An amusingly titled article at Book Riot: I CAN’T BELIEVE NO ONE’S DUNIT: A COZY MYSTERY SETTING WISHLIST
I’m having a hard time thinking of a quirky setting or occupation that hasn’t been used in a cozy mystery. Dog trainers and dog walkers abound. Bloggers, writers, coffee shop owners, pickle shop owners, every kind of craft store. Math teachers. Hair stylists. As for settings, there are cozies set in Alaska (this one’s historical), Tahiti, Australia, and basically zillions of small towns everywhere, you name it.
I would be very cautious before I declared there was a setting or occupation that had never been used by the author of some cozy mystery somewhere. But sure, let’s take a look at this Book Riot post:
Mortuaries! Nope, the author of the post points to some mysteries set in funeral parlors.
Community theaters. Nope, she seems to be mistaken, here’s one.
IT Centers. “But CJ,” I can already hear you saying, “that doesn’t sound cozy at all. That sounds boring.” I laughed, because that was indeed my reaction.
Maybe, but picture this: you’re a disgruntled IT support person trying to nudge someone on the phone to at least give turning their computer off and on again a try. Suddenly, you hear on the other line, “I really don’t think that will fix — AH! AH, HE’S GOT ME! HE HAS A KNIFE! IT’S SO POINTY!”
Well, fine, but I must say, it would be funnier if the mystery involved a disgruntled IT support person tracking down and executing people who kept calling in because they didn’t think to turn their computer off and on again.
Art museums. Nope, here’s a cozy with murder in an art gallery (close enough!) with bonus pets.
Best part of the post:
I’ve been thinking about this tweet at least daily for the past six months:
Plenty of cozy mysteries have magical elements. I’m begging for someone to go all in and create something akin to Miss Marple written by Terry Pratchett. Someone convince the Tolkien Estate to approve the Shire one, at least, because I’m tired of emailing them.
I have to admit, that sounds like a lot of fun! I’d almost certainly read that!
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The Teen read one featuring the murder of an IT person… says the title was Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon . The office practical joker in a small computer gaming company is considered to be playing dead instead of actually being dead.
I found that series mediocre, but series mystery isn’t my thing. I tried a couple so the Teen could talk about them with me. Other people seem to like them.
Having done some IT work, the biggest problem isn’t that people refuse to reboot (or reenter their activation code, or check if the plug is in right…) it’s that they lie and say they did. After all, their problem is a *real* problem, not something with such a simple solution. So, you have to trick them by asking a question they can only answer by doing that thing.
Aww, but the Community Theater one you linked is only a short story. :(
I usually check this website, which consolidates a LOT of data on various cozy mystery settings & protagonists: https://cozy-mystery.com/cozy-mysteries-by-themes.html
I’d write the hobbit story. Counts as fanfic, right?
Irina, if you write the hobbit story, I’d love to read it!
Yes, David, I saw that was a story rather than a novel, but I admit I just didn’t take the time to search further. Thanks for the link! I’ll cruise through it, because I do like a neat setting in a mystery.
Sarah, really? Wow, that sounds like a great motivation for murder …
Elaine, that sounds like a neat plot to me. I do like series mysteries, so I’ll give it a look.
I dunno about murder, but if you’re ever talking to an IT person it’s a fun thing to ask them about. People are often proud of the sneaky things they came up with to make people cooperate.
Crouching Buzzard is part of the Meg Langslow mystery series by Donna Andrews. I love that series, so to each his own! Andrews also had a series about Turing Hopper, an AI who solves mysteries. It’s been a while since I read those. There may or may not be an IT person involved in that but it seems likely.