such a card! The crimes are interesting too. I love the Agatha Raisin series (though she becomes a private detective so it changes from a cosy to ..?), I adore the Marple series and not sure about the Osman series.
ReplyDeleteHi Catherine! That French series does sound entertaining! Yes, Agatha Raisin does become a private detective, even runs an agency. Though most of their jobs involve finding lost pets… I think I’ll keep considering it as a cosy. I’ve only read the first Richard Osman novel so far. I do like the idea of having the sleuths being retirees.
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