Finding cozy mysteries

As we move closer to release day for TUESDAY NIGHT SURVIVORS' CLUB on Tuesday, I'm thinking a lot about why cozy mysteries.

As a kid, I’d always loved the serial mysteries. I was too old for Goosebumps, but I remember reading several mystery series in middle school. I helped the librarian at lunch so I always got to unpack the new books. Paste a card pocket on the inside cover, type up a check out card, and a card for the catalog. Then I could be the first reader.

When I was older and going through cancer treatments, I found cozy mysteries. Maggie Sefton’s Knit One, Kill Two and her knitting character, Kelly Flynn, kept me occupied while I was going through cancer treatments. Cozies gave me an entertaining story without dealing with the hard subjects that occupied my non-reading life. I guess my decision to write cozies stemmed from this experience and a desire to give back what the genre had given me. Cozy mysteries are the genre’s comfort food. And that’s all right by me.