[ SECRET POST #4978 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4978 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 40 secrets from Secret Submission Post #713.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

As others have pointed out, the "cozy" label is to distinguish a specific type of murder mystery from others in the genre, such as the "hardboiled detective", Nordic crime noir, or the grim realistic procedural (such as Criminal Minds, SVU, etc). (No one is saying that violent crime is ever exactly "pleasant"--in real life or in fiction).

In a cozy, the murder victim is usually an asshole who few will miss, the detective is often an amateur and is usually pretty likable (if charmingly eccentric), darker themes/topics (ex: sexual violence, child abuse, incest, serial killers, etc.) are relatively rare (though not necessarily absent even in a cozy) compared to some of the more gritty crime series, and the specific gratuitous and gory details of the crime itself are also less explored.

Another thing worth noting is that--more so than other types of crime genre--cozies tend to be popular with and marketed specifically towards women, especially middle-aged or older women. Many of them feature female detectives and/or are written by female authors (or at least under a female pseudonym).

So, while cozies are definitely my favorite subgenre, I do have a bit of a knee-jerk reaction when hearing the term--especially when a book intentionally markets itself as a cozy. Since there's underlying subtext of "this thing is softer and popular with women so we must differentiate it from 'real' crime drama which is dark and edgy and therefore more IMPORTANT."

Sort of by default, cozy mysteries tend to be based in more of a suburban small-town type setting, and gentification being a thing does mean the genre as a whole tends to be fairly "white, middle class-focused." But not exclusively, as there are some great series that feature cozy detectives of color (ex: the aforementioned #1 Ladies Detective Agency, the Gethsemane Brown series, and the Sophie Katz series).

And honestly, crime fiction being predominantly created for/marketed to a white, middle class audience...is a problem with that isn't exclusively solely to the "cozy subgenre." ALL of the crime/mystery subgenres can do a lot better with representation.

[(Anonymous)]

I think the majority of the more hard-boiled crime stuff I read at this point has women protagonists, but I don't whether that's representative of the genre as a whole or just my taste.