Whether you spell it the American way or the British way, the cozy mystery genre is hugely popular, and September is the perfect month for celebrating these books.
I first learned of Cozy Mystery Day last year and created an appropriate image to use on social media, as many other authors did. This year, I have seen little to no talk about the day, and it’s not listed on any of those “Special Days in the Year” type of websites. So I decided to do a little digging.
It turns out that Cozy Mystery Day is a fairly recent invention with the first celebration in 2019. That was the year that author Sarah Jane Weldon declared it a holiday for, as she admits, “entirely selfish reasons if I’m honest!” Weldon is a writer of cozy mysteries, but also a reader of them. She said she felt this genre should have its own section in the bookstore so readers don’t have to search for cozies among the hard-boiled and procedural novels.
The word “cozy” was first applied to mystery novels in the 1950s when a call-back to the Golden Age of Detective Fiction started appearing on bookshelves. Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy Sayers, and of course, Agatha Christie, were among the those who were writing in the twenties Golden Age, but they were succeeded by a grittier group of authors. Detectives like Sam Spade and Philp Marlow were part of this noir world into the forties, and while “hard-boiled” novels continued to be popular, renewed interest grew in the amateur detective solving less bloody crimes. Of the twelve Miss Marple books, nine were published after 1950.
Sarah Jane Weldon chose September 15 to be known as Cozy Mystery Day because that is Agatha Christie’s birthday and Christie is, obviously, the Queen of Cozies. Beyond Agatha Christie, however, the appetite for cozies is huge and still growing featuring amateur detectives from all walks of life. Consider how popular the Hulu series Only Murders in the Building has been.
One theory, and one I embrace whole-heartedly, is that readers are already overwhelmed by violence and grittiness in their daily lives and don’t want to wallow in more of the same when reading. Cozy books offer an escape to a more pleasant world and include the promise that all problems will be wrapped up neatly by the last page.
Another reason I think cozies are having another moment is due to the clue-solving aspect of the novels. The Golden Age of Detective Fiction coincided with a craze for crossword puzzles, and puzzles are also enjoying a renaissance. How many of your friends post their Wordle scores every day and have date nights or team-building events at escape rooms?
It’s amazing all the niches in which amateur detectives operate in today’s cozy mysteries. There are historical cozies, paranormal cozies, romantic cozies, and foodie cozies – complete with recipes – just to name a few. And the detectives are usually involved in a series of books because readers just can’t get enough of their favorites.
I don’t write cozies and all I’m reading right now is Agatha and Agatha-adjacent books, but that seems enough for celebrating Cozy Mystery Day. Maybe I’ll carve an hour out my day to curl up with a new or new-to-me cozy novel, pour out a cup of hot tea, and toast Mrs. Christie and all of her clever compatriots who write these lovely books. How will you celebrate?
Photo by ArtHouse Studio