Valona Jones, author of Tallowed Ground, a Magic Candle Shop mystery, is visiting Ascroft, eh? today to tell us a bit about how to write serial killers as cozy mystery.

Welcome, Valona. I’ll turn the floor over to you –

Serial Killers aren’t cozy, are they?

Yes, I know it’s true. Serial killers aren’t cozy, but there’s a way to write around that. You keep the violence off screen. Way off screen. I don’t want gruesome images in my head and neither do you. As a writer of cozies that have a paranormal vibe, I keep the consideration of the puzzle at the forefront of my thoughts as I write and not the act of killing.

First, though, let me back up and say that when the first “CSI” show aired on TV, I was hooked on forensics. Full disclosure, I was predisposed to have a keen interest in this topic due to a science career in toxicology. I also attended Writer’s Police Academy and experienced a lot of policing and fingerprinting firsthand in this educational setting. (Afterward, I came home, turned off the kitchen lights, lay on the floor, and whipped out a penlight flashlight. I was aghast at all the nearly microscopic things on my “clean” floor.)

My fascination with the idea of crime-solving was further nurtured by the “Criminal Minds” show about the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit. I was intrigued that a team of experts collaborated to solve cases that baffled local police. Several of these TV programs dealt with serial killers. I learned this type of killer has a signature, that is, he (or sometimes she) did things a certain way every time. That is their modus operandi or M.O., and often, a tool that helped experts discern his/her identity.

In one episode of “Criminal Minds”, the BAU team was sent to an area with multiple deaths in a short period of time, but the M.O. was different in every crime. At first, the main characters on the show struggled to link the crimes together, but it was suggested the link might be that the crimes all had different signatures. Therefore, the differences linked them to the same criminal. In other words, instead of having a single signature, this killer’s signature was that each means of death was different.

That concept stuck with me like hot glue. It wasn’t something I could work into my traditional cozies, and it surely didn’t fit in my culinary cozies. But in my paranormal cozy series, A Magic Candle Shop Mysteries, set in one of the most haunted cities in the U.S., I found just the cozy setting to use this concept.

TALLOWED GROUND is set in Savannah, Georgia, and in the book, the Savannah Police Department is on edge due to the odd crime wave around Bonaventure Cemetery, the resting place of many of the city’s movers and shakers. It’s an odd crime wave because the means of death are unusual.

However, these crimes have one signature element. The killer rubs a lard-like substance called tallow into the victim’s hair. The local cops don’t have the experience of the Savannah-based FBI office and don’t appreciate their involvement in solving the case.

As detectives research tallow and discover the varied uses of the product, they realize they know a subject expert, a local candle and soap maker named Tabby Winslow. They seek her advice and then she becomes a person of interest. The archery bow in her closet doesn’t help matters.

All of this information is filtered through Tabby’s point of view. She is cautious about getting involved in this case because of the bevvy of family secrets she must keep under wraps. But as matters heat up for her personally, she has no choice. She either figures out who the killer is or it’s likely she will soon be under arrest for the crimes.

While she doesn’t have the training of a BAU agent, she has several hidden energy-wielding talents she calls upon to help solve crimes. Unfortunately for Tabby, the criminal takes offense to her snooping. It isn’t long until Tabby is in the sights of the cops…and the killer.

The challenge of writing a multi-faceted book like this absorbed my imagination for months on end. Again, I kept everything quite cozy, except the final showdown where Tabby awakens in a small tight space. (If you are claustrophobic, be aware that’s coming. Also know that I would never hurt Tabby in a million years.)

She’s plucky, determined, and smart with a few hefty paranormal talents to help her along. I admire her spunk, creativity, and utter loyalty to family. In many ways, she’s the best of all of us, with the extra gears to help right some serious wrongs. And the beauty of it is that she’d rather be making candles and infusing them with her good energy.

So, yes, serial killers can be part of a cozy, but only in the coziest of ways.

Thank you for sharing this with us, Valona, and good luck with Tallowed Ground, the latest book in the Magic Candle Shop mystery series.

Readers can learn more about Valona Jones by visiting the author’s website and. her Facebook, Bookbub and Booklover’s Bench pages. You can also follow her on Twitter/X.

The book is available online at the following retailers: 

Kindle    Nook     Kobo     iBooks    Amazon Kindle and Print Book 

About Valona Jones: Valona Jones, aka Maggie Toussaint, writes paranormal cozies set in coastal Georgia, Her latest release,  TALLOWED GROUND, book 3 in the A Magic Candle Shop Mysteries, came out September 10, 2024. Under the name of Maggie Toussaint, she also publishes cozy mysteries and romantic suspense. Her pen name for a three-book science fiction ecothriller is Rigel Carson. In total, she has published more than 27 works of fiction and won multiple awards. She lives in coastal Georgia, where time and tide wait for no one.