Cosy Crime
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Who doesn’t love an Agatha Christie Murder Mystery? A sleepy English village or university town; vintage cars and costumes on screen or in the mind’s eye; a none-too-graphic violent murder; plentiful suspects each with a motive; developing and disintegrating relationships; bumbling policemen and a sharp-minded amateur sleuth.
Crime novels and TV series are ubiquitous and include many sub-genres from police procedurals to Scandi noir. Whether gritty or ‘cosy’, the basis of their appeal is the same - the fundamental reassurance that though evil abounds, justice will prevail. You could argue that crime fiction is the ultimate escapism from a world in which many crimes go unsolved, or even uninvestigated and sadly, for many criminals, crime does pay. But as a Christian, I do believe that ultimately justice will prevail, so I see an underlying truth here.
We also love the puzzle-solving aspect of searching for clues - trying to work out who dunnit. Agatha Christie is the queen of the cosy crime sub-genre but many others have followed and currently there’s a proliferation of modern authors writing ‘cosy murders.’
In 2019, Richard Osman landed a seven-figure publishing deal for his series that began with ‘The Thursday Murder Club.’ And astonishingly , his latest novel ‘The Last Devil to Die,’ has become the fastest-selling hardback novel by a British author in UK sales history. I found ‘The Thursday Murder Club’ fairly compelling but I admit I’m surprised at this level of success. He has the advantage, of course, of a huge ‘platform’ from his hosting of popular TV quiz shows.
Osman has hit on a winning formula, setting his novels in an English retirement village with a range of interesting residents from different backgrounds. Gentle humour is coupled with fierce intelligence and a relentless desire for justice, a flexible attitude to the letter of the law and a kindly forbearance of human nature. And in the background, the everyday concerns around growing older.
Other crime authors I enjoy are Alexander McCall Smith with his ‘Ladies Detective Agency’ series set in Botswana, and Ellis Peters’ Cadfael Mysteries set in 12th century England against a background of the civil war between Empress Maud and King Stephen.
On TV I particularly like Morse and all its spin-offs, though I’m not sure how ‘cosy’ they are; but ‘Death in Paradise’ is a bit too formulaic for me. If you have a favourite cosy crime author or TV show, please share in the comments.
Some think of Cosy Crime as ‘twee’ and some of it undoubtedly is, but in the hands of Richard Osman, Agatha Christie and many others, it can be clever, intriguing, compassionate and insightful.
Oxford - murder capital of Europe?! Image by Alfonso Cerezo, Pixabay
