Cozy Mystery

An amateur sleuth, often a woman, with a job or hobby that gives her access and insight: a baker, a librarian, a retired teacher, a writer. The police are present but slow or skeptical, which leaves room for the amateur to investigate on her own.

A small, closed community, such as a village, a resort, a church or a retirement home, where everyone knows everyone and the suspects are neighbors. The setting is a big part of the appeal, and series return to the same place and cast book after book.

Violence, sex and profanity are offstage or absent. The murder usually happens before the story starts or out of view, the victim is often someone few will miss, and the ending restores order with a fair solution the reader could have reached. Humor, food, animals and a light romance are common extras.

A traditional mystery may have a professional detective, a city setting and violence on the page, though it still centers on a puzzle. The cozy is a softer subgenre of it, defined as much by tone and community as by plot: the reader expects to feel comfortable even while solving a murder.

A thriller is built on danger and speed rather than deduction, and it often shows the violence the cozy avoids. A hardboiled detective story goes further, with a cynical professional in a corrupt city. The cozy sits at the opposite end from both: low gore, high charm and a world that is put right by the last page.