Mon 26 Apr 2010
Reviews by L. J. Roberts
M. C. BEATON – Death of a Witch. Reprint paperback: Grand Central Publishing, January 2010. Hardcover edition: February 2009.
Genre: Police procedural/cozy. Series character: Hamish Macbeth, 25th in series. Setting: Scotland.
First Sentence: Police Constable Hamish Macbeth, heading home to his police station in the village of Lochdubh n Sutherland, heaved a sigh of relief.
Constable Hamish Macbeth is back in the Scottish village of Lochdubh after his less-than-restful vacation to Spain. He is greeted with the news that a witch has moved into town. But she’s not there long and she is murdered shortly after Hamish’s return. As Hamish’s investigation proceeds more die.
The Hamish books lie somewhere between traditional mysteries and cozies. On the traditional side, by the end of the book there are a lot of bodies and the protagonist is a policeman. However, rather than there being a detailed investigation, it’s almost as if, when Hamish appears, people confess and everything falls into place.
On the cozy side, there is an awful lot of time spent dealing with his relationships with women. He has better relationships with his pets. As for characters, Hamish is a little too good to be true. He’s tall, red-haired, good looking to the point where every woman but the one he wants throws themselves at him, and can run like the wind.
I was a bit annoyed that Hamish’s superior, CI Blair, is portrayed as so incompetent but at least it’s balanced by Hamish’s friend, DS Jimmy Anderson, and Blair’s boss, CS Davoit
The style is a bit simple for my taste, almost as if written for young adults. I do like that the dialogue is written with an indication of people’s accents without it becoming laborious.
The element I most enjoyed was the sense of place. Beaton’s descriptions of the highlands and the weather, which can be a critical element in living in, and navigating around, the highlands, is well done. This was a light, enjoyable read but it’s a series I’ve put behind me.
Rating: Good.
Editorial Comment: Say welcome to LJ Roberts and her first review for the Mystery*File blog. Her reviews previously graced the pages of both the printed version and the M*F website, but in the space of time between the latter and the blog, she moved them elsewhere, but only temporarily, I’m pleased to say. Here she is again.
April 26th, 2010 at 4:35 pm
Haven’t read one of these for a while, but this is how I remember them. The television series with Robert Carlyle was somewhat sharper in its satire, though at times it seemed an awful lot like a Scottish Maybury with more corpses.
Still, between this and her other series Beaton must be doing something that pleases her readers, and I think many fans of cozies are looking for some of the things we might criticize as flaws in a series like this one. The sense of place mentioned being one of those things I think many readers return for book after book.
One of the appeals of the cozy is the comfort of the familiar. I suspect Beaton is fulfilling that need, or we wouldn’t be discussing the 25th entry in the series.
April 27th, 2010 at 3:21 am
These seem like wonderful examples of the “cozy” genre, complete with those homey dust jackets (there may be a witch inside, but I’m still thinking I’d like to own the house). Cozy, as I understand it, is not to my taste, however; and I take umbrage when the term is applied with a broad brush to the Golden Age books. In cozies, the focus to me seems like it’s elsewhere besides a puzzle– on romantic relationships, local customs, pets (usually cats), recipes, etc.–and the puzzle usually is not very involved or memorable.
April 27th, 2010 at 9:29 am
Curt
I agree about the Golden Age, since I don’t think many writers wrongly called cozy are cozy at all. Certainly not Christie. Young lovers in Christie are usually the killers.
I understand the pleasure of cozies to their readers, but like you they have limited appeal to me. Once in a while the humor will work well enough and there will be just enough puzzle element, but in general cozies don’t appeal to me — but then I doubt many cozy readers collect Gold Medal paperbacks or British thrillers from the 20’s and 30’s.
I wonder if some cozy fans are also the audience for all the romantic vampire books and earlier would have been gothic fans, or if perhaps the cozy readers are closer to the fans of the Harlequin Romance thing or even bodice rippers? I’m assuming the majority of cozy fans are female since they seem much more domestic than other genres (granted that is a big generalization since I know plenty of female hard-boiled fans).
Still, you can’t always tell. I once read a romantic suspense novel whose female author turned out to be a huge Mickey Spillane fan.
Each to his or her own.
April 27th, 2010 at 11:45 am
Defining exactly what a cozy mystery is may turn out to be as difficult as defining what a film noir movie is.
There is a website devoted solely to cozy mysteries, and one of the pages there lists some of the attributes of a cozy mystery:
http://www.cozy-mystery.com/Definition-of-a-Cozy-Mystery.html
In general I agree with all of them. When it comes to specifics and borderline cases, that’s when the arguments begin.
Here’s a short list of qualifying factors, with Jessica Fletcher cited at the top as a prime example of a cozy mystery heroine:
● A “fun read” that engages the mind, as well as provides entertainment.
● The crime-solver in a cozy mystery is usually a woman who is an amateur sleuth.
● The cozy mystery usually takes place in a small town or village
● Although the cozy mystery sleuth is usually not a medical examiner, detective, or police officer, a lot of times her best friend, husband, or significant other is.
● More and more, cozy mystery books are being written as parts of a series. The reader becomes emotionally involved and connected with the reoccurring characters.
● In a series, it is important that the characters are likable, so that the reader will want to visit them again. The supporting characters are equally important to the reader. It is for his reason that there are so many funny, eccentric, and entertaining secondary characters.
● Cozy mysteries are considered “gentle” books… no graphic violence, no profanity, and no explicit sex.
● Cozy mysteries tend to be fast-paced, with several twists and turns throughout each book. … There is a lot of puzzle solving involved in a cozy mystery.
● The cozy mystery puts an emphasis on plots and character development.
Given these characteristics as establishing a definition, I can see why cozy fans think of Agatha Christie, and Miss Marple in particular, as prime examples number one. And Curt, like it or not, I think a good many Golden Age mysteries do meet the qualifications, if indeed these are the identifying factors.
But I think something’s missing from this list. Like David, I myself don’t think of Christie’s mysteries as cozy. The settings are cozy enough, but the characters themselves are not. All of the suspects deep down have killer instincts, whether they’re the killer or not. Each and every one could be the killer, which is what makes picking him or her out so difficult.
Christie’s books may be fun to read, but there’s always a serious substance to them that today’s hobby-oriented cozies simply don’t have.
April 27th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
I guess I’d dispute how much books like “The Cheesecake Murders” or “The Cat Who Flipped Its Wig” (I’m making these up–slightly) really “engage the mind.” I just think if you’re reading a mystery that is primarily about light romantic relationships, or recipes (there is a line of cozies about cooking, complete with recipes), or cute cats, or local color, or gardening, you’re probably reading a modern cozy, not a Golden Age detective novel. The best books by the Golden Age Crime Queens tend to have rigorously worked out plots, the modern cozies not so much (if anyone can recommend one, please let me know).
Now, I will concede that there are readers who draw primarily cozy satisfactions out of Golden Age mysteries. In other words, they are not so interested in the puzzles, but in any “cozy” trappings. Life in St. Mary Mead, for example, or the romance between Lord Peter and Harriet Vane. But, still, I don’t believe that makes these books cozies per se.
Moreover, how cozy are some of these books? Is And Then There Were None cozy? I think not. I’ve always thought it was a remarkably sinister book. I recall reading comments from a President of an Agatha Christie fan club some three decades ago about Sleeping Murder, where she was talking about how cozy the book was. Well, if you think about the solution for a second, it’s not so cozy! Like Steve said, characters in Christie can be quite sinister. P. D. James says you get no sense of evil from Christie’s books; I don’t believe that’s true.
Still some Golden Age books certainly are “cozier” than others. I’m rereading Ngaio Marsh’s Grave Mistake and it’s pretty darn cozy!
April 28th, 2010 at 8:46 pm
Curt
I think you’re onto something. Some (if not many or most) traditional “Golden Age” detective novels have cozy trappings plus a puzzle story, and some readers can enjoy them only for the cozy aspects, which may be considerable — even though the mystery itself may be quite sinister. (I can’t think of a better word to use at the moment.)
In today’s cozy stories, a large percentage of which are “hobby”-oriented and are largely read by women, the puzzle aspect takes far less of a role, and the stories are “fun” rather than “sinister.”
Christie’s stories may have cozy trappings or settings, but I think she takes evil seriously, even in the Miss Marple series.
— Steve
May 14th, 2010 at 8:35 pm
I agree that modern cozies are different in that there is usually more about the personal life of the protagonist. I enjoy a light read with a little mystery, a little romance, a little delve into a country village and no sex or graphic violence. I do enjoy the MC Beaton books
Ann
Ann Summerville
Cozy In Texas