Megan's Reviews > Faux Paw

I need to stop reading contemporary cozy mysteries. I keep trying, though, because I worry that it's internalized sexism that keeps me from liking or appreciating them. But I'm coming to understand that I bristle at the constructed bubble of safety~ that the crime occurs in but doesn't actually threaten. It's not a fantasy I enjoy or believe in or find worthwhile, either in real life or in the world of the story. I find too much in the narrative that undermines it: the way protagonists undermine law or order in their own investigations; the way crime is not something that leaves a lingering effect on the community; the way victims are frequently people who are not missed, and so that allows the cast of recurring characters to get on with their lives until the next murder. And I get that cozy mysteries aren't meant to deal with any of that, that the crimes featured are specifically constructed to avoid touching cyclic violence or the systematic forces of poverty and racism that dominate the way people deal with the criminal justice system.

But I can't let it go. But I keep going back to cozy mysteries because I want to read less gore and less exploitation and sensationalism in my crime fiction, and because I want to make sure I'm not just being sexist in recoiling from a woman dominated subgenre.

I. Just. But nearly every contemporary cozy I read just whips me up into a hostile frenzy.

Magical, clue-finding cats? Yes, I'm down that. I like these cats and the magical digestive systems that allow them to eat tons of human food. I find that charming. I like them.

What's not charming? The librarian protagonist, when building a case to her detective boyfriend that she suspects someone could be a thief/murderer, includes in her reasoning that the person in question checked out "A Coffin for Dimitrios and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Eric Ambler and Agatha Christie. Mystery classics."

what. the. fuck.

In real life, I'd hope nothing short of the Patriot Act (and even THAT, but I recognize that the Patriot Act is law and whatever) would get a librarian to be that shitty to a) think reading mysteries makes someone suspicious (among other things, but SERIOUSLY), b) voluntarily and proactively violate a patron's privacy by--without court order, without the law enforcement office even requesting it--reveal to a law enforcement officer what a patron checked out.

Nothing. Cozy. About. That.

(Also, I thought the mystery was boring. The characters are all right if bland, the worldbuilding is nice, and I like the cats.)