They Don’t Write ’em Like That Anymore…

Actually they do, Aunty Jean. Cosy Crime has spanned the literary centuries and now due to its popularity, over a physical century as well.

Yet what constitutes a Cosy? Is it bounded by the Golden Age as presided over by Queen Agatha, Dame Sayers or Countess Marsh? Georgette Heyer stepped out of the Regency period to complete six very passable crime novels…

But is the Cosy now something that has actually transcended the Golden Age time period and matured into an acceptably modern crime sub-genre. Does it always need the Downton Abbey touches of country mansion, old upper crust family, downstairs unrest, and the usual collection of nefarious butlers who always seem to have ‘done it’, whatever ‘it’ might be?

Or is that ‘predictability’ what makes a cosy comfortably cosy? Or annoyingly so? And let’s be honest, who hasn’t at some time wished that Lord Peter would take a .32 between the eyes when the plot becomes more twisted than a corkscrew hazel?

17 writers take us on Cosy journeys – some more traditional, while others are very much up to date.