Culture at the I newspaper: The best cosy crime?
(Note the question mark)
There’s a category of work I do which invites this reaction from me: ‘Don’t tell
them, but I’d have done it for free.’ This one had that, and another aspect: ‘If
I turn down the commission, they might ask someone else to do it. Can’t have
that.’
The i newspaper asked me to make a list of the nine best cosy crime novels. So I did. All you need to know… The only problem was keeping it down to nine...
You can read my review at the i here:
The
nine best cosy crime books
There is a limit to how many articles you can access on the
newspaper's website each month, if you are not a subscriber.
All nine books have blogposts devoted to them, and you can use the tags below.
And, of course, put your own choices in the comments.
A fantastic list, Moira! I agree wholeheartedly that each one of those novels is a top-notch, excellent cosy mystery. I found myself nodding agreement as I read through the article. Well done!
ReplyDeletethank you Margot, you know how I value your opinion. So now I'd love to see your list...
Deleteis The Nine Tailors cosy? I think it might be the horrible death and the well-depicted bleak landscape that affects my memories. I wanted to know more about bell-ringing than the mystery.
ReplyDeleteOddly enough, I was inspired to read it by Sarah Caudwell/Cockburn. We were both members of a "Crossword club" which did the Times and Guardian Saturday crosswords together (as far as I know I am the sole survivor) and it was one of the answers - I think in an Araucaria crossword. I'm afraid I'd never heard of it before.
- Roger
Well - I laid out my definiton, and by my definition it qualifies! I don't know how else it would be described 😊
DeleteMy father-in-law was a renowned and well-known bellringer and he would be harrumphing and saying you wouldn't learn reliably from the book, it was full of mistakes.
Are "renowned and well-known" bellringers renowned and well-known except among other bell-ringers?
Delete- Roger
I initially included the words 'in bell-ringing circles' and then deleted them as unnecessary!
DeleteOuch!
DeleteSad - if irrelevant - news: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2025/08/25/byron-rogers-telegraph-journalist-last-human-cannonball/?msockid=2346158980b469da0a7b062f813e68f3
Oh yes, sad, hadn't seen that. I often think of that RS Thomas biog you introduced me to: apart from being a wonderful read, such a model of how a biog should be. And if that wasn't enough, JL Carr too....
DeleteA very broad definition of "cosy" - like Roger I probably wouldn't have thought of "The Nine Tailors" under that heading, nor the Elly Griffiths - but excellent choices and hopefully many i readers will be inspired to check them out. I note that you decided NOT to highlight the crime-fighting quiltmakers, confectioners and cats - a subgenre I think of as "cutesy crime".
ReplyDeleteSovay
Those cutesy crime (good name!) books tend to be not-so-hot as mysteries, at least the ones I've read--the craftsy/foodie/critter elements often outweigh the detective element. And the protagonists, almost always female, tend to have Significant Others who are cops or some kind of detective--too convenient by half! (Has anyone read of a male protagonist with a female cop friend? Curious to know if any exist.)
DeleteThere’s a shedload of cutesy-crime TV movies too – antique store owners, party planners … I’m sure I’ve dozed through several of a series featuring a woman who renovates old houses, invariably discovering a corpse in the basement or immured in the walls. Couldn’t swear that she has a police-officer SO but it’s more than likely - I don't think I've ever come across the reverse though.
DeleteSovay
See my comment above - I had to make a definition for myself. There is no general agreement, and really I think there are two kinds of cosy - the cupcake shop kind (and cutesy is a good word Sovay), and the others. I agree cosy is not a brilliant name, but it's the best we have. And I certainly wasn't going to give a list of nine quilting stories
DeleteClassic crime, maybe? I have my own feeling about what falls into the cosy genre though have to admit I’d be hard put to define it. I’m certainly not knocking it - two of my favourites, Sheila Pim and Patricia Wentworth, are unquestionably cosy.
DeleteSovay
Classic crime would be quite good, but current uses of it would include books that aren't cosy. I do wish there was a better word than cosy though.
DeleteI’m still racking my brains - of course the phrase MUST alliterate, which doesn’t help …
DeleteSovay
There must be a snappy phrase out there!
DeleteYou could do a contest challenging newspaper readers to come up with a definitive name....I bet you'd get some doozies! But of course there could never be universal agreement on any of them!
DeleteIt would be nice to have something to offer though, it''s a good idea.
DeleteI remember a famous US literary critic dissing "Nine Tailors" when it was suggested to him as a top-notch example of the detective genre. But he was an old crank, anyway! I remember the book as a good one to read when you yourself are cozy and warm, and the snow and rain can be "enjoyed" vicariously. I liked the sense of urgency and menace in the description of the flooding--the danger unusually from a literally inhuman killer (or killers).
ReplyDeleteThose clever takedowns by superior would-be academic men never work for me - Edmund Wilson and Raymond Chandler. Their arguments don't really make sense.
DeleteI re-read all the Sayers books this year (talk to the Sayers Society) and was super-impressed by Nine Tailors, it really stood up well, it's a wonderful book. And I agree, a great seasonal read.
What about Caudwell's non-gender-specified narrator, a mystery in her-or-himself! (Or themselves?)
ReplyDeleteWe have discussed that in the comments in recent times, not sure when. It was a very clever conceit I always thought.
DeleteSo clever, but so hard to pull off, and I feel it must be one of the reasons SC only managed to write four books in ten years - if she’d let Hilary have a gender she might have written much more!
DeleteSovay
Interesting point! I assumed she was doing too many other things, including crosswords with our friend Roger above...
DeleteSarah spent several years writing/trying to write a play about the M'Naghten Case, which set the definition of insanity in law in English-speaking countries for almost a century.
DeleteShe didn't actually need to write for profit. Among other things she was an expert tax barrister - a very profitable occupation.
thank you - It is nice to have one-step knowledge of her.
DeleteLaws on insanity so fascinating - and such a big deal in Golden Age fiction! WHen I was recommending reference books to the crime fans conference earlier this year I included an absolutley riveting account of exactly this connection.
It sounds like the M’Naughten Case play was her version of Hilary’s perpetually unfinished work, “Causa in the Early Common Law”. Based on “The Shortest Way to Hades” I suspect she spent a lot of potential writing time sailing, too.
DeleteI’ve always regarded Hilary as male, and had a distinct memory of explaining why somewhere on this blog, but can’t find the comment in any of the Caudwell posts.
Sovay
I have a memory of that too! One of the infuritating thing about this blog platform (which is, of course, free) is that comments are just not searchable, and although it's all there somewhere, it is very hard to find. I often have to work quite hard to find old discussions which aren't directly keyed to the post above...
DeleteI suspect we’re all compiling our own lists now - presumably it was a conscious decision to stick to British authors? I’d probably replace the Elly Griffiths with an Emma Lathen – perhaps “Accounting for Murder”. Sheila Pim is tempting too but might not fulfil the brief if one’s trying to choose books that i readers could easily get their hands on … further consideration needed!
ReplyDeleteSovay
I am absolutely hoping everyone is compiling their own lists.
DeleteI had such trouble limiting myself to nine! I really wanted to include Allingham, Lathen and many others. And it seemed obvious that no author should feature more than once, but that led to further difficult decisions....
Nine is definitely a bit tight. I can’t really argue with your choice of “Mrs McGinty’s Dead” for Christie as it’s so long since I read it that I can’t remember anything about it; for which reason I’m replacing it with “The Moving Finger” on my list. And I love “Envious Casca” but for me the joy of Vicky Fanshawe just gives “No Wind of Blame” the edge, even though the murder method is insane. And speaking of insanity, I can’t resist adding a Gladys Mitchell - probably “Laurels Are Poison”.
DeleteSovay
Nice! Moving Finger would have been my second choice, I did consider it, because I wanted a real village mystery - Murder is Announced was also in the frame.
DeleteMitchell is as un-cosy as you can imagine, but somehow belongs on the list. She and Allingham the ones I wish I could've included.
I’ve decided on “The Moving Finger” and “No Wind of Blame” as mentioned above; there are many potential Patricia Wentworth entries but your selection of “Poison in the Pen” is as good as any; I’m also sticking with your choice of “Thus Was Adonis Murdered”. Then Mitchell’s “Laurels Are Poison”, Lathen’s “A Place for Murder” and Allingham’s “Sweet Danger”; and I’m going a bit off-piste with my final two, Sheila Pim’s “Creeping Venom” and Delano Ames’s “She Shall Have Murder”.
DeleteSovay
Excellent choices! And you get in Americans and another man, even if he is sharing the Ames name.
DeleteWas Delano Ames really a couple??? Wikipedia doesn't mention this - according to them he was married to a female writer, Maysie Grieg, but they divorced long before he started publishing the Jane and Dagobert books.
DeleteI've squeezed in a couple of Americans (counting Emma Lathen as one) and an Irishwoman. Cosy crime, however defined, does seem to be the preserve of English-speaking authors - I can't offhand think of any European or Scandinavian mystery writers who would fit into the genre.
Sovay
do you know, as I was writing those words I was thinking 'hang on a minute...am I getting confused' but of course I rushed on. Yes you are right, sleuthing couple but writing singleton!
DeleteYes, that's interesting about the English-speaking tilt.
He writes from Jane's POV and makes (in my opinion) a pretty good job of it, which may be why you were under the impression that he had a female co-author.
DeleteSovay
Yes, I think that's exactly right. I also had John & Emery Bonnett in my mind I think.
DeleteGreat list - Mrs. McGinty's Dead was my very first Agatha Christie novel - in fact, my first adult book, so I have a very soft spot for it - loved the amusing scenes between Mrs. Oliver and Robin Upward which I feel may have been based on fact, Mrs. Oliver being Mrs. Christie's alter ego; also have always loved Josephine Tey's Miss Pym although it has been subjected to quite a bit of criticism. A clever plot and a most unusual story and as usual with Tey, most beautifully written. I have 'Envious Casca' out on my book shelves and have not read it for years so will be dusting it off shortly. Not that mad on 'The Nine Taylors' which I read years ago - for some reason it makes me feel cold - must be a snowy landscape! Also Christianna Brand - fabulous choice. Great list, many thanks!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words - so glad you enjoyed the list. I love hearing others' lists..
DeleteLathen is on my list too, although John Putnam Thatcher might raise an eyebrow at being called cozy! (I like the broad definition.) I used to read Martha Grimes novels with Detective Jury and Melrose Plant, they had some grim elements but were still set in an England that only exists in cozies. I like Michael Innes too but I know he's an acquired taste. "Hamlet, Revenge" is often said to be his best. I confess that I read more for character than for plotting so most of my faves aren't in the top mystery rank. Allingham wasn't best known for her plots but she's a great read anyway! Anthony Gilbert, Clifford Witting, Henry Wade, Patricia Moyes, Elizabeth Daly, Celia Fremlin (more suspense than mystery?), Mignon Eberhart's Nurse Sarah series, the Miss Pinkerton books.... I don't really expect folks to agree with much of my list, but no list pleases everyone, right?
ReplyDeleteAllingham definitely belongs on my list (still deciding which book though) and I’m considering adding one of Michael Innes’s less outré efforts - “What Happened at Hazelwood” or “A Private View” perhaps. Martha Grimes, Patricia Moyes, Mignon Eberhart and Celia Fremlin all sound familiar but I don’t think I’ve read anything by any of them; I have read and enjoyed Elizabeth Daly but not recently, would have to re-read before considering them for the list … I’ve read one book by Henry Wade, which contained a racial slur so utterly gratuitous that it put me off him for good.
DeleteSovay
I didn't remember Wade being that bad with the slurs, but I noticed his books often ended with questionable justice done, not a nice neat "just desserts" for the villain. So maybe he doesn't really qualify as cozy.
DeleteSome excellent names coming up there. Innes I have read a lot of, but have abandoned over the years: would pick Hamlet Revenge at a pinch. Now, if only I'd been asked to make a list of the top 50....
DeleteThe jarring comment may have been a one-off but I remember being brought up short by it. Henry Wade does sound a really interesting author - if I come across a copy of “Lonely Magdalen”, which seems to be the book of his that’s most often recommended, I may give it a go.
DeleteSovay
I bought a copy of Lonely Magdalen (after asking Martin Edwards which was his favourite) and I know it was delivered to my house but I CANNOT find it! In a pile somewhere. Once it re-emerges I will report back....
DeleteSPOILER
DeleteI've only read a couple of Henry Wade's books and didn't notice outstanding racial slurs, though in one book the inspiration for the murder is antisemitism - but not in an expected way.
Well that's an intriguing description....
DeleteShould we blame America for cutesy crime books? I wonder if it's a reaction against our "hard-boiled" detective stories. Right now I can't think of many US writers of mysteries that are cozy but not cutesy.
ReplyDeleteI think Rex Stout would fit under Moira’s broad cosy umbrella, but other than those you’ve mentioned above, not many cosy-but-not-cutesy US authors are coming to mind.
DeleteSovay
Indeed, we can lay it at the door of a handful of US publishers who not only decided to define cosy (or, as they spell it, cozy) but laid out strict rules, such as No Sex, no "Bad" Words, no on-page violence, blah blah blah. And then the crafts, cats, cupcakes and boyfriend cops just fell in line.
DeleteThanks, Sovay, for the well-deserved label, Cutesy. (Or would that be Cutezy?)
I love cats and cooking and quilting, and I write crime stories, but no tale of that ilk will ever come out of my head.
There was a Canadian/American author, Charlotte MacLeod AKA Alisa Craig, who wrote cozies that weren't cutesy, she had a few different series going. There was one featuring the wife of a Mountie that was less cozy than the others, but not what I'd call hardboiled either.
DeleteYes, helpful discussion here. On my theoretical much-longer-list I would love to have Rex Stout, though I'm sure some of his supporters would recoil from the cosy label. Charlotte MacLeod, yes, and also Charlotte Armstrong.
DeleteFor American cosy not cutesy, consider Amanda Cross and her Kate Fansler series.
DeleteOh yes, I haven't read those for years. I love an academic mystery...
DeleteAn excellent selection, Moira. As with others, my own would be different, but definitely Envious Casca would be there. And Miss Pym Disposes. If I were repeating authors, I'd add Heyer's They Found Him Dead and Duplicate Death. Because the interaction between characters is always great fun. (And partly because of Timothy Harte)
ReplyDeleteI'd include:
Gaudy Night. Because. Of course.
A Murder is Announced (Quintessential Christie in the post-war world)
Anything by SJ Bennett, but let's start with The Windsor Knot (HM the Queen investigates)
Kerry Greenwood did a nice set of works with sleuth Phryne Fisher.
But I'm more inclined to label these books Amateur Sleuth mysteries. Because they almost invariably are. Or at least they focus on the actions of the amateurs, while the pros hover around.
That's it for now. I'll keep thinking.
Excellent list! Yes I am with you on a lot of that, including SJ Bennett, now she is modern cosy of the best kind.
DeleteAmateur Sleuth is a good catch, it would include most of the books under consideration here.
I was looking at Mary Roberts Rinehart on Wiki and the article said that she was sometimes credited with that infamous phrase "The Butler Did It"! Apparently, in 1930 she wrote a book with a butler as murderer, and although that had been done before and she never actually used the phrase in the book, it became linked with her because she was so popular. True or not, it seems that the phrase did become more widely used at that time. Rinehart was quite a woman, much more than the Had I But Known Lady!
ReplyDeleteI know, she gets a bad press, wholly undeservedly, and (if I make a sweeping generalization) mostly from male authors. Julian Symons in Bloody Murder is dismissive, but I wondered if he'd actually read her.
DeleteI was pleased to see a few of my favourites mentioned here - Green for Danger, Miss Pym Disposes and The Crossing Places, plus other writers I like or intend to read. I have only recently discovered your blog and love it as I am quite interested in the way clothes function in books. I agree with some of the comments regarding the problematic 'cosy' description. I loved the Elly Griffiths books and am sad the Ruth Galloway series came to an end. Still, there are plenty more there on my tbr pile!
ReplyDeletethanks, we are in broad agreement! I enjoy other Elly G series too, and she has left the way open to revisit Ruth and Nelson one day.
DeleteI look forward to more comment from you here at CiB, I'm guessing you have a lot to say.
If we are going with a broad definition of cozy I would include Till Death Do Us Part by Carr.
ReplyDeleteYes, once I'd picked my nine books there was a tranche of authors I was staring at who hadn't made it, and he was definitely one. I think he is cosy by my broad definition though others would disagree. And yes I like this book of his - my top 5 of his books probably revolves somewhat.
DeleteI hope this isn't the rock on which our friendship is going to founder, Moira! Surely this definition of cosy is so broad that it includes everything GA that is not hard-boiled? It is in any case a way of categorising crime fiction that I dislike. It seems to trivialise the genre - and I note that it is usually women who are regarded as writing cosy crime. Even within this broad definition, I don't think I would include Miss Pym Disposes because of the ending - can't really say more without spoilers. I will let you have Patricia Wentworth, though! Chrissie
ReplyDeleteHas anyone ever come up with a definition that everyone likes?! Anyway, I think it would be hard to make a list based on someone else's definition, so might as well stick with your own as long as you don't lay it down as law (looking at you, SS Van Dine).
DeleteThat anonymous was Marty.
DeleteChrissie: Well, I set out my definition and I do not think it is that conroversial! I also don't think cosy is the insult you imply, it's just a useful category, and yes it covers a broad range of books. But in my view that then reduces the trivializing effect.
DeleteAnd I totally disagree that an ending can make a book non-cosy, of itself! One of the other books on my list has a book that I consider to be very touching, literary and 'un-cosy' if you want to put it that way. There is a JD Carr book with an ending that outrages me every time because of its lack of proper justice - but I would still include him in my category.
Marty: Yes I think you are right. Everyone should make their own definition and stick to it!
Not a brief definition, but a description: Auden's The Guilty Vicarage is probably the best description of the cosy detective story I know.
Delete-Roger
"You get justice in the next world, in this world you have the law." - William Gaddis
DeleteI suspect most lists are published to encourage disagreements and maybe even controversy. If you put out a list and nobody commented on it, wouldn't you wonder if anyone had even bothered to read it? A rash of comments is a sign that people really are reading it.
DeleteI think the problem lies not with the definition but with the label - Moira’s definition broadly covers the kind of books I enjoy but I wouldn’t have labelled my area of interest “cosy” as rightly or wrongly, “cosy” in this context does carry the implication that there will be nothing to distress or disturb or to provoke serious thought, and there’s no getting away from the fact that the term is used pejoratively by some of those who favour the more hard-hitting end of the mystery continuum. But coming up with an alternative is no easy matter. “Mysteries Sovay likes” works for me but isn’t suitable for universal adoption. I proposed “Classic” in a comment higher up but that has problems too as it implies a value judgment – fans of eg Simenon or Hammett (not cosy by any definition) might reasonably object to their exclusion. So is there any other label that would fit? I think we’d all be willing to forgo the alliteration if necessary …
DeleteSovay
When definitions depend on what the books are NOT--not hard-boiled, not graphic, not noir, etc--it's going to be tricky giving them a positive description. I've seen them called "light" but that seems almost an insult, to some of them at least. Although the Cutesy books could legitimately be called Detective Lite!
DeleteYes indeed to all the above. Mysteries Sovay Loves is the obvious answer. And yes, just as Marty says, all these lists that are so popular online are an attempt to get people to read them and have a view.
DeleteThere is considerably more of this on line - I just opened 22 comments of people on social media, made over the course of an hour, saying 'X isn't cosy' or stronger, and I feel like saying 'write your own list' which is genuinely what I think.
As I keep saying, I did lay out my own defnition. though as Marty says, I wish it wasn't defined by what it isn't.
Or "If you don't like 'cosy' what would YOU call them?". They'll find it's harder than they think to come up with an answer ...
DeleteSovay
Yes indeed. But people are entitled to their opinions....
DeleteI am reeling that you didn't include any Allingham! Of course , the choice is personal and your list is excellent with something for most readers, showing the breadth and depth of the genre - Green for danger terrified me and I am unlikely to read it again - so no comfort there for me.
ReplyDeleteA pile of green Penguins, including Allingham, was given to me as I recovered from illness in the mid 80s. I'd dismissed crime novels until then and Allingham was a revelation - not too cosy and the crime was almost irrelevant but fascinating characters and plots - plus often set in London. It was bibliotherapy of the best kind and her work never palls , although some are better than others, obvs
I know, I know, I did feel bad. I love Allingham, but I suppose there wasn't one that stood out in the same way. I tried very hard to think about the books that I would most happily read again tomorrow...
DeleteWhich would you have picked? I think it would be Police at the Funeral for me, or else FAshion in Shrouds.
Fashion in Shrouds is a fascinating book but the ending really fails it for me. An American cosy no one has mentioned is Phoebe Atwood Taylor aka Alice Tilton.
DeleteOne of the first regional detectives, too.
Yes another good one. There could be a very long list...
DeleteFashion in shrouds and The beckoning lady top the list for me. I could definitely read the latter tomorrow. More work for the undertaker has the wonderful/terrible Palinode family a good match for the Faraday family in Police at the funeral. Tiger in the smoke and Hide my eyes are such uncanny post WW2 London books and meditations on good and evil - so hard to choose and so fortunate to have the choice. I have not read Sarah Caudwell so look forward to her work.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you like Beckoning Lady, I sometimes felt I was the only person who did. Tiger in the Smoke extraordinary, but SO not cosy! I recently re-read and blogged on the China Governess, and liked it a lot, having not remembered anything about it.
DeleteOne of my guilty pleasures is the "Cat Who...." series, because I'm fascinated by Koko the cat. I know they can be considered cutesy, but they do predate the modern Cutesy Trend. The NY Times even listed them as classic cozies once, although it was limited to the first few books in the series. The human hero is a bit full of himself, and curmudgeonly to boot, but as a newspaperman he knows how to follow leads. Later books were "out there" sometimes, like the one where Koko apparently visits a UFO manned (?) by cats!
ReplyDeleteCrewed by cats, perhaps? The "Cat Who ..." series rings a bell from way back (pre-Cutesy, as you say) though I don't remember reading any.
DeleteSovay
This is the Lillian Jackson Braun series? Apparetnly I read The Cat Who Sniffed Glue in Aug 1994, but nothing else, and of course no memory of that one. Can you recommend a starter one, preferably not featuring UFOs 😊?
DeleteThe first book in the series is "The Cat Who Could Read Backwards" in which human and cats begin their collaboration. Followed by "The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern" and "The Cat Who Turned On and Off" which were written in the years right after the first book. There was a gap of almost 20 years between these books and the rest of the series, and according to the NYT, a drop in quality after the break. They're still entertaining if you do like the series. The setting moves to a town called Pickax in Moose County (possibly in the state of Michigan). North Woods-ish, anyway--there's a neighboring town called Brr!
DeleteQuite a strange history - did Braun write anything else?
DeleteI don't think she wrote anything else, besides some short stories featuring about cats other than Koko and YumYum. I think there are between 20 and 30 "Cat Who...." books, that must have kept her pretty busy!
DeleteBlimey, I had no idea she was so prolific.
DeleteA new entry in the cosy crime category, though I agree that we could do with a better term, must be Sally Smith's "A Case of Of Mice and Murder" and "A Case of Life and Limb". Has anyone else read them? I loved the main character (and there is a very characterful cat too).
ReplyDeleteIneresting - I've not heard of the author or the books, but will look them up. I'd love to hear if others know them.
DeleteJust to show that not all "critter" mysteries are cutesy: dog trainer Carol Lea Benjamin wrote several books about PI Rachel Alexander and her pitbull sidekick. The dog's name is Dash, so you can guess what Benjamin's inspiration was! They're set mostly in NYC, but they're not "brownstone mysteries" although to me they weren't full-scale hard-boiled either, just grittier than most cozies. I also like Susan Conant's series with Holly Winter (her parents' joke) and her malamutes. They're more on the cozy side but like Braun's books, they've been around for decades. (I give them points because Holly's SO isn't a cop, but a veterinarian. She does have a cop as a neighbor, though!) They're set in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and there are some digs at a certain educational institution....
ReplyDeleteMore great recommendations - thanks. I don't know either of those series.
Delete