Amateur Sleuths and Their Jobs by Heather Weidner
I write cozy mysteries where the protagonists are amateur sleuths. These everyday people have jobs and lives, and somehow, they get entangled in a mystery. When I started my series, I had to find a job for each of my characters. I needed positions that gave them the freedom to investigate. They couldn’t be tied to a desk job without the ability to sneak away to do some research. In each case, I made my sleuths business owners who had help running their organizations. This gave them the freedom to leave at odd hours to pursue clues and killers. I also needed them to have jobs where they would be exposed to a lot of people to ensure a large enough pool of suspects for each mystery.
Giving
them unique jobs, offered me the opportunity to research interesting careers
and to search for ways to fit them into my fictional towns. In the Jules Keene
Glamping Mysteries, the protagonist owns a camping resort where she has
restored vintage trailers for glamping (glamorous camping) experiences for her
guests. In the Mermaid Bay Christmas Shoppe Mysteries, Jade Hicks owns a
Christmas store in a quaint beach town. In the Pearly Girls Mysteries, Cassidy
Jamison is an event planner who owns a property with a serenity garden,
amphitheater, a converted barn, and a cave in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
I
polled my Writers Who Kill friends, and here are some of the jobs their sleuths
hold.
James
M. Jackson: Seamus McCree, from the Seamus McCree series, is a
financial crimes consultant.
Sarah
E. Burr: Coco Cline, from the Trending Topic Series, is a social
media influencer and online marketing consultant. Winnie Lark, from the Book
Blogger Mysteries, is a book blogger and web designer. Hazel Wickbury, from the
Whim Mysteries, is a candlemaker and shop owner.
Grace
Topping: Laura Bishop, from the Laura Bishop Mystery series, is a
professional home stager.
Marilyn Levinson (Allison Brook): Carrie Singleton, of the Haunted Library series, is
the Head of
Programs and Events of the Clover Ridge Library.
Kait
Carson:
Hayden Kent is the protagonist of the Hayden Kent Mysteries, and she’s a
Florida paralegal and insurance investigator in training. Sassy Romano is the
protagonist of the Maine Lodge Mysteries, and she’s the owner/operator of a
Maine lodge/artist colony.
Judy
L. Murray: Helen Morrisey in the Chesapeake Bay Mystery series is a
real estate broker.
Lori
Roberts Herbst: In the Callie Cassidy Mysteries, Callie is a former
investigative photojournalist and a current photo gallery owner.
Nancy Eady: In the Webster County Mysteries,
Penny Davis and Boyd Firth, are attorneys at the same firm.
Connie Berry: In the Kate Hamilton Mysteries, set in the UK, my amateur sleuth is an antiques dealer and appraiser.
Debra H. Goldstein: In the Sarah Blair mystery series, Sarah is a law firm receptionist/secretary.
Margaret Hamilton: In the Jericho Mysteries, Lizzie Christopher is a design shop manager, Lavender Cottage Interiors and project manager, and Jericho College faculty housing renovator.
Shari Randall (Meri Allen): Meri Allen's Ice Cream Shop series has Riley Rhodes, manager of an ice cream shop called Udderly Delicious. In Shari Randall's Lobster Shack series, Allegra "Allie" Larkin is an injured ballerina who works at her aunt's Lazy Mermaid Lobster Shack.
Susan Van Kirk: The sleuth in the Art Center Mysteries is Jill Madison, executive director of an art center named for her sculptor mother. In the Endurance series, Grace Kimball is a retired high school English teacher and now proprietor of a bed-and-breakfast.
K. M. Rockwood: In the Jesse Damon crime novel series, Jesse, who is on parole after a murder conviction, is a laborer/forklift driver on the overnight shift at a steel fabrication factory.
Molly MacRae: In the Haunted Shell Shop Mysteries, Maureen Nash is a malacologist and storyteller. In the Highland Bookshop Mysteries (a sleuthing team of four) Janet Marsh is a retired librarian, Christine Robinson is a retired school social worker, Tallie Marsh is a former lawyer, and Summer Jacobs is a former newspaperwoman. All four now own and run a bookshop and café. In the Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries, Kath Rutledge is a textile preservation specialist who now owns and runs a fiber and fabric shop.
We
have an eclectic mix of interesting careers with skills and access to
information that are a must for amateur detectives.
What
type of job would you like to see a sleuth hold?
Great post! Love all the jobs!
ReplyDeleteThe protagonist's job is a major factor in how and why s/he has a high-stakes interest in solving crimes. In Jesse Damon's case, with one conviction for felony murder under his belt, he is the natural suspect. The investigating team doesn't want to look much further than him, so unless he wants to spend the rest of his life in prison, he has to uncover the true culprit. It also helps if the protagonist has believable exposure to many people, both victim and suspect, so the reader won't be faced with too many murders in a small circle. Although nobody seems to mind that in Murder She Wrote a vast majority of the population of Cabot Cove must have been either killed off or identified as murders.
ReplyDeleteWow, that's a lot of variety!
ReplyDeleteThe fun jobs cozy mysteries showcase is one of the reasons I got hooked by the genre in the first place. I've got a new idea tinkering in the back of my mind at the moment, and I'm really excited about the "job" my sleuth has. I think it will fit right in with all these wonderful MCs ;)
ReplyDeleteWe certainly have busy people living in our heads.
ReplyDeleteI love all the variety. I'm with Sarah. I think the fun jobs were a major draw to the genre.
ReplyDeleteA fine potpourri of careers our characters have.
ReplyDelete