What makes a "cozy" mystery

To me this agent is looking for books along the lines of Literary Crime; he's not wanting anything that is genre. I'm think of authors like Elmore Leonard; maybe Ian Rankin.

To me your book is very much leaning towards Cozy; definitely a genre novel. I would expect a Literary Crime novel to be very dark; very gritty; delving into a dark psychology.

My instinct would be not to submit to this one; but if you want to what harm will it do?

*Bemused by an agent looking for Literary fiction; but hates first person*

I could be wrong, but when I think of cozy, I think along the lines of The Hardy Boys, or Nancy Drew- Updated of course-

Cozies generally go along the lines of: anything by Agatha Christie or MC Beaton; Midsommer Murders et al.

Interesting discovery - I did some research this morning and discovered I'm actually writing Noir.

Hey Allie - want to share the name of this agent? I'm currently querying agents on my literary crime novel.

I'd say, if you think your novel isn't a cozy, it can't hurt to query. Cozy mysteries have all the violence occur off screen. Often have just one setting. Can include locked room type mysteries. Agatha Christie did a lot of cozies.

Sounds like a cozy to me, but I don't think it'd hurt to try.

My target audience is the cozy reader. I think they're alive and well and buying books. I'm not aiming for a best-seller list, just to please myself and other amateur sleuth cozy readers.

I would send your agent a rejection slip, kindly worded, of course.

I thought as much.

Wylie is the biggest literary snobs in the industry. Watch yourself there.

"Please don't send me anything written in first person unless you understand other points of view, have tried them and because of the uniqueness of your story, first person works best. A first person narrative is possibly a good place for someone who knows nothing about other narrative viewpoints, but in my opinion, a finely finished author should have moved past this point of view. First person is just too limiting for the character development I seek."

To me that doesn't sound like he's anti-first person. Sounds like he's anti-inexperienced-author-using-first-person-because-its-easier-without-thinking-what's-best-for-the-story.

Noir is Hardboiled Crime fiction. It doesn't have a detective in it; the main character tends to be directly affected by the crime.

There's another sub-genre known as Tartan Noir (the authors are Scottish).

Okay, thanks. He sent me a quick rejection and referred me to his blog, which is where I got the idea he might be looking for literary crime. Mine was exactly 3,000 words shorter than his guidelines, maybe that was it. He sure didn't give me a clue in his rejection.

gothicangel said:

Noir is Hardboiled Crime fiction. It doesn't have a detective in it; the main character tends to be directly affected by the crime.

There's another sub-genre known as Tartan Noir (the authors are Scottish).

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This is not one of the many definitions I've heard for noir. My understanding of it has been that it's gritty, dark, shady and quite often has an unhappy (or unfulfilling) ending. "No Country for Old Men" is held as a prime example of noir. But Raymond Chandler is also said to write noir. Chandler writes private eye stories. He's also described as Hardboiled (which is tough characters, tough setting, usually refers to the detective.)

When it comes to genres, sure there's subdivisions. But think of it like those Venn Diagrams. Things over lap. There is no one set definition. Some books will fit into more than one category, but usually there's a predominant flavor.

I like hardboiled and a lot of noir stories. I don't care for cozies.

Cozies often have less violence, gore, or sex (and often have little to no hard language.) They may have a high body count, oddly enough, but the violence is done off-page and there are no graphic descriptions. Many cozies have an amateur sleuth. To me, it's the sort of thing that won't offend the prim little old gramma. (Nothing wrong with it, but it's not my cup of vodka.)

Included in the subdivisions, you have your detective stories. The detective can be an amateur or a professional, hardboiled or not. Police detectives usually fall under police procedurals. This is another type of crime/ mystery story. Mysteries usually solve some crime or riddle. Crime novels may lay out whodunnit first and seek to show how the detective solved it. Others may try to solve why or how it was done, even if they know who. Mystery stories can include suspense. But others may be more slow in pacing with less peril for the MC or other characters.

There are as many flavors of mystery as there are mystery writers. I've been reading and writing noir and hardboiled fiction for some time now. Thrilling Detective has some great information on Private Eyes, detectives, hardboiled and other such stuff.

I beleive there are lists and other sites for information cozies. (I'm thinking maybe over on DorothyL? I'm not sure since that sort of stuff has not interest to me. Read, read, read. Read websites that talk about the 'greats' of your genre, then go read as many books (or short stories) in that vein.

Clair Dickson said:

This is not one of the many definitions I've heard for noir. My understanding of it has been that it's gritty, dark, shady and quite often has an unhappy (or unfulfilling) ending.

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Yep, that's my novel.

Which author would you say the book is like Allie?

Janet Reid likes quirky. She's got a sense of humor too, but she's tough. I pitched to her at a conference this fall, she asked for the first 100, turned it down.

I'm not sure she does cozy though.

I think a good tip is hunting out your favourite authors and doing some research to find out who their agents are.

Networking on the internet is good too; I have a recommendation from a successful thriller writer for their agent.

My favorite author's dead. I think his agent is too. =) (I've not found anyone who I love nearly as much as Raymond Chandler.)

Cynthia Baxter's book, Putting on the Dog, is a cozy, I believe. In the acknowldgements, she lists her agent as Faith Hamlin.

Rhys Bowen writes cozy mysteries.

An ex-editor of hers is now an agent at Bookends. Not sure I remember which one but I believe it's Jessica Faust. It's worth checking her out.