Recently, I was asked the following question, by mystery reader Garaghty:

… So, I have a strange question: Have (you) come across a cozy written from the first person point of view? I know that a feature of the cozy is that intimacy, where the reader solves right along with the likable protagonist, but I’ve noticed that most are still written in 3rd person.  I was wondering if you knew of an exception…

Thank you, Garaghty, for such an interesting question, and I hope you come to love Cozies as much as I do! My initial response was that I have read very few Cozies that have been written from a first person point of view, but the more I thought about it, the more examples I came up with that actually use the first person perspective to help immerse the reader into the setting.

Agatha Christie herself, perhaps the greatest Cozy Mystery author ever, occasionally used first person perspective, especially early in her career. Poirot’s chief assistant and friend, Captain Arthur Hastings, was her most common narrator, narrating both the first Poirot case, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, as well as the last, Curtain – if you’re interested in reading a first person point of view Cozy, the Mysterious Affair at Styles would be an excellent selection!

Another excellent example of first person point of view in Cozy Mysteries is one of the earliest examples of detective fiction, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Though not considered a Cozy at the time (obviously, since the term “Cozy” wouldn’t be coined for decades), the Sherlock Holmes novels have many of the elements later covered by Cozies – an amateur (albeit brilliant, in the case of Holmes) detective, solving cases using a unique perspective not shared by the police, with relatively little graphic bloodshed or other unsavory elements. All of Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes famous cases were narrated by his faithful chronicler and assistant, Doctor Watson. Even the few mysteries where Watson was absent for part of the mystery were often recounted afterwards as Watson’s retelling of Holmes’s story, such as in The Adventure of the Empty House, when Holmes explains how he managed to survive what seemed like certain death at Reichenbach Falls.

That said, it is worth noting that the individual we follow in these novels is rarely the detectives themselves, but is far more often their primary assistant. I think this is because entering the mind of the detective is often too much of a risk – exposing the “inner workings” of a genius mind like Sherlock Holmes while retaining the character’s mystique might be too tall an order, even for the character’s creator! There are some exceptions – Christie did have Miss Marple narrate one story, Miss Marple Tells a Story, though portrayed as a letter to her nephew Raymond after the fact rather than as the case occurred – but these seem to be exceptions rather than the rule.

Even using the assistant has the risk of making the narrator seem slow or incompetent, especially if the reader can solve the puzzle faster than the narrator. With a more traditional third-person point of view, there is always some question when exactly the detective learns who committed the crime – hardly a possibility if we know their every thought! In some circles, a relatively slow, bumbling character who only exists to ask questions for the detective to answer is often referred to as “the Watson”, despite the fact that as a medical doctor, Watson must have been quite intelligent in his own right! Unfortunately it only takes one or two cases where the narrator seems at a loss while the reader has already noticed the true culprit before a character’s credibility is seriously damaged. A more distant detective might instead reasonably claim that they were waiting for decisive evidence to move against the criminal, who they naturally identified much earlier.

I can think of two more books and one series that have the first person perspective right off the top of my head: Marion Babson‘s The Twelve Deaths of Christmas, Agatha Christie‘s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, and Spencer Quinn‘s Chet and Bernie Mystery Series, although, Chet is a first tail-waggin’ narrator!

Yikes! It looks like I’ve gone a little longer than I realized on this one! Thanks again, Garaghty, for such a good question – I hope I answered it fully!

Can anyone else think of some good examples of first person point of view in Cozies? Please leave a comment!

P.S. I am getting so many great comments about mysteries that are told in the first person perspective that, rather than list them on this entry, I’m going to highlight them in the comments so that if you’re interested, you can check the authors out. Be sure to read the terrific comments!

Every few years I make it a point to go back and read some of the classic Cozies that really made me fall in love with mysteries. Recently I went back and revisited A Man Lay Dead, the first book by Ngaio Marsh and our introduction to Inspector Roderick Alleyn, Marsh’s primary detective through most of her long career. As many of you know, I consider Marsh one of my personal favorite authors, and revisiting a classic I’m sure to love is always something of a treat.

 A Man Lay Dead begins with a simple premise that quickly became one of the most common >>> a group of individuals with strong ties to one another gather for an extended party at the country estate of an older host. Though on the surface the visitors are all close friends, it quickly becomes apparent that one of them sits at the center of a web of questionable relationships and lies, and (lo and behold) he/she somehow ends up dead before the event is through.

Despite the rapid onslaught of characters and names, keeping the suspects relatively straight in your head isn’t a problem, as each is established quickly in broad strokes that should be familiar at once to any Cozy Mystery reader. Names can quickly become associated with well-established and beloved character types – Sir Hubert Handesley is quickly established as The Educated Host, his niece Angela as The Reliable Modern Girl, the young man who serves as one of the primary points of view of the novel as The Intrepid Young Journalist, and so forth. These are character types beloved for a reason – they’re well portrayed and sympathetic here, and Marsh is especially skilled at showing how uncomfortable many of them become with one another – and how they try to conceal that fact – as suspicions begins to prey on them as their police-enforced isolation lengthens.

Speaking of the police, this is also our introduction to Inspector Alleyn, though his regular assistant, Sergeant Fox, doesn’t make an appearance in this early Marsh book. Compared to the detectives of Marsh’s contemporaries, Inspector Alleyn is a relatively quiet, conservative sort. He certainly doesn’t employ the flamboyant manner of a Poirot or the delicate social machinations of a Marple. Instead he is a prime example of the “educated investigator”, likely serving as one of the inspirations for later characters such as Thaw’s Inspector Morse, another character who perhaps possessed a bit more education than most people would expect from a police officer of those times. Though Alleyn’s presence might be a bit less pronounced than some of his more dynamic peers in the Cozy world, this isn’t necessarily a negative – instead it serves to make the mystery itself more of a star, as the reader is encouraged to focus more on the business at hand instead of the eccentric performances of the detective.

And I suppose that really summarizes Marsh’s strongest point – the mystery is the star, in the end, and Marsh writes strong mysteries that will often leave you guessing right up until the very end. A Man Lay Dead is a classic mystery by a classic author, and as such (I think) should be read by any fan of Cozy Mysteries.

P.S. The Inspector Allyen Mysteries television series is really, really good!

If you’re interested in reading more of these brief revisits of some of the more popular Cozy Mystery Series that I’ve written in the past, you can find them at the Most Recommended Cozy Mystery Series page on my site.