How Scary Should Cozies Be?

October 31, 2022 / Mystery Writing Tips, Uncategorized / 12 COMMENTS


A grinning jack-o-lantern on old logs

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Happy Halloween, everybody!

On this day of spooky celebration, I thought I’d take a quick look at scares in cozy mysteries, known as being gentler reads than other mysteries in the genre.

Agatha Christie was a founder of the genre and several of her books have scared me to death over the years.  But the scares aren’t the so-called “jump scares” where a killer leaps out at you. It’s more the tone, the situation (a country house in the middle of nowhere with a killer on the loose), and the ominous general foreboding that the books offer. And, when the killer (they can be plural) is revealed, it often gave me a shiver, too.

Nancy Drew books, crafted for young girls, also did a great job with scares. Maybe “spookiness” is a better word for what they pulled off. A hidden staircase, old secrets, and mysterious diaries lent a sinister feel to the stories.

What kinds of scares are good for cozies? In my mind, they need to be gentle and not protracted. The discovery of a body can definitely be a scary moment in a cozy mystery. Here, though, the scare is more in the surprise discovery and less about the appearance of the body. Avoiding detailed descriptions of the victims is a good practice, actually.

Sometimes the scary moment is more about tension. There’s almost always going to be a very tense moment near the conclusion of the story when the sleuth uncovers the killer. Does the killer plan on shutting her up permanently? How does she get away? It’s a good place for fast-paced action to drive readers to the end of the story.

Interspersing scary or serious scenes with lighter ones is a good idea. The quirkiness of the genre’s supporting characters can be a welcome relief when the story gets intense.

One of the nice things about cozies is the escape it offers to readers. Not only do readers have the opportunity to be armchair sleuths, they’re also honorary residents of the town during the story. The danger the mystery offers by interrupting the idyll of the community is eliminated by the end of the book, adding to the contentment and the general sense of having tidied everything up at the end.

How many scares do you like to see in a cozy mystery? Or in your own genre (I think every genre has them!)

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  2. That is really an interesting question, Elizabeth. Just how scary should scares be? I 100% agree with you that the author can scare without gruesomeness, and without the scare being extended. Building up tension is a lot more effective, anyway, in my opinion.

  4. My mom introduced me to Agatha Christie mysteries when I was in elementary school and I devoured them! She really was/is the queen of mysteries. I loved the way she built the tension and the mystery without the gore. Using those little grey cells is fun!

  5. Hi Elizabeth – setting the scene where the murder can occur … can be hidden amongst the place, yet giving the author lots of places for red-herrings … gentle is better for a cozy. Yours are great … real places, real people – yet something unfortunate happens for a reason from one of the characters. Cheers Hilary

  6. In books I can handle tension, suspense and scariness. On the screen I cannot. The book I’m writing now is a northern noir and it has some scary bits and some gruesome parts but mainly, the effect I’m after is a dark despair – a bleakness that suits the terrain of the North. In that gloom I inject a beam of hope for humankind at some point. No darkness no light. I found many of Agatha Christie novels to also contain a sorrowful or despairing core. I think that fundamentally Miss Marple didn’t think much of modern life but she was stoic and willing to do what she could in her small community. I like that.

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