Researching Cozy Mysteries

by JPC Allen

Yes, you read the title right. But what research? We’re not writing historical fiction or scifi. We just need to set a cozy mystery in a cute small town with tons of ugly secrets. Create a likable amateur detective with a quirky sidekick. Throw in an unlikable victim, shifty suspects, and an even more unlikable villain, and the cozy mystery practically writes itself.

Well, not quite.

When I write a cozy mystery for my YA series, Rae Riley Mysteries, I’m very aware that I’m asking readers to suspend a good chunk of their disbelief. They have to accept that nineteen-going-on-twenty-year-old Rae Riley gets involved in mysteries and solves them with the help of her sheriff dad and other relatives and friends. Even though mystery fans accept this as one of the tropes of a cozy mystery, I don’t want to strain my readers powers of disbelief too strenuously. So I work hard at making all other aspects of my mystery realistic. And that means research.

When I first started my series, I realized I needed to learn about law enforcement. All I knew I’d learned from watching cop and mystery shows. Which meant I knew nothing. So I looked into law enforcement like I was an alien from Mars. No questions was too basic. I began reading books and attending crime writing sessions at conferences. I joined my county’s annual Citizens Academy. This free, 11-week course is run by my local sheriff’s
department.

I learned about law enforcement from traffic stops to K-9 units, from detectives to dispatchers. More importantly, I spoke to officers and grew to understand what sort of people go into this profession and why. Now I am able to contact an officer in the agency who answers all my technical questions, like rules around search warrants. And I can create believable characters who are cops.

In my latest mystery, A Riddle in the Lonesome October, rumors of bigfoot are swirling around Marlin County, Ohio, the fictional county where Rae lives.

Bigfoot in Ohio?

Yes. Ohio has a history of bigfoot hunters and people reporting sightings of the creatures. A state park holds a bigfoot conference every year in the spring. These facts led to more research. The best book I read was Monster Trek: the Obsessive Search for Bigfoot by Joe Gisondi. The author is more concerned with meeting people who hunt bigfoot all over the country and why they do it rather than whether the animal is real. That gave me insight into how real bigfoot hunters think and helped me shape characters who are hunters. My research also reassured me that if bigfoot hunters read about a possible sighting in a Ohio county, it was not only plausible but probable some would show up to investigate.

At the beginning of this same novel, Rae’s uncle is involved in a serious riding accident in creek between two remote farms. Rae’s family has to apply first aid while waiting for paramedics. A beta reader pointed out that since Rae’s dad Mal is the sheriff, he’s probably trained in more than basic first aid. Although the family doesn’t have any supplies in the woods, Mal’s official first-responder training would make him able to improvise with materials at hand better than an average person.

So I emailed the lieutenant at the sheriff’s office who answers my questions, and he confirmed that officers have training in trauma. Then I read books on backwoods first aid and added more realism to my suspenseful scene.

In all the years I’ve researched my mysteries, that research has never derailed a story. I’ve sometimes had to make some minor changes to adapt a plotline to reality. But much more often, I find the research inspiring, providing me with even more ideas for Rae to investigate.

JPC Allen started her writing career in second grade with an homage to Scooby Doo, and she’s been tracking down mysteries ever since. Her first Rae Riley novel, A Shadow on the Snow, won first place in the ACFW KidLit contest for YA fiction. A Storm of Doubts finished second in the Selahs and ACFW Kidlit.