Cosy Mysteries

A few years back, I devoured cosy mysteries. Carolyn G Hart's Death on Demand series, Joan Hess's Murder in Maggody, Margaret Maron's books -- all of them! There were ones with a harder edge, like Dana Stabenow's Alaskan mysteries. And ones which played up the cutesy humour, like Donna Andrews.

And then, suddenly, I stopped reading them. I can't even put a finger on why. From haunting the library for the latest releases, abruptly I didn't care.

I have some favourites that I re-read, like Marion Babson's classic British cosies, but generally the cutesy cosies and I have parted ways, and frankly, now that I think about it, I miss them.

I miss the gentle humour and sense of family or community that they celebrated. I miss the clear sense of right and wrong, and evil being punished. I even miss the puzzle solving (although for some, the puzzle was never very puzzling).

All of which leads me to the point of this post ... I think cosy mysteries are set for a resurgence, but in a slightly different guise. I think they're going to have a paranormal edge.

Mystery solving elves sound good to me :)