Crooked Lane Books
Cats and Cozies, Cozies and Cats
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Cats and cozies go together like Romeo and Juliet. Mac and cheese. Ernie and Bert. The term cozies was coined in the 1990’s for mysteries that take place in a small town setting where everyone knows everybody and the murders, which occur offsite, are solved by an amateur sleuth. Agatha Christie is often heralded as…
7 Great Cozy Mysteries Set in the Fall
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There are so many reasons to love fall, from the splendor of the changing leaves to settling back into a comfortable routine after a hectic summer. Cooler temperatures and fewer insect pests encourage us to spend more time in nature which has been proven to have numerous mental health benefits. And of course, there’s the…
Agatha Christie’s Most Romantic Murder Mysteries
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A closed circle of dubious personalities gather in one house at the invitation of a mysterious host. They hide tragic secrets, financial disasters, and desperate ulterior motives as they compete to get their target alone. This is the premise for several Agatha Christie novels, and the hit series The Bachelor. Christie was most interested in…
Five Books With Righteous Female Rage
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I didn’t intend to write a book about an angry woman. After all, furious, embittered characters—despite much progress—often remained the province of men. To write an angry woman was to risk her becoming Unlikeable, a nebulous state of being still somehow able to deliver the killing blow to reader enjoyment. This character, however, emerged with…
Romance and Love Triangles in Cozy Mysteries
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When it comes to romance in cozy mysteries, readers range in their preferences from, “I’m more about the mystery,” to “Gimme all the romance.” While writing my cozy mystery, A Nutcracker Nightmare, I toyed with how much romance to include. In the end, I kept it on the lighter side for twin sister sleuths, Alex…
The Many Poisons of Crime Fiction
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For all of recorded history, poisons have been a means of death, both deliberate and accidental. Greek philosophers, kings, emperors, actresses, scientists, mathematicians, and more were felled by lethal doses of chemicals. Arsenic, cyanide and strychnine were popular instruments of death due to ease of access. Arsenic earned the nickname of “heir powder,” as it…
The Dead Girl and the Survivor Trope
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When I first picked up crime thrillers as a teenager, I remember being fascinated by how many plots begin with the discovery of a dead girl. What was it exactly that I found so intriguing about these novels, considering I was often in the same age demographic as many of their victims, not to mention…
5 Christmas Mysteries To Get You Ready for the Holiday Season
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It’s a rare crime fiction reader who doesn’t love curling up with a mystery during the winter months, especially if that mystery is one of the many Christmas-themed puzzles that the genre is famous for. The tradition goes back to the Golden Age of detective fiction, that period after World War II when authors like…
8 Cozy Mysteries Featuring BFFs and Women Supporting Women
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So often in books and movies, women are put against one another. There is some sort of competitive spirit or revived childhood rivalry over social status, a job promotion, or even a love interest. The stereotypical “mean girl” of the cast brings out a malicious and spiteful side to the main character when they interact. …