Laura Childs | Crafting a Cozy Mystery

After writing 34 mysteries (Cackleberry Club, Tea Shop, and Scrapbooking Mysteries) my readers always assume that I’ve developed some magical mystery template or foolproof system.

The truth of the matter is, I haven’t. The closest I come to a workable process
is jumpstarting each new mystery with a “what if” factor. You know what I mean –
What if somebody whacked Crazy Aunt Bertha with a candlestick? From there I try
to come up with an offbeat circumstance or plot device (haunted house, jewel
heist, horse race, chase through the swamp) that I can spring on readers in the
very first chapter.

From there I move on to the most fun of all – spinning tales of interesting
characters. My female protagonists are always drawn as independent,
free-spirited, and highly creative entrepreneurs. That way they can be driven to
seek out justice (i.e. solving a murder), tend to be feisty (sometimes nasty!)
toward law enforcement, and are generally offbeat characters in their everyday
lives.

Plotting always comes easy to me as well. The truth of the matter is, I usually
have so many ideas (murder, fire, car crashes, burglaries, chases!) that the
hard part is fitting it all in.

I’m always cognizant of the fact that my readers only have so much time in their
busy lives, so they enjoy (almost demand!) a very fast pace. When I started
writing cozies 15 years ago, the whole genre seemed a bit plodding, so I set out
to raise the bar. I kicked up my pace, added in lots more physical danger,
peppered in lots more turning points, and created a kind of hybrid between a
cozy and thriller – basically a thrillzy!

I always love rip-roaring endings, as well. One of my favorite books had a
frying-pan-into-the-fire ending with my protagonist chasing through a nasty
swamp, trying to rescue a kidnap victim from a shack. But instead of rescuing
the victim, a huge fight ensued, the shack caught fire, and everyone had to jump
into the swamp where an alligator rose to the surface and attacked them!
Seriously, who needs a sweet little ending when you can thrill readers with a
heart-stopping ending like that!

Thank you and blessings to all.

Laura Childs