A cozy mystery is a crime novel featuring an amateur detective solving a case in a small town or close-knit environment like a aboard a ship or in an assisted living facility. Cozy mysteries are a subgenre of crime fiction that are known for their lack of graphic violence and profanity, and romance happens off the page. Instead, the stories focus on the mystery and quirky individuals to propel the story forward. They are a light-hearted and relaxing diversion from everyday occurrences. Often the stories enlist a specific trope, a distinguishing plot or theme added to enhance the taletelling. Ellen Byron and Jenn McKinley write culinary mysteries: The Bayou Cookbook Mysteries and The Cupcake Bakery Mystery Series. Paige Shelton writes the Scottish Bookshop Mystery Series. There are coffee or tea lover mysteries, crafting mysteries, yachting, fishing, and paranormal cozy mysteries. A cozy mystery may highlight different hobbies like scrapbooking, knitting, or sewing, exaggerate regular careers such as insurance detective, coach, librarian, or enlist magical elements with special powers, ghosts, or witches. The list is endless.
Katie and Maverick Cozy Mysteries happen in Columbia, a fictional small town in West Central Minnesota. The main character, Katie Wilk, is a high school math teacher with an energetic, supportive best friend, a bossy landlady, a nosy neighbor, a stoic veterinarian, and a handsome love interest. But the protagonist’s pet identifies the animal trope in these cozies. Without Maverick as her sidekick, some of the crimes would probably go unsolved.
Each story in the series includes an encryption, a tidbit about the Titanic to link the stories to the movie in the first novel, a puzzle, a geocache or experiment, a nod to a female cryptographer, and a taste tested cocktail recipe. So far, each book spotlights successive months in Katie’s first year of teaching, and boy has it been a busy year.
I hope you enjoy Maverick, Movies & Murder, Katie and Maverick Cozy Mysteries, Book 1.
