As lazy as it is to write a post recommending you read something else, I’m going to do that today. Because you all grant me the courtesy of your time and I owe you the favour of telling you when I’ve found a really wonderful thing to read.
I used to read mysteries compulsively. They were the first genre I got sucked into (thank you, conglomerate-masqurading-as-Carolyn-Keene) and they’ve been the genre I’ve read the longest. Since mystery and western are the two genres I don’t write they’re also the two genres I can best escape into when I’m working on a piece of fiction. I did, however, get burned out on mysteries about four years ago and have read only a handful.
Until two weeks ago.
I know I’m late to the party, but I’ve discovered Ann Cleeves via Doctor Who of all things. * Her work is a breath of fresh air in the cozy mystery genre and I’ve enjoyed the Vera Stanhope novel available to me very much. I hope that more become available stateside as the show catches on via Netflix.
But the Vera Stanhope mysteries aren’t the books I’m begging you to read. Yes, they’re fine things. But the real work of literary art is the Shetland Island Series.
Brilliant writing, compulsive reading. I can NOT put these books down. Let me put it this way….when you have to tear yourself away from a book to go into Disney World you KNOW it’s a good book. And there are FOUR of them. (Five in Britain, and five eventually here.)
Please read them. Please.
If you have a Kindle you can get the first three in a bargain bundle.
*Her mysteries featuring Vera Stanhope are now serialised on ITV and produced by Elaine Collins who is the wife of the newest Doctor Who, Peter Capaldi.
Are they “cozy”?
I don’t know.
I know…stupid answer. But honestly, I would NOT call them cozy. They are intense and have a dark edge to them. They’re ponderous and entertaining. But not “cozy”. Not at all. At least not to me. When I think of a cozy I think of vicars and teas and muffin recipes at the back.
I keep reading reviews on GoodReads and Amazon that call these “cozy” but I think that’s because they lack a hard forensic edge. They’re more about the interplay between Shetlanders. They most remind me of Val McDermid’s work, but with less forensic detail. Their closed-nature setting and Britishness gets them pegged as cozy, I think largely unfairly.
I suppose I’d maybe say they’re neocozy or psuedocozy. I more see them as psychological autopsies of a community.
You’re not helping. 🙂
Cozy mysteries make me want to throw things, but I haven’t read anything by Val McDermid so the comparison doesn’t tell me anything. Oh, the dilemmas I face.
If this helps…I am driven up a tree by most cozies–Christie excepted. I love these. I get no cozy vibe at all.
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http://www.cozy-mystery.com/Definition-of-a-Cozy-Mystery.html
According to this the only thing that makes it a cozy is the Shetland Island setting. And even that is a stretch.
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Coble, that link is hi-larious. Evidently whoever put the website together thinks that Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski books are cozies.
But I will trust you that Ann Cleeves does not write cozy mysteries. But, in that case, is Ann Cleeves her real name and, if so, has she sued her parents?
I keep hoping so. Because I CANNOT type her name without a pause to make sure I don’t add an “of”.
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Perhaps she is thought of as a cozy writer because of her name.
Because Anne of Cleaves had a cozy, in eventful sort of life…
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Actually, she did. She lived a boring life in a small, boring country in Germany, till she got sent to England, whereupon there were a few weeks of upheaval, after which time she (i) didn’t have to be married to Henry VIII any more, but (ii) could live at court and go to lots of parties, using (iii) a yearly stipend paid to her by Henry. Whereupon she disappears from the records except for collecting her $ and occasionally being mentioned as being at a party, and Henry calling her his sister. I mean, out of all of Henry’s wives, she had the coziest life.
strange question, but have you read JKR’s The Cuckoo’s Calling (I can’t remember a post, but obviously you read more than you post about!)? I ask because it’s the only mystery I’ve read lately (as in since out growing Encyclopedia Brown and The Bobbsey Twins, as a child, lol), and I really enjoyed it, but I have no clue whether it was the type of mystery, or just how well it was written, so I have no clue where to start on Mysteries, if I actually decide to start reading them on a regular basis… (I still have such long lists of Fantasy/SciFi to get caught up on, because of my obsession with historical fiction for most of my childhood/teen years… so I don’t know that I really need to pick up another genre…besides my theory used to be not to start reading mysteries til I hit 40, since I spent the first 20 years (approx.) of my life reading historical fiction, and the second 20 reading fantasy/scifi – but I’m not that committed to the idea, I just thought it was funny)
Ooh, my aunt lives in the Shetlands and I’ve been hoping to visit someday. This might be a good intro… if Amazon would let me buy it, sigh! “No pricing available for your region.” Grrr…