Christmas Town and the Essence of a Cozy Mystery by Vicki Delany

The essence of a cozy mystery, as I see it, is real life, with some components stretched and exaggerated for effect.

Cozy writers take the things we love – families, friends, hobbies, crafts, even places – and write them with a loving hand to be slightly larger than life. And then, we thrust murder and sometimes mayhem into the mix.

When it comes to real life, is there anything we love more than Christmas? 

 We love food, the decorations, the lights, the gifts, maybe even the weather, and above all the gathering of family and friends, and the enjoyment of celebrating with them. So when I set about to create the Year Round Christmas Series for Berkley, I took all the things we love about the holidays, tossed them together and added a suitably Christmas murder (poisoned gingerbread cookies, of course).

In my fictional town of Rudolph, New York, they love Christmas so much they celebrate it all year round.  And no one loves the holiday more than Merry Wilkinson, owner of Mrs. Claus’s Treasures, on Rudolph’s main street, Jingle Bell Lane. Merry’s father, Noel, is the town’s Santa Claus. Merry knows her dad isn’t really Santa, but sometimes she does wonder how he knows what people want before they so much as say so.

Another element of the cozy is often ambition or competition out of control (or perhaps just more out in the open than it is in real life). And Rudolph, New York, is determined to beat out Snowflake, Arizona or North Pole, Alaska to be officially known as America’s Christmas Town.  

In the first book in the series, Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen, when a reporter from an international travel magazine arrives in town to write an article on Rudolph, under the headline of America’s Christmas Town, hopes are high for the future of the town.

But it wouldn’t be a cozy without a murder. And it wouldn’t be Christmas Town without poisoned gingerbread, a sleigh-full of suspects, and an amateur sleuth determined to see that the right person ends up on Santa’s naughty list. 

In the second book in the series, We Wish You A Murderous Christmas, a Grinch arrives in Rudolph.

I glanced at my dad. His color was rising, and not in his habitual jolly Saint Nick look. “Rudolph,” he said, “is a community-oriented town. Christmas Town. In Rudolph we believe that a rising tide lifts all boats. Everyone here supports everyone else’s business. Thus, we all benefit.”

Gord laughed. “Sounds like that old western town where folks made a living by taking in each other’s washing.”

I glanced around the table. Dad’s face was beet red and a vein throbbed in his neck. Mom studied her napkin as if searching for the secret of life therein.

Grace stared at her step-son in horror.

“That fresh tree in the lobby looks okay and all, Grace,”

Irene said. She seemed to be totally oblivious to the

mood that had fallen over the table. “You should get a

plastic tree that can be used every year. They come

with decorations attached, so you don’t have to waste

time decorating it and then taking it down again. That

must take time, and time is money, am I right honey?”

“Right,” Gord replied.

                                                        We Wish You A Murderous Christmas, by Vicki Delany

When the Grinch is murdered, who else would be the prime suspect but Santa Claus?

Real life, writ large, with a touch of murder thrown in.

Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers. She is the author of twenty-three published crime novels, including standalone Gothic thrillers, the Constable Molly Smith series, and the Year Round Christmas Mysteries.  Under the pen name of Eva Gates she is the national bestselling author of the Lighthouse Library cozy series. 

Vicki lives and writes in Prince Edward County, Ontario. She is the past president of the Crime Writers of Canada.

www.vickidelany.com. Facebook:  Vicki Delany & Eva Gates (evagatesauthor) and twitter: @vickidelany and @evagatesauthor