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Lora Roberts: Not so Cozy: Amateur Sleuths with Attitude Those who love crime fiction divide it into many sub-genres—espionage, private investigator, police procedural, cozy. Those of us who are often slotted into the cozy arena prefer the term Amateur Sleuth, because it more accurately describes what happens in the book. My books, for instance, feature a viewpoint character who follows the trail but is not a PI or an officer of the law. She is an amateur sleuth, but she has a little too much attitude to be truly cozy. In fact, in my opinion, Miss Marple also had too much attitude to be cozy. The real tension in those books comes from the contrast between her fluffy, virginal appearance, and her shrewd grasp of the scope of human evil. In amateur-with-attitude books, there's violence, but it's not dwelt on in loving detail. There's humor, but that's not the focus. The characters, as in all good fiction, carry the story, but the story makes definite progress toward a satisfying resolution. Ah, that resolution! That's one of the reasons why I love reading and writing mysteries. One reviewer once damned a book of mine with the faint praise, "...although marred by a too-tidy ending..." Well, I like that tidy ending. As a child, I loved the books where the characters, though tossed by turbulent action, ended up tucked into bed, snug and safe for the night. I'm still trying to achieve that with every book I write. After I've put the characters through harsh and uncomfortable action, made them confront their weaknesses and exploit strengths they didn't know they had, I want that ending that makes everything right with the world again. I want my readers to be glued to the pages, unable to sleep until they shut the book with a sigh of satisfaction and tuck themselves away in their burrows—er, beds. So if that's cozy, sue me. It's hard to envision anything about death being cozy. In fact, the more innocuous the characters, the more macabre the effect, in my opinion. Look at "Arsenic and Old Lace." What could be cozier than those sweet old ladies with their lace collars and teacups? The juxtaposition of that with their murderous dispositions is hilarious in the play, but in real life the comfy-looking elderly woman who murders her lodgers is downright creepy. I am not trying to make my readers cozy. I create a world where people are prevented by the eruption of violence from living their quiet lives. That's not cozy. It's just the pursuit of the American Dream.
More from Lora:
Lee Harris ~ Jonnie Jacobs ~ Valerie Wolzien ©2005-06 by Lee Harris, Jonnie Jacobs, Lora Roberts and Valerie Wolzien. |