7 Guaranteed-to-Sell Elements of a Cozy Mystery

Today’s cozy mysteries are a mix of the old and the new. The basic elements are still important: a body, a murderer, an amateur sleuth, and a professional investigator. However, new elements have become important in order to cater to modern tastes.

1. An up-to-date lifestyle and setting is essential unless the novel is historical or fantasy fiction. Include modern-day tools—computers, cell phones, Internet.
2. A sleuth with a profession or hobby sells well. Intelligent, capable independent female sleuths are very popular with today’s mystery novel readers who are mostly women.
3. Include budding romance that suffers two or three setbacks. One mystery author claimed it’s best to have the hero and heroine meet over the dead body. An editor suggested that as soon as the romance begins to flourish, nip it in the bud and force suffering on the part of each character until they work out their problems and fall into each others arms.
4. A great technique for grabbing a mystery reader is to open the first chapter with a dead body.
5. Create at least two or three strong suspects. Methodically build evidence and proof of their guilt then just as methodically, eliminate them as suspects. One of them might be the killer or, even better, a totally unexpected character ends up the guilty culprit.
6. Readers love it when the imperiled sleuth discovers the real murderer by finding herself in a life-threatening scene at the killer’s mercy.
7. An important modern-day twist is this one. Instead of having the desperate sleuth saved by the hero, have her subdue the murderer herself by means of a skill related to her lifestyle such as a punch she learned in her self-defense class. Mission accomplished while the police are on their way to the scene.

Know what your modern readers want and give it to them. Your book will sell.