Cozy Mystery Writing Tip: Letting Readers Become Armchair Detectives

by Korina Moss

In each of the books in my Cheese Shop Mystery series, my protagonist Willa and Team Cheese—the three friends she solves mysteries with—always sit at the same hand-hewn picnic table in the kitchenette of her cheese shop to discuss the murder and the suspects. Readers of my series know this is the time when the suspects and their motives will be laid out, helping readers to keep track of what our sleuths have discovered, and allowing them to make their own guesses as to whodunit. 

Cozy Mystery Booktuber, the Beachbum Bookworm

This is part of the fun of reading a cozy mystery—trying to solve the puzzle along with the sleuth. Cozy mysteries play fair with the reader. They lay out clues, weaving in some red herrings. With the clues given, readers may be able to solve the mystery. It all depends on how clever the author is at distraction. Cozy writers need to have a big enough pool of suspects for readers to guess from but not too many to overwhelm them. Readers also need to be able to keep the suspects and their motives straight. Here is the way I help my readers do this. 

• Soon after the murder is discovered, I write a scene cataloging who my sleuth thinks the suspects are. Every cozy should have five to six clear suspects. Your protagonist sleuth may not know who all of them are right away, but you should have a solid list of suspects very early in the book. 

• Then after some investigating (between a third and halfway into the book), I revisit the suspects and what’s been discovered about them. Maybe I’ve dismissed one or added one or maybe the list remains the same. The sleuth may be feeling more strongly about some than others at this point, which can change again based on new evidence. Some suspects may have a strong motive for having murdered the victim, but it appears they didn’t have opportunity or vice-versa. More investigating will reveal new motives and secret opportunities to have committed the crime. 

• As the book goes on, your protagonist’s investigation narrows down the suspect list until he or she is left with stronger suspicions about two or three of them. So, toward the end of the book, I’ll have a scene identifying the narrowed list of suspects and the reasons my sleuth thinks one of them may be the culprit.

Of course, all of these discoveries are also woven in throughout the story but stopping two or three times to write a scene discussing the suspects is helpful for the reader to play along and try to solve the mystery before the big reveal. As long as you’ve plotted your mystery carefully to keep even the savviest reader guessing, helping them become armchair detectives will help you gain a loyal readership. 

Readers: When reading a mystery, do you like to try to solve whodunnit? 

You can be an armchair detective when cozy mystery booktuber, the Beachbum Bookworm, discusses my Agatha Award-winning novel Cheddar Off Dead with her YouTube viewers during the last week of March (exact date to be announced). I'll be there too, so buy and read Cheddar Off Dead, go to her channel, subscribe and hit the notification button. Keep up with me on Facebook, Instagram, and my website so you won't miss it!

Cozy booktuber Sonia with an i

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KORINA MOSS is the author of the Cheese Shop Mystery series set in the Sonoma Valley, California, which includes multiple Agatha Award nominated books for Best Contemporary Novel and the winner of the Agatha Award for Best First Novel, Cheddar Off Dead. Listed as one of USA Today’s Best Cozy Mystery Series, her books have also been featured in PARADE Magazine, Woman’s World, and Writer’s Digest. Korina is also a freelance developmental editor and book coach specializing in cozy mysteries. To learn more or subscribe to her free monthly #teamcheese newsletter, visit her website korinamossauthor.com.

TAKING THE PATH OF MOST RESISTANCE

 by Korina Moss

When I began writing my fifth Cheese Shop mystery, Fondue or Die, I had one thought – to make things easy on myself. For once, I was going to choose the path of least resistance. You see, I’d just finished writing book 4, Case of the Bleus, which was anything but easy. I’d written it with two mysteries in one book—a murder mystery and a cheese mystery. It was a fun idea, but intersecting the two plotlines for the denouement’s reveal was more difficult than I’d anticipated. Let’s just say, there was a lot of hair-pulling to get it done just right and on deadline. It was worth it when my readers loved it, and it was eventually short-listed for the Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel last year. But when I’d turned it into my editor, overwhelmed and burnt out, I was determined that my next mystery was going to be simple, straight forward, and with much less hair pulling. 

My initial sketchy outline for Fondue or Die kept to my promise. However, the more the story took shape, the more that straight line began to curve and twist and circle back again. It quickly became clear that my new project had become my latest problem child. I couldn’t help it – the plot twists and complications that make my books more difficult to develop are the very things that also make them more exciting to write and more satisfying for readers. “YOU DID THIS TO YOURSELF!” I repeatedly yelled throughout the eight months of writing, revising, and hair pulling. 

So it was with a great deal of gratification—not to mention astonishment and of course, gratitude— that I received the news that Fondue or Die is a finalist for this year’s Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel. I’m humbled to see it alongside fellow nominees: A Collection of Lies by Connie Berry (who is also a member of Writers Who Kill), A Midnight Puzzle by Gigi Pandian, A Very Woodsy Murder by Ellen Byron, and The Dark Wives by Ann Cleeves.

The awards banquet will take place on April 26th at the Malice Domestic Fan Convention in Bethesda, Maryland. If you’d like to attend, more information can be found here. 

Readers: Have you ever attended a mystery conference or convention? Would you like to? 

KORINA MOSS is the author of the Cheese Shop Mystery series set in the Sonoma Valley, California, which includes multiple Agatha Award nominated books for Best Contemporary Novel and the winner of the Agatha Award for Best First Novel, Cheddar Off Dead. Listed as one of USA Today’s Best Cozy Mystery Series, her books have also been featured in PARADE Magazine, Woman’s World, and Writer’s Digest. Korina is also a freelance developmental editor and book coach specializing in cozy mysteries. To learn more or subscribe to her free monthly #teamcheese newsletter, visit her website korinamossauthor.com.

MALICE DOMESTIC, WHERE WRITERS' DREAMS COME TRUE

 By Korina Moss

As I begin to prep for my trip to Malice Domestic in less than two weeks, I’ve been thinking about all the dreams that I’ve realized there. Malice Domestic is a three-day fan convention/ conference in Bethesda, MD, attended by hundreds of authors and fans alike. It celebrates the traditional mystery, books best typified by the works of Agatha Christie. (Hence, the name for the Agatha Awards voted on by Malice attendees and handed out at the awards banquet.)

This will be my third year attending, and boy, I never imagined what amazing experiences this conference would bring me, or how many of my dreams would be realized. If you’re a mystery writer – published or not yet published—who might be hesitant to attend, let me tell you what can happen if you go:

You can meet your favorite authors.

You can connect with other writers and readers.

You can finally meet your online friends in person.

You can meet booktubers and book bloggers. 

You can make new friends.

You can learn interesting craft tips from author panels.

You can discover more about your favorite authors. 

You can find new authors whose books you’re dying to read.

You can discover publishing tips and inside scoop.

You can buy too many books and get them signed.

You can get free swag.

You can be on an author panel (sometimes with authors you used to read when you only dreamed of getting published).

You can introduce readers to your books.

You can meet readers who love your books.

You can find out you have fans!

You can dine with your editor. 

You can be nominated for an Agatha Award!

You can win an Agatha Award!

You can discover how incredibly nice and supportive the mystery writing community is.

You can get inspiration you need to keep going.

You can feel you belong.

Writers Who Kill at Malice Domestic, 2022

Agatha Award Nominees, Best Contemporary Novel

This year’s Malice Domestic marks it’s 36th year and takes place on April 26-28th. I was honored to win the Agatha Award last year for Best First Novel for Cheddar Off Dead. I’m honored to be nominated again this year for Best Contemporary Novel for Case of the Bleus, alongside my fellow nominees Ellen Byron, Annette Dashofy, Tara Laskowski, and Gigi Pandian. 

For more on me and my fellow nominees, go to Leslie Budewitz’s blog post, “And The Nominees Are…”

For more on Malice Domestic, go to MaliceDomestic.net. For more information on my Cheese Shop Mystery series, go to korinamossauthor.com.

Readers: Have you ever been to a writers' convention or conference? How was your experience?

THE WRITERS' CONNECTION

 by Korina Moss

Connection. That’s what good books are about, aren’t they? You connect with a fictional protagonist and their circumstances. They become someone real to you, often times long after you’ve read the last page. How many times have you stayed up late, racing toward the end of a book, only to dread it when you finally get there, because that’ll mean the book is finished? This is why cozy mystery series are so popular. What could be better than the opportunity to be back with “old friends” you loved from a prior book in the series as they maneuver through a whole new and exciting set of circumstances? 

As important as the plot is to a cozy mystery, the connection readers feel with the characters doesn’t come from the mystery solved. It’s the human connection—our protagonist’s plight, their quirks, and their vulnerabilities—the stuff our readers can relate to. The traits our characters possess that we hope to have in our real-life friendships is what makes them likable and worth returning to read about book after book. 

As an author, a connection is also what I try to achieve off the page. I’m a cozy mystery writer, but I’ve been a cozy mystery reader for over thirty years, long before my own series was published. So although the marketing aspect of my profession is time-consuming, it’s also a lot of fun, because I get to interact with other people who love reading cozies too. Although our foundation is our love of mysteries, we connect on other levels beyond books. Same with my connection to others in the writing community. I thrive on authentic relationships. My mindset is never one of selling to readers or networking with authors. It’s about having an authentic connection. 

When I was honored last year with the Agatha Award for Best First Novel for Cheddar Off Dead, it was the validation I needed that I’d begun to make that connection I’d been striving for in my books and within the mystery community. And this year, being fortunate enough to be nominated again for an Agatha Award, this time for Best Contemporary Novel for Case of the Bleus, makes me believe that connection is holding strong. I’m so looking forward to the Malice Domestic fan convention in April where the awards banquet will be held. After all, what’s better than being back with old friends? 

Reader: What makes you return to a series or an author? 

KORINA MOSS is the author of the Cheese Shop Mystery series (St. Martin’s Press) set in the Sonoma Valley, including the Agatha Award winner for Best First Novel, CHEDDAR OFF DEAD and the current nominee for Best Contemporary Novel, CASE OF THE BLEUS. Her books have been featured in PARADE Magazine, Woman’s World, AARP, and Fresh Fiction. For more information about Korina and her books, and to subscribe to her free monthly newsletter, visit her website korinamossauthor.com. You can also connect with her on Facebook and Instagram. 

THE MODES OF A MYSTERY WRITER

 By Korina Moss

I can’t help myself – I’m one of those people who always makes at least one New Year’s resolution. Wishful thinking, perhaps? I prefer the term hopeful thinking. This year, one of my resolutions is to have more work-life balance. 

Now that my son is a college student, it’s just me at home, so the only schedule I have to adhere to is my own. Sounds divine, except it allows me to get into my modes. Yes, I meant to write modes, not moods (although they can be pesky too). I have work mode and relax mode and I have a hard time transitioning between the two. (This doesn’t include veg out mode, which happens pretty much every night.) When I’m working on a book, which has (thankfully) been continuous over the past three years, it’s mentally all-encompassing for me. I’m always thinking about it, even if I have to push it to the back of my mind. I’ve been mentally living in my series’ fictional town of Yarrow Glen with my protagonist Willa and her Curds & Whey cheese shop crew since the spring of 2020, and it’s not easy to pull myself out. 

This is especially true when I’m in crunch mode, as I was just a couple of months ago when my deadline for Fondue or Die, book 5 in my Cheese Shop Mystery series, was fast approaching. I’d been in a concentrated writing mode for the four months prior, trying to turn my sketchy outline and underwritten first draft into a worthy manuscript. As the deadline got closer, I was also in heavy publicity mode for my newly released book 4, Case of the Bleus. Last fall, I had three out-of-state appearances, plus book signings, and all the extra online marketing that comes with a new release (blogs, interviews, and podcasts). So, I was in crunch mode squared. 

Signing books at the St Louis Cozy Con

Once my manuscript was submitted and the publicity machine wound down, I immediately turned to thinking about book 6, wanting to get an outline done before the Fondue or Die revision suggestions would come back from my editor in mid-January. I had a couple of weeks to brainstorm and outline before my son came home for his college semester break. Then I promised myself (and him) I’d take a break for the holidays. I even took time off from my early morning part-time job. 

Book 5 in my Cheese Shop Mystery series

The first few days of switching off work mode, I felt mentally restless. I was so used to the constant thoughts of my books or my social media marketing, it was a tougher transition than I’d expected. I made an effort to post and scroll on social media significantly less frequently. I told myself it was okay if I didn’t keep up with everything that was happening in the mystery writing community. Although the habits were hard to break, what a relief it was! I was so much more mentally present. I stayed up late and slept in! (Not compared to my 19-year-old son, but both times were later for me.) I fell into a happy relax mode. My son and I made some short overnight trips and had a great holiday break, and when he left for his ski trip with his dad, I felt rejuvenated and ready to get back to work! 

Macy's in Herald Square, NYC

Alas, my relax mode was no less stubborn to leave behind than work mode had been two weeks prior. My alarm clock was waking me up at 5:45 AM, but I was not ready to relinquish my newfound mode. The book I’d been outlining was tapping me on the shoulder to come up with those final chapters, but my muse was also in no hurry to get back to work. Now that it’s been a couple of weeks, slowly but surely, I’m easing back into it. My New Year’s resolution for more work-life balance may be a little harder to achieve than anticipated, but then again, I’ve always done too much hopeful thinking. 

Did you make any New Year's resolutions for this year?