cozy mystery

I won’t deny that I like a gritty novel. Serious drama. Fast paced. Twists and turns. I like to be kept wondering, kept turning pages until way past my bedtime, on the edge of my seat in anticipation of what’s next for the characters whose skin I’m temporarily inhabiting.

At other times, I like my fare on the lighter side. A romance with just as much of a “will they or won’t they actually make it” factor, but less heart pounding. Or a new hero/heroine with a dash of eccentricity in a particularly scenic locale I’d love to visit but likely never will outside the printed page.

Know what I mean?

And at such times, I find that a cozy mystery is the perfect fit.

I’m not sure when I first came across the term, only that it was relatively recently, but Wikipedia defines the genre this way: “Cozy mysteries, also referred to as ‘cozies,’ are a subgenre of crime fiction in which sex and violence are downplayed or treated humorously, and the crime and detection take place in a small, socially intimate community.”

They seem to be enormously popular, too. So not that long ago I tried one, and that’s how I discovered Barbara Cool Lee and her Pajaro Bay series.

Now, I haven’t even finished the first book in said series, but . . .

Dang it, Barbara Cool Lee, you not only have me enjoying cozy mysteries, you’ve got me wanting to WRITE one! I’ve just stepped foot in Pajaro Bay and I already want to live in a Jefferson Stockdale cottage. I looked up “Jefferson Stockdale” on Google (so have some other folks, apparently) and was rather disappointed that he was only a figment of your authorly imagination, but as a fellow writer, I forgive you. Anyway, I’m already invested in Honeymoon Cottage (you had me at the title, I think) and am dying to find out why that skunk Dennis abandoned his kid with the now ex-fiancee he allowed to be arrested for his crime, how he’ll get his comeuppance, and if Camilla can heal Officer Ryan’s shattered heart. Yes, that means I haven’t finished the book yet—something I normally do before I thank an author for writing it. But I’m sure you’ll excuse me just this once.

What’s more, I’ve been inspired to download a bunch of other cozy mysteries from freebooksy.com that I haven’t even started yet, much less finished, because of you, Barbara Cool Lee. Because you have this whole series with these adorable titles like Lighthouse Cottage and Boardwalk Cottage and Little Fox Cottage, with these adorable beachy covers, and I love the beach and I love cottages, and I want to read every dang one of those books, because sometimes the news from the local paper’s headlines or the television or the doctor’s office or the mechanic’s shop or the local high school is so depressing and alarming that pretty much all of us need a little escape from time to time . . . to a world where the bad guy always gets his (or hers) and crushes are requited and you wish you could hang around with the main characters long after “The End” because they really do seem like people you’d love to share a meal or a laugh with.

Thanks for obeying the call of the storyteller within you and imagining, then sharing, such a world with us.

Do you like cozy mysteries? If so, and you haven’t done so already, check out the highly enjoyable voice of Barbara Cool Lee. Then write me with some recommendations of your own.

It was winter, and I longed for the warmth of sunshine on my face, the grainy squish of sand under my bare toes, and the tang of sea salt in my nostrils. Then one afternoon I opened my email from freebooksy.com, with the usual tickle of anticipation for the day’s complimentary ebooks . . . and saw Ode to a Fish Sandwich, the first volume in a series called Quirky Tales from the Caribbean. What could sound more delightful in a season of cold and darkness?

Okay, let me insert a dose of honesty here. Though the calendar was indeed set to winter, I live in Central Florida, where days of what other folks consider true cold can be counted on less than ten fingers—and there’s a reason it’s called the Sunshine State. I won’t even mention the fact that I live an hour from the closest beach.

*Rebecca M. Hale*
(*Copyright 2010 R. Parker Blackburn*)

But I not only rather like fish sandwiches, the idea of one being good enough to inspire an ode, much less a novel, caught my fancy. Add in “quirky” (I have a lifelong fascination with the unusual and weird) and “Caribbean,” a place I have yet to visit even though I’m deeply in love with the idea of it, and I was hooked like the original titular fish before I’d read a complete chapter.

It’s impossible not to pity a man who is jilted by his lady at the altar, but I found myself cheering Dr. Walcott Emerson Jones on his unexpected decision to pull a Carrie Bradshaw and go on his honeymoon alone. To a couples resort, no less! But how would our fish-belly-white, studiously sun-avoiding dermatologist hero actually make out in such a setting—not to mention climate? And how did a sandwich fit into his adventure?

Once again, I’m not going to give away too much of the plot, but here’s part of what I wrote to New York Times bestselling author Rebecca M. Hale:

I was tickled at how the good doctor’s occasionally hilarious sunscreen obsession inspired Winnie’s remark that he “probably glows in the dark”; impressed by how your gift for painting a word picture took us straight into Delilah’s Beachside Diner, the painstakingly manicured resort, the prickly sugar cane. I felt the heat with the locals and the sweating doctor. Smelled that grill-seared fish—and wanted a bite! (“A hearty chunk of protein, dusted with savory salt, tinged with the sweetness of the sea.” Yum.) I loved the way you set up a hint of danger in the Introduction, kept your chapters bite-sized with just enough hints of warning to keep us moving at a rapid clip while wanting more. Human foibles and longings were believable and relatable (well, most of them!). And that oh-so-satisfying-she-got-what-she-deserved-yet-still-mysterious ending. Thank you for giving me such a satisfying read and taste for more Quirky Tales from the Caribbean. I’m looking forward to checking out Volumes 2 and 3.

Are you in the mood for an entertaining, laugh-out-loud, keep-you-guessing-till-the-end beach read this summer? Do yourself a favor. Pick up a copy of Ode to a Fish Sandwich and pack it with your “White Wally”-approved sunscreen and picnic basket. Then settle in for a good time . . . preferably with a fish sandwich of your own.

Though I can’t guarantee it’ll be as good as Winnie’s.

30 BOOKS AND 30 THANKS: BARBARA COOL LEE

30 BOOKS AND 30 THANKS: REBECCA M. HALE