We identify the black novel, invariably, with what is known as hard boiled: hard detectives, bloody crimes, sordid environments. But … what if there was another way to raise gender? Settling in certain classics of the genre, the novels cozy mystery (“Cozy mystery”) They are more than a niche: they are a very profitable way to continue taking advantage of a historical style of making crime literature and suspense.
But … what are exactly? They are police novels that present the crime and its resolution in “clean” environments: small peoples, picturesque communities or scenarios of everyday life (bookstores, coffees, gardening clubs). Explicit violence and sex are deliberately excluded from the scene, and the narrative focuses on the interaction between unique characters (often an amateur detective, almost always a woman, with a great sense of humor and daily skills) and the logic of the research.
But this sounds to me … Of course it sounds to you: the eccentric detective, which takes advantage of its harmless appearance to gain the confidence of the suspects has as famous historical precedents as the Miss Marple of Agatha Christie and her most distinguished heiress: the Jessica Fletcher of ‘a crime has been written’. Its roots can be traced even further: the British mystery novels of the nineteenth century and, in general the peaceful style of the “golden age” of the mystery (whose most popular representative is Christie) and where in addition to amateur detectives such as Miss Marple, we saw rural environments or closed communities, crimes executed “out of the scene” and ingenious resolution.
In the 1980s, several writers began to claim and modernize that friendlier and more casual approach to the international boom of the darkest police novel. Since then, the cozy mystery He has experienced several popular cycles: the last one we are living now, supported by compartmentalization in increasingly detailed and specific subgenres that the editorial industry lives (of the romantasy to love stories with skaters).
An editorial boom. Not only throughout the world authors such as Richard Osman, Joanne Flike or Kate Carlisle have become stars: also in Spain the subgenre has become a boom. Editorial Alma, for example, has found a real reef, and is exploiting fever by the cozy With a collection that already has almost forty titles to which are added, of course, its corresponding children’s and youth variants. In the collection, titles such as ‘A lovely old woman … and lethal’, ‘Pride, prejudice and poison’ or ‘The last cupcake’ make clear the constants of the genre: kind satire, cuquis crimes and peaceful environments.
And together with all these are, of course, the classics: ‘The Thursday Crime Club’, by the aforementioned Richard Osman, was one of the first supervantas of this last success of the genre.
What’s behind: feminism … There is an inspiration for the genre that does not go unnoticed: its feminist inspiration. Women are present in cozy mystery as authors and also starring the books themselves. Gender can be understood as a reaction to the traditional black novel, historically monopolized by male voices and marked by the representation of women as a victim, secondary or fatal woman.
The protagonists of these books are usually common women but extraordinary acuity, carriers of a logical, observer and empathic look. Following Miss Marple’s wake, many of them are mature, widowed characters, retired or housewives, whose age and experience confers authority and charisma. A true disarticulation of gender stereotypes, claiming values such as intuition, daily wisdom and practical sense, with women deeply integrated into their community, which gives a collective dimension to the narrative. A quiet and silent challenge of crime and punishment codes, eminently male law and order of the traditional genre.
… and well -being. The warm and comforting style of these books (and their editions, with covers of soft tones and domestic scenarios) point to addresses that have nothing to do with the usual policeman: pleasant routines, the beauty of the everyday. And there is an echo in the prose of these books: light but not banal, ironic without cruelty … that is, a kind of comfortable reading, a very appropriate emotional refuge in these times of crisis, uncertainty and stress.
We have spoken on other occasions about entertainments that disconnect and provide us peace, and without a doubt the cozy mystery It has a lot to do with this trend: in a hyperconnected society, we crave return to small, intimate and without shocks. Except for small crime than another, but that is resolved easy.
In WorldOfSoftware | If you join the lifelong hobbies you have the editorial phenomenon that is sweeping in bookstores
