I really appreciate all of the comments you all post. I know that there are quite a few of us who look forward to seeing what everyone else has to say. I get some of my ideas for posts from what you all talk about. Thank you!
A few months ago, Carrie posted a particularly interesting comment:
“I don’t mind if the cover gives away who the victim is. So many book covers now reveal the victim I’ve got used to knowing who will die before I start reading the book.
I’m more bothered about sloppy research where the author states “facts” that you know are completely wrong for the period or are just plain inaccurate. Or where their geography is so poor you wonder if they have ever bothered to look at a map. My personal favorite is one author who had her heroine sailing to Switzerland! I can only assume their editors are equally geographically challenged.
Also, poor use of language really irritates me. I’ve got tired of reading books where they are supposed to be set in England and the author has characters saying things that wouldn’t be said in England, using slang or language that is inappropriate for the period or using words that they definitely don’t say in England like “gotten”.
My final irritant is when characters solve the crime by making assumptions that defy logic or that they can have no possible way of knowing. Or when they find “major clues” that are so ridiculous they spoil the story. I know that Sherlock Holmes managed to solve crimes by discovering some dust that came from Egypt or some such amazing feat, however, other authors having supposedly normal people using this kind of device to “solve” their crimes is just sloppy writing and poor story construction.
Rant over!
Sorry, but you did ask!”
Let me say this: I totally agree with everything Carrie posted in her comment. I, too, am tired of authors and their publishers thinking they can pull these stunts… which based on their sales, apparently they can!
What do you all think? Without specifically naming an author, do you all have any pet peeves?
Ellie Oberth says
I consume cozy mysteries! My preference is for books with more dialogue than description. I read purely for entertainment, so I don’t let a lot of “mistakes” bother me too much.
That being said – I AM bothered by 2 things:
Books that describe every single character that enters the story with a detailed description of their attire; and
Books where you can tell a female wrote the male character or vice versa (for example, I just read a mystery where the male said he was going to curl up on the sofa – puh-lease No guy I know would ever say that!)
Ellie
Patricia Bremmer says
I couldn’t agree with you more. My husband is always “suggesting” I add more description to my books. He wants to know what every character is wearing, what they had for breakfast, etc. I think it bogs down the story. I write tons of dialogue. Editors tag my books as cinematic and not literary. They flow like a movie, but then that’s what I like to read, so why wouldn’t I write that way? I think when authors are out of their comfort zone it shows.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Ellie, I hate it when an author bogs down the story with all sorts of minute details about a character, and then you never see him/her again.
I agree about the being able to tell the gender of an author by the things the characters do. The one thing that I really, really dislike is when a male author has an older leading man who hits on every beautiful, young woman… and succeeds! Of course, the leading man has many, many women falling all over him, etc.
In your dreams!
Angela says
One of my “peeves”, with a few exceptions, is when a character of a series shows no sign of personal growth. I am referring to mostly the amateur type sleuths, I hate when a sleuth makes the same silly amateurish mistakes case after case 10+ murders into a series! Don’t you know by now not to touch the crime scene? Don’t you know not to go running after the bad guy by yourself without telling anyone?? A second “peeve” is when an author always makes the main character a suspect in the case. If I had a friend who had been a murder suspect 5 times I think I’d avoid that person, lol! I also hate sloppy editing. So distracting to have misspellings and mis-types all over the place, but I know that’s not the authors fault so I try not to hold it against a series too much.
Tom says
Hahahaha. Never thought about having a friend who was a suspect five times. Great point!
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Angela, I just dropped an author because the main character, an amateur sleuth, actually kept some evidence from the scene of the crime so that she and her friend could solve the crime. Good grief!
Andie says
I do have several pet peeves, but few that cause me to not read a book.
With some authors, they describe a character who is less than sympathetic and in many cases, downright mean and I know right away that this one is going to be the victim. And he or she is probably on the lists of several other characters who have sufficient reason to take them out.
Perhaps the thing that annoys me no end is when the author inserts foreign phrases, usually French, but occasionally German or even Russian, and doesn’t include a translation. If it is a simple or common short phrase of two or three words, which even we provincial Americans know, that’s okay but when they include an entire sentence, or even a paragraph, and don’t explain what they mean, I become irritated and more so if this is repeated throughout the book.
It’s possible the author is attempting to appear cosmopolitan or well read or multilingual. It doesn’t work for me, I just feel they are being rude, writing something that I don’t understand.
I’ve read many books that include foreign languages phrases or words, but there is always a translation to make it interesting as well as educational. I like those, it broadens my perspective.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
I know, Andie… If I don’t like a character, then I don’t want to read about him/her. (Agatha Raisin was an exception for me, but eventually, I stopped looking forward to following her exploits…)
As for the translations, Je ne sais pas. (Just joking!) I know a few people who would be impressed by the sprinkling of phrases in different languages. As for me, I would probably get rid of the author. There are just too many books by too many authors who I like, for me to try to overlook some things. Once I get annoyed with a mystery book, I tend to brood on it while I continue reading the book.
Anne says
I love my cozies but hate the bad grammar. Tense mistakes and my biggest pet peeve is … “it was all over for Bob and I”…BOB AND ME!! Don’t the editors have to go to school? I just read a book on my kindle that had a whole lot of hyphenated words where none were needed. I don’t judge too harshly because I don’t know how the printed words translate to the eReader as far as end of the line splits and such. I am just hoping it is not another trend for me to rant about!!
Whew, I feel better now! Thanks for the soapbox, Danna, Next?
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Anne, so many people do the “it was all over for Bob and I”>>> I think people just remember back to grade school and follow the “Jane, Puff, Spot, and I run.” rule.
(I don’t know why the “She was the one THAT went to the store.” bothers me so much, but it does! If I see that in a mystery book I am reading, I get totally UNimpressed by both the author and the editor/publisher.)
Susie says
As a reader, I was always a bit bugged by continuity errors (especially about major events that transpired in a character’s life, maybe described in detail in one novel, and then mixed up or forgotten in the next novel), but as a writer I’ve come to realize that such errors are so easy to make when you have to cut, add and rearrange scenes, characters. Hopefully good editors will help sort that out! I’m still pretty bugged when writers rely on other novels for their own research (for example, so many seem to draw on Jane Austen novels for their facts about Regency England–or just the film adaptions, often stealing Austen’s unique POV as if it were the only POV that this society had.) Imagine your own characters, for goodness sake!
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Susie, I dropped an author when she never mentioned the culprit from the previous book, who was actually married to one of the main characters of the series. Forget the husband was a killer/thief?!? Not on my watch!
Judith says
I think the author may be facing the problem that not everyone reads series in order so they do not want to reveal the solution to one book in another.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Judith, while I can understand an author not wanting to reveal a solution to readers who haven’t read the previous mysteries in the series, I think it’s a crummy way to treat those readers who have been loyal to that author. I wonder how many other fans of that series dropped it for that same reason… at least one did!
Tom says
Aaaaaaaa! Where have you been all my life!?! Well maybe not all my life but the last ten years. I am STUNNED to realize that there are others out there like me who love “these kinds” of books! About 15 years ago when I was sheepishly looking at the Agatha Christie books in the store a stranger mentioned something about cozy and until this day wondered what she meant. I am so excited to find this site…..solo many resources here……feel like a little boy at Christmas.
Susan says
Welcome aboard the good ship ‘Cozy’, Tom! 🙂
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Welcome to the site, Tom.
When I started the site I only included mystery authors who I could vouch for. Since then, I have added many authors to the site who site readers have recommended as belonging on the site. I have found several authors who I currently follow by trying new-to-me authors who look interesting to me. I hope you are able to find some new-to-you authors who you will enjoy following…
Susan says
One of my peeves re: cozies is one that Carrie has mentioned. “I’m more bothered about sloppy research where the author states “facts” that you know are completely wrong for the period or are just plain inaccurate.”
I don’t read many historicals but when I do, I prefer that the author has done some research – and sticks to it! I’m no historian, myself, but I do have more than half a brain.
I recently read a mystery set in Post-Victorian England (About 2 years after the old queen died) where the author kept giving her characters a morality that wavered between correct Victorian and 21st Century.
What really capped it for me, was an unmarried female character who stood up and publicly implied that she had spent the previous night with a man – but she still expected to be introduced to the King, the next day!! (Huh?)
This, on top of earlier, era-appropriate, disapproving statements about “Immodest” female dress and behaviour…
PLUS: a Duchess whose Duke had married her off of the Music Hall stage, of all places, who was not only accepted by Society, (NOT going to happen!) but who had become a Leader of Society, and yet still had a strong, and very ‘common’ Cockney accent! (She called people ‘Ducks’!! Aaaaaaarrrgh! – Susan goes off to find some bleach for her brain!) These were just the most glaring errors – there were others.
On the other hand, some errors are just so ludicrous, they’re funny. A friend mentioned a story she’d read where a Regency (England) heroine takes the train to Brighton. (Just FYI the first train to Brighton was some 70 yrs after the end of the Regency period…. Lol!)
Cheers, and apologies for the rant! 🙂
Susan
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Susan, I’m not a historian either, but sloppy research bothers me also. I find that several of the “post-Victorian by 2 years” (or so) have totally liberated late 20th century women as their sleuths. That bothers me immensely! When I find the female sleuth too liberated/advanced for the mystery book’s actual time setting, I just roll my eyes and toss the book from my TBR pile. (And do a lot of complaining to my husband!)
Patricia Bremmer says
OMG! I so agree. That’s one reason I started writing. My pet peeve is with movies as well. Why does every woman end up alone in an empty parking tower? Why when they shoot someone do they set the gun down within reach of the assailant? Why when they find their door to their homes ajar do they walk inside to check it out? Get real. That’s what I did. I complained to a screenplay writer and he said can you do better? So I did. I wrote the Elusive Clue Series to start and I don’t write about places or events I’m not familiar with. I keep it real. I went so far as to have a real live detective read through my manuscripts first to fix any police protocol. Then I had a crazy idea of using him for my sleuth. So together we create a plausible mystery series with real people.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
You bring up a lot of good questions, Patricia!
Judy says
I do feel it is important for authors to be correct concerning geography, language, phrases, dress, etc. in their writing otherwise they are misleading people.
Even though it is fiction and people can and should do their homework, I feel it is false information being given on the author’s part and “dumbing down” for the readers. It shows the lack of research/education on the author’s part. Having the details correct adds such dimension and credibility to the story and builds with each book in the series. The stories are more fun to read when they are plausible.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Judy, wouldn’t you think that between the author, all of the author’s friends and family members who proof the mystery, the editor, and the publishers>>> someone would be able to make corrections to faulty manuscript content?!?
Kathryn says
One of my biggest pet peeves is that an author who is writing a manor house murder with hot and cold running cousins, in-laws and servants assumes that the reader can keep them all straight. I greatly appreciate a character list at the front of the book that I can refer back to. I also appreciate a map with the landmarks named if there is action all over an area.
This summer I started a series that came highly recommended by readers of this blog but I gave up after about 25 pages because I was lost among all the characters.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Kathryn, I love the character lists at the beginning of the books! I often refer to them when a series is new to me. The maps are a nice addition, but definitely, the lists of important characters is a great thing to have.
Regina says
Something that really bothers me and is not always the author’s fault. When I read the latest book in the series, it can be very weak in plot and chraracters. It is as if the author is riding upon his/her previous reputation. This is poorly stated on my part but I hope you understand my meaning. Also I would like to shake severely every heroine who ventures into a dark cellar, dark castle etc. Give me a break. Forgive typos as I am waiting for the limo for my cruise.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
I know exactly what you mean, Regina. A few months ago, I started reading the sixth mystery by a favorite authors of mine and found it lacking. The only reason I continued with the series is that I only had a few more books to go. I absolutely could not give up on her!
Carrie says
Good heavens! Danna, I was stunned to see my rant reappearing on your site. I wrote it in reply to one of your thought provoking questions and then promptly forgot all about it.
I have to say that I agree with all the comments so far and I’m so pleased to discover that I’m not the only person who gets irritated by sloppy writing and research.
I know that cozy mystery books aren’t supposed to be taken seriously, but I don’t think that authors should use that as an excuse to use lazy writing techniques. In fact, I think that sometimes it can be an insult to their readers intelligence.
For me, well researched and written books will always be more satisfying to read than poorly written books which, however much I might like the characters, I find irritating and tiresome.
Also, books that stand the test of time are the well written, constructed and researched books. The badly written ones just fade away … which, now that I think about it, is probably a good thing!
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Carrie, I hope it’s OK that I used your comment in my entry yesterday. I enjoyed what you said (and how you said it) so much when I first read your comment, and think you brought up some really good points. As you can see, a lot of us echo your sentiments!
Carrie says
Danna, It’s perfectly OK with me if you want to reprint my comment/rant. After all, I did write it on your site for everyone to read so it would be a bit ridiculous for me now to pretend that I’m shy about it reappearing. In fact I’m honored that you consider it worth reprinting.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Well then, Carrie THANK YOU! We are all really enjoying the discussion that your entry has generated.
Tom says
I go crazy when they describe food. I swear I have packed on 20 lbs since I started reading my “cozies” (see? I’m picking up the lingo). Emily Brightwell describes a custard tart and the next thing you know I’m down in the kitchen……
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Tom, you had better stay away from the culinary Cozies!
Donna says
Ditto on all of the above! That’s why I look forward to visiting this website – it’s so “cozy” to discuss books I love with others who feel the same, and a few books I’m going to forever avoid. 🙂 In my opinion, many of the things that drive us crazy are formulas that writers use to “build suspense”, such as running up a staircase where there is no escape from the bad guy – that one is my biggest pet peeve. The only possible reason for it is to add a few more pages to the book or a few more scenes to the film – but if it isn’t believeable, most people just get disgusted with the whole story.
Danna - cozy mystery list says
What’s with that, Donna?!? Who in their right mind would run UP the stairs when trying to get away from the bad guy?
Deb says
I love cozies. The one thing I won’t do, however, is read a book written in the present tense. It just takes me right out of the milieu the authors is trying to create. That’s the first thing I always check before buying or borrowing a book.
Another pet peeve is bad grammar. I have an awful time returning a library book without correcting the grammar in the margin!
I also drop authors whose main characters are TSTL. I don’t mind the slightly anachronistic liberated women in some of the historicals, because there were plenty of strong women in the old days, but if a main character is continually diving into dark basements and leaving her cell phone behind when impulsively chasing an axe murderer, I’m outta there.
Foreign language is not a pet peeve of mine (guess it’s because I was a language major) but I do agree there should either be a translation or at least a paraphrase that explains what was said or read. It’s just courtesy, whether you’re using a foreign phrase in speech or in writing, to make sure the other person or your reader understands what is meant.
I love this website. Thank you so much!
Danna - cozy mystery list says
Deb, it took me a minute or two to figure out what TSTL means. I agree, if the female sleuth is Too Stupid/Silly To Live, I don’t want any part of her. There are just too many sleuths out there who actually can think! I’d rather spend my time with them…
linda says
Danna, this has to be one of my all time favorite topics that I have read in this wonderful forum of yours. So many of the comments that people have made hit the nail on the head for me. I wonder if this is because a lot of the readers of mysteries are getting to be so prolific (?) readers that not much can get by us?
I, too, like a list of characters at the front of the books, especially if there is going to be a long list of characters and the characters are important to the story.. I also like a map of the village if the village is important to the story. I would also like some sort of picture of the house or the manor if the dwelling place is important to the story. Maybe not a picture inside the book but maybe a picture of the dwelling place on the front cover at least.
One of my pet peeves is when a writer kills off a wrong character. An example of this is when Diane Mott Davidson (***********SPOILER**********) killed off the “jerk.” I think the Jerk needed to get his comeupence but to me killing him off was just too easy.
One more thing that some writers do is to use names of characters from older more established writers. An example of this is someone new using Louis Mendoza of the old Dell Shannon series about the 87th precinct. My rant for this time! No way would someone trying to get started in a new writing career get by with using Sherlock Holmes or Roger Ackroyd as a character name.
Maybe some of you younger readers don’t know who writers Dell Shannon or Ed McBain were but believe me, from what I have read of some of the comments in this forum a lot of you would actually enjoy these two authors. I could very well see these two as being listed as “Cozies”. Talk about plot and character development— these two authors were really great. These two authors are the ones who got me hooked on the series mysteries. These two people were among some great writers.
Sorry for the ranting. Must be the rainy, gloomy weather. There used to be this big yellow ball in the sky!!!