Cozy mystery

Look, I'm kind of busy right now.

Welcome to episode 25 of the Cozy Crime Classics podcast, Murder, She Wrote, Tough Guys Don't Die.

Good evening, Gerry.

You've used half of our runtime just with the title there.

He died in 2004, aged 69.

The first of six outings in Murder, She Wrote as Harry McGraw, and 16 episodes, I think just one season, of The Law and Harry McGraw, which was a spinoff in '87 to '88.

Would you consider that cozy crime?

I would, but I, you can see it.

So grab a nightcap, sit back, and thanks for tuning in.

Okay, so we're going to talk about Murder, She Wrote and mysteries and cozy mysteries and what we like about them.

But we wanted to talk about Murder, She Wrote, which was a show back in the 80s.

I guess I should have looked up exactly when it premiered.

Yeah, let's do that.

Well, what do you think? So what's the opposite? So we tried to figure out a little bit what people are seeking out in that more grisly universe.

But what are people, what are we looking for when we're seeking out these cozy mysteries?

Well, I think we've hinted at it already, which is I think that we want the murder mystery plot to slightly destabilize the world and then resolve everything perfectly.

Is that what it was like for you, Martin? Was it that you felt that you couldn't write it by yourself? Or was it just that you really wanted to work with that person and you had that script on your desk at that time?

I think there's a different answer for every time I've... considered collaborating with someone to be blunt sometimes I just want to see if I can collaborate with them sometimes I don't have the time to commit to it fully so I'm like well if I have a collaborator that will help but it doesn't sometimes they ask to come on and I've said yeah of course because I don't want to say no and because I trust them Sometimes if I think that they can do something that I can't, for example, they've got experience and credits in Cozy Crime, then I think adding their name will bring a weight to my... my idea that i don't have so it's a little bit cynical in that sense but like but no i don't think i've ever thought oh i'll collaborate with this person because i can't do it i mean i don't think any of us ever thinks that right why would you think that we're

right i think no i i think i think there's something to it and i don't think i've done this specifically but i can see a reasoning going i think this person may have if i'm writing a a comedy a buddy comedy or maybe a rom-com right like i know so and so like ben really loves romance like he can write romance to the bone and i can really do comedy but i feel like we put those two things like if we put our brains together i feel like it like we could really make this happen get a car crash unlock something bigger yeah yeah yeah by yourself

yeah

mystery phase lately.

So there's a I've been reading a couple of cozy mystery series.

But one that I haven't talked about yet, I don't think, is the Charity Shop Detective Agency.

No, I don't think you have.

I've been listening to these on audiobook.

I don't think we have them in print, but you can listen to them on audio on Hoopla.

Very, very cozy mystery series about three women who... who run a charity shop for homeless dogs with the donations that they get that come into the charity shop.

They are alerted to a murder that has taken place in town and they work together and put their heads together to solve the murder.

And then...

As discussed on PLUS, I've really got into sort of like a cozy crime drama zone.

So I won't go into them because you have reviewed, but Ludwig, Bookish, Professor T, And also the Marlowe Murder Club.

You're

All my viewing,

like Dog Park and then all those midlife men and then this podcast, I just want to be surrounded by them apparently.

So yeah, I watched a lot of Cozy Crime and...

Yeah, it's very comforting and also particularly happy about the bookish news that it's going to be, you know, it's already been greenlit for a third series.

So I, even if I don't necessarily know what the problem is.

So when I was looking this year at my Cozy Mystery series that I started last February, I was trying to look at it and I, it doesn't have the reader that I'd want.

Like it doesn't have a very good reader at all from book one to two.

Once you get to three, it's great.

Even though I've read plenty of epic fantasy and, like, it's...

I mean, I think it would be weird for me to do it because it's not a genre that I'm interested in, like, stakes-wise.

I might move there, you know, from cozy to epic fantasy, but I wouldn't move from cozy mystery to epic fantasy for me.

But if I were going to do it, I would feel anxious about it with my friends because they'd be like, no, that's a terrible idea.