Cats and cozies go collectively like Romeo and Juliet. Mac and cheese. Ernie and Bert. The time period cozies was coined within the 1990’s for mysteries that take place in a small city setting the place everybody is aware of all people and the murders, which happen offsite, are solved by an beginner sleuth. Agatha Christie is usually heralded as the primary cozy writer, although she was by no means known as that in her lifetime. Neither Miss Marple nor Hercule Poirot have a pet cat. But then, preserving cats as strictly indoor pets was not in vogue when Dame Agatha was writing her mysteries. However, a extra recent Agatha, Agatha Raisin, has a couple of kitties—Boswell and Hodge, and in a while Scrabble.
Like all the things else, each cozies and cats have their darkish sides. While the phrase “cozy” conjures up the picture of a reader sitting in entrance of a hearth with a cat purring contentedly at her ft, the time period “cozy mystery” is an oxymoron. Cozies are nonetheless mysteries that embrace a couple of unhealthy characters that rob, betray and homicide. And whereas a cat could like to cuddle up on its proprietor’s lap, it’s an impartial animal with sharp claws and tooth and a hunter’s soul.
These days cats are in style pets. They have been revered in Ancient Egypt, however they haven’t all the time had a simple time of it. In the Middle Ages, cats have been reviled as witches’ familiars and in league with the satan. Many have been massacred. So many, actually, that it’s been stated that the Black Death/Bubonic Plague within the Fourteenth century killed so many individuals as a result of cats that might have killed the rats and the fleas on them that carried the plague, had been exterminated.
As an writer of cozy mysteries and the caretaker of felines most of my life, I naturally included a cat in my Haunted Library sequence. My sleuth Carrie Singleton finds Smoky Joe, who began out life as a barn kitty, when he wanders onto her garden. After he jumps into her automotive, she finally ends up bringing him to the library the place she’s head of packages and occasions. And when Smoky Joe proves to be sociable with the patrons, he shortly turns into the library cat. He even takes half within the mysteries Carrie resolves—discovering diamonds that nobody can find in a single e-book and saving Carrie from a assassin in one other.
Cats are intelligent and curious and comical. They are fantastic companions to their sleuths and add a dimension to the story. Here are some recent cozy sequence which have cats as characters:
Miranda James‘ in style Cat within the Stacks sequence characteristic librarian Charlie Harris and his Maine Coon Diesel.
Krista Davis has Mochie within the Divas and Twinkletoes in her Wagtail books.
Margaret Loudon has a cat named Mrs. Danvers—named after the housekeeper in Rebecca— in her Open Book Series.
Laurie Cass has Eddie within the Bookmobile Cat Mysteries (and in actual life.)
Daryl Wood Gerber has Tigger, an orange rescue cat, within the Cookbook Nook mysteries and Pixie , a Ragdoll, within the Fairy Garden Mysteries.
Ginger Bolton‘s cat Deputy Donut, Dep for brief, is within the Deputy Donut Mystery Series.
Heather Weidner‘s Neville the Devil tuxedo cat within the Mermaid Bay Christmas Shoppe Mysteries guidelines the store.
Valona Jones has Harley and Luna, a pair of sibling black cats in her Magic Candle Shop sequence.
Carol J. Perry‘s O’Ryan in her Witch City Mystery sequence has clairvoyant skills that appear to extend as time passes.
J.C. Eaton has Essie within the Sophie Kimball Mysteries
Jamie L Adams has Coco and Casper in her Ghost Town Mystery sequence
(BTW, my kitties are named Romeo and Juliet.)
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