The case for cosy crime

It’s 2024, and nowadays we all love cosy crime… don’t we?

Retailers do, as the likes of Richard Osman, S J Bennett, Nita Prose and Robert Thorogood drive people into stores. Readers do, as they browse the shelves with credit card in hand. Publishers do, as it seems every month a new cosy series is announced and the aforementioned retailers are freshly supplied.

But this love-in isn’t universal. And, strangely enough, where I often hear grumbling and reticence is from readers – or even fellow authors. (In the spirit of disclosure: I write the award-winning Dog Sitter Detective cosy series, which features a semi-retired actress who takes up dog-sitting to make ends meet but keeps stumbling across baffling murders. As you do.)

So what gives?

There appear to be several reasons, but in my experience they’re misapprehensions.

The first is an obvious one; it’s not to people’s taste. Nothing wrong with that, and it would be a dull world if we all liked the same thing. But I often see this reaction expressed in a disappointingly dismissive way, labelling cosy crime as clichéd, simplistic, even childish. For me the latter accusation is nothing new, because as well as fiction I write video games and graphic novels. Being told my work is childish is an occupational hazard. What disappoints me in this instance is that the complaint suggests people are dismissing a whole sub-genre without actually trying it for themselves.

It’s true that cosy has tropes, but what genre fiction doesn’t? Crime fiction in particular makes frequent use of them. From procedurals to noir to psychological thrillers, readers expect certain elements to feature, and are often disappointed if they’re not. The art lies in hitting those beats while doing something new or subverting expectations, and good cosy – particularly the growing style that I call ’modern cosy’, in which a new generation is happily upending convention – does it as well as any other genre.

As for being simplistic, nothing could be further from the truth. Cosy prioritises and elevates the "puzzle" of the crime above almost everything else, providing a mentally stimulating and engaging read. Woe betide the inattentive reader who tries to follow a labyrinthine explanation of how the killer murdered someone inside a locked room, while a witness simultaneously saw them miles away…

We’re all walking in Dame Agatha’s footsteps to an extent. But far from being restrictive or cold, I find this sense of history brings a delightful humour and self-awareness to the work

Another common accusation calls us dull, slow  and old-fashioned. There’s a perception that our books are all drawing rooms, doilies and bloodless Christie homages. But once again this betrays a lack of knowledge. It’s true that cosies tend to avoid guts and gore, which some will interpret as being less serious, though for others that’s a selling point. But slow? Modern cosy moves at quite a pace, employing page-turning techniques (my own books draw on my experience writing spy thrillers to keep readers engaged). And these days cosy is just as often set in contemporary situations, with complex, recognisable characters drawn from all walks of life. Some of the most realistically-drawn characters I’ve read in recent years were in cosies, and anyone who thinks every book takes place in a posh society ballroom filled with upper-class twits should read Hannah Hendy’s Dinner Lady Detectives, or Leonie Swann’s Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp. Modern cosy is as broad as crime fiction itself.

That’s not to deny we’re all walking in Dame Agatha’s footsteps to an extent. But far from being restrictive or cold, I find this sense of history brings a delightful humour and self-awareness to the work. Readers have fun looking for the nods to past work, the trope subversions, and the clever ways in which authors hide clues and misdirect – while authors have just as much fun devising new ways to employ these tricks.

A more serious grumble I hear from authors is that the cosy boom is driving readers, and more importantly publishers, away from dark and gritty crime. I know several police procedural authors who are having difficulty placing new series. But one look at a current list will show that the crime market is still dominated by non-cosy books.

There’s no doubt that interest in cosies continues to expand. The Crime Writers’ Association recently announced the addition of a Whodunnit Dagger to their awards, for classic/cosy novels. That’s great news, but the fact it took so long demonstrates the resistance we’ve faced. I was a CWA board member for several years, and served as vice-chair until 2023, so I can say with certainty that just a few years ago a cosy-focused Dagger wouldn’t have flown. Thankfully, it’s a sign of the times that reaction to the announcement has been universally positive.

For all its current popularity, though, cosy remains a small part of crime fiction overall. If anything it has room to grow, especially as the modern cosy style becomes ever more varied. Like all genre booms it will no doubt be cyclical, but if the current mood is anything to go by it’s here to stay, with enough readers to support a healthy sub-genre. That’s good for everyone.

If you’re a bookseller, I hope this piece can help you encourage your customers to try a modern cosy and find something new. If you’re a reader or fellow author, perhaps I’ve convinced you to expand your horizons. If not? Well, that’s fine. Like I said, we can’t all enjoy the same things. But we can be respectful of one another, no matter our tastes.