An outrageous day

 

Let’s talk mystery for a minute. Because “the mystery” as a literary genre is so varied, no one definition fits, so over the years sub-genres have developed: the traditional mystery (for which everyone keeps trying without success to find a definitive description), the sci-fi mystery, the thriller, the hard-boiled/noir, the police procedural, the historical, and of course the cozy. Frequently, the lines between blur.

But I think there’s a new kind of cozy—the outrageous cozy. The reader must suspend disbelief with these books—no individual, no set of circumstances could possibly be that outrageous. These books have one thing in common: a snarky, irreverent narrative voice, lots of spoofs about society and pretensions.

Of course I’m think of my Irene in Chicago Culinary Mysteries. Irene Foxglove, my diva chef, was never intended to be a believable character. You won’t meet her in the grocery store or the beauty salon. Henny keeps rescuing Irene from kidnappers and death threats, but the truth is Irene’s behavior is so impulsive, so demanding, so difficult that any self-respecting criminal would have dispatched her long ago. After one book, Irene rekindles her love affair with the fabulously wealthy French father of her only child and spends her time jetting back and forth across the pond in his private jet. Once again, she’s unbelievable—and it takes Henny’s voice to make the reader accept her outrageous behavior. Escape literature with no heavy moral message but some good food hints and recipes.

A few other series fall into my outrageous category—there’s Lois Winston’s Anastasia Pollock craft series, in which trusting wife Anastasia learns her husband, supposedly at a business meeting, has died at the Vegas roulette table and lost their nest egg, the tuition money for two sons, and the money he owes a loan shark who’s threatening her. He left her with the burden of his mother, an eighty-something, card-carrying, loud-mouthed Communist.

Or there’s Julie Mulhern’s Country Club Mysteries. featuring wealthy and widowed artist Ellison Russell who has probably stumbled over close to fifty bodies. She finds them in swimming pools, the hostas in her front yard, the country club parking lot. These murders are set against the waning of country club social ways in the 1980s, with Ellison dealing with her stereotypical dominating mother, her rebellious teen daughter, the cop she’s fallen in love with, and her almost psychic housekeeper.

And then there’s Finley Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano. A struggling novelist and always-broke single mom, at the mercy of her smarmy ex, Finlay is overheard talking about the plot of that novel that’s stalled and is mistaken for a hit woman. Lured by an enormous pay-out, she goes along with the charade, thinking she can bow out at any time. Of course the consequences are frightening—and hilarious.

In Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder by Valerie Burns, social media expert Maddy Montgomery, left standing at the altar, is #StartingOver in small-town Michigan after inheriting her great-aunt’s bakery and a 200-pound English Mastiff named Baby. Her plan to sell the bakery and go back to her sophisticated life is spoiled by a restriction in the will requiring her to spend a year in New Bison. Maddy doesn’t bake, and her Louboutins aren’t made for walking giant dogs. But when she is prime suspect in two murders, she has no choice but to stay.

And today I discovered another outrageous cozy: The Ex Who Wouldn’t Die by Sally Berneathy. When Amanda's lying, cheating, scam-artist husband, Charley, saves her life in a near-fatal motorcycle accident, she can almost forgive him for dragging his feet on their divorce. Then she discovers he'd been dead for several hours at the time she thought he rescued her. And not just dead…murdered. She's the primary suspect in Charley's murder and, as if that isn't bad enough, Charley's ghost shows up in her apartment. He was rejected, not allowed to go into the light. He claims to be unable to go more than a few yards away from her. She can't even be certain he isn't peeking when she undresses for bed. She must solve his murder so she can send him back to the light and be rid of him forever.

I don’t think outrageous cozies will ever become a big trend, but they’re fun to read—and I’m having fun writing one. If you’re looking for a way to escape all the stresses of our world, try an outrageous cozy.