Two Styles of Mystery Writing: The Cozy and the Hard-Boiled
Cozy novels do not have graphic violence, and little or no
sexual content and abusive language. Society is "viewed as
orderly and controlled, and the crime is a failure of the
society to function correctly" (Niebuhr 7). In this type of
novel, right and wrong are clearly defined, and the murder is
considered to be an aberration, not something that is seen on a
daily basis.
The detective in these novels is usually an amateur, although
there are exceptions such as Agatha Christie's Superintendent
Battle of the CID. And the murder victim tends to have some
inherent moral flaw that leads to his or her death. This doesn't
mean that the murder victim must be a monster. Take, for
example, the character of Mrs. Argyle in Christie's Ordeal by
Innocence. She was a wonderfully kind woman who turned her home
into a safe haven for children during World War II. After the
war ended, she adopted five of the children. She loved and cared
for her adopted sons and daughters very much and did everthing
she could for them.
Everyone spoke highly of her...but she ended up murdered. Her
moral flaw - she was too arrogant in believing she knew the best
for everyone around her. She was never cruel to anyone, at least
outwardly, but she made her entire family dependent upon
her...financially and emotionally. They all felt imprisoned by
Mrs. Argyle, and so she died.
In cosy mysteries, there are no innocent victims. In one way or
another, the murdered person contributed to his or her own
death. It might be nothing more than a lack of judgment in
trusting the wrong person, but there must be some kind of
character flaw.
For that reason, children should not be used as
victims...usually. As with any rule, there are exceptions. If
you do use a child as a victim, make sure it is not brutal and
it'd help if the child could not be thought of as "innocent." An
example is Marlene, in the novel Hallow'en Party. Marlene, at
the tender age of fourteen, was already an established
blackmailer.
At the conclusion of cosy mysteries, the murderer is brought to
justice and society returns to its orderly and controlled ways.
In hard-boiled novels, the detective is a professional, working
for some law enforcement agency. The action is fast-paced, and
includes graphic violence, sexual content, and adult language.
This type of world is "a society where everything is suspect,
including established institutions and the people who work for
them - even the legal forces" (Niebuhr 7).
The detective-protagonist in these novels can be morally
ambivalent, and can include characters whose actions are driven
by circumstances out of their control. Morality is not black and
white in the hard-boiled world, and justice isn't an inevitable
expectation in these novels.
The setting of your novel has much to do with what type of
mystery your readers will expect. For hard-boiled novels large,
metropolitan cities are usual. It would be incongruous to set a
cozy in someplace like Miami, for example.
Cozy mysteries tend to be placed in a small, restricted society.
Even if set in some large city, such as New York, you should
make it obvious that the perpetrator of the crime could only
have been committed by a few individuals, say, guests at a posh
dinner party.
Refences from: Make Mine a Mystery: A Reader's Guide to
Mystery and Detective Fiction by Gary Warren Niebuhr