Iris March, author of The Corpse by the Creek, a Succulent Sleuth cozy mystery, is visiting Ascroft, eh? today to tell us about the role pets play in cozy mysteries.
Welcome, Iris. I’ll turn the floor over to you –
The cozy mystery stories have a few genre expectations: no graphic sex or violence, a dead body (or at least a very intriguing crime), a small town, an amateur sleuth who just can’t help but get involved with that dead body, an interesting job for said sleuth, and a cute animal sidekick for her. Every rule is meant to be broken, and not every cozy has all these exact elements, but they’re there more often than not.
Why are there usually pets?
A cute animal friend for our sleuth makes her more human. Her care and love for a cute cat, sweet pup, a knowing parrot, a fuzzy bunny, or other adorable animal shows us that she’s responsible and a good person. Because the bad guy is probably mean to animals. Did that guy just kick a dog? I bet he’s the killer. Our amateur sleuth is definitely the good guy and would never do anything like that. Ever.
A pet can also help our lady not-a-real-detective do some thinking out loud. Sometimes, our sleuth will do her brainstorming and clue shifting by telling her pet snake all about what she’s found. Talking to her animal friend makes a more interesting scene than writing out a pros and cons list, or our sleuth just looking out the window while she thinks.
The sweet pet can also add some humor and relieve some tension from solving a horrible crime. Her pet chinchilla can curl up in the sleuth’s lap and make sure she takes some time to recharge. The ferret sidekick can get into some silly antics to help break up the bad feels and pace out the investigation.
It’s even better if the animal sidekick gets involved in helping solve the crime or knows the killer before our pet-loving sleuth. Even in a contemporary cozy mystery without any paranormal elements, we love it when the pet lizard happens to knock over a clue or the turtle turns up his nose at the affections of the killer. Not all pets have intuition like this, but they sure do in a cozy mystery.
In my Succulent Sleuth Series, I don’t have any exotic pets, but most characters have an animal friend. Sherlock, the garden center cat, definitely gets involved in taking down the killer in two of my mysteries. He’s a tuxedo cat because I’ve always loved black and white cats, but I’ve never had one of my own. Molly, my sleuth, also has a high-energy, fluffy puppy at home. Her twin sister has a cat, and her best friend has some fish. I should totally come up with more interesting pets for some side characters.
My third book in my Succulent Sleuth Series, The Corpse by the Creek, is about to come out. Sherlock, that cute black and white tuxedo cat, is front and center when Molly takes down the killer.
Thank you for sharing this with us, Iris, and good luck with The Corpse by the Creek, the latest book in the Succulent Sleuth cozy mystery series. Readers can learn more about Iris March by visiting the author’s website and her Facebook and Instagram pages. You can also follow her on BlueSky.
The book is available online at the following retailers:
About Irish March: Iris has a reputation for killing house plants, and now she’s killing people off in books? Coincidence? Perhaps not. Iris has spent two decades working in the sustainability field and is usually either reading a book or on a trail. She lives in Ohio with her husband, son, and three cats.
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