All cozy mystery lovers know that Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple mysteries, appearing in the 1930s, were the first cozies. But what about the subgenre of paranormal cozy mysteries? When did these delightful books first appear? Who wrote them and what were they about?
The genre of paranormal cozy mysteries has a history of wackiness, beginning in 1990 when Rita Mae Brown introduced readers to cats and dogs that talk. Another “cat author,” Lilian Jackson Braun, became known for The Cat Who… mysteries, with former newspaper reporter James Qwilleran and his two cats, Koko and Yum Yum. Quilleran’s cats aren’t overtly paranormal, but they present him with clues in mysterious ways that help solve murders.
Cats ruled in early paranormal cozies! In 1998, Shirley Rousseau Murphy wrote the first of the Joe Grey Cat Mystery Series, featuring a feline P.I. named Joe Grey. In the debut Cat on the Edge, Joe Grey witnesses a murder—and, as a result, becomes a target of the killer, who realizes that the cat’s supernatural abilities threaten him.
In the years that followed, Joe Grey would prove not to be the only feline P.I. to strut across the cozy mystery stage. Sleuthing cats are still popular in paranormal cozies today. Many a cozy witch or psychic has a cat “familiar” with unusual powers, to wit:
- Clea Simon’s Witch Cats of Cambridge Mystery Series (started 2018) or Dulcie Schwartz Cat Mystery Series (started 2009)
- Tonya Kappes’ Magical Cures Mystery Series (started 2012)
- Leighann Dobbs’ Blackmoore Sisters Romantic Cozy Mystery Series (started 2013)
- K.J. Emrick’s Smudge the Cat Mysteries (started 2014)
- Madison Johns’ Lake Forest Witches Mystery Series (started 2015)
- Delia James’ Witch’s Cat Mystery series (started 2016)
- Amanda Flower’s Magical Bookshop Mystery Series (started 2016)
- Carole Nelson Douglas’ Midnight Louie & Temple Barr Mystery Series (started 2018)
- Plus many other authors
Dogs, however, are almost as popular in cozies as cats. Judi McCoy’s Dog Walker Mystery Series began in 2009 and features Ellie Engleman, who opens a dog walking business. Ellie can hear what the dogs are saying, and they can hear her.
Both Sadie and her dog can see the dead inBeth Solheim’s Sadie Witt Mystery Series, which began in 2010.
Laura Morrigan writes the Call of the Wilde mystery series, which began in 2013. The series features animal behaviorist Grace Wilde, who has a telepathic ability to speak to animals. Similarly, in 2013, Shannon Esposito began the Pet Psychic Mystery series, in which the protagonist receives psychic visions from animals.
In 2014, Dixie Lyle’s Whiskey, Tango and Foxtrot Mystery Series introduced Deirdre “Foxtrot” Lancaster, an administrative assistant who sleuths with the help of her (deceased) telepathic cat and a shape shifting dog.
Paranormal Elements Other than Talking Cats and Dogs
Besides supernatural cats and dogs, paranormal elements in cozies often come in the form of magic or ghosts who help the protagonist solve mysteries. The protagonist herself may be a witch, psychic, ghost, vampire, or werewolf—or she encounters such creatures. They may be friendly or not.
Published back in 1992, Aunt Dimity’s Death is the debut novel in Nancy Atherton’s Aunt Dimity series, which is one of the longest-running paranormal cozy mystery series ever written. (Book 25 comes out in May 2022). The stories feature American Lori Sheppard, who settles in an English village thanks to an inheritance from Aunt Dimity, Lori’s late mother’s old friend. The novel is more of a ghost story than your typical cozy mystery, which almost always features an amateur sleuth, a murder, and multiple suspects. Aunt Dimity is the ghost, of course.
Joanne Pence began the original Angelina Amalfi Mystery series in 1993. She now writes the Angie & Friends Food & Spirits Series, featuring Angelina Amalfi, a gourmet chef and food writer, who encounters story lines with ghosts.
In 1999, Carolyn Haines’ Sarah Booth Delany Mystery Series introduced readers to a ghost named Jitty, who served as a nanny to Sarah’s great-great-grandmother. Jitty helps Sarah by giving her advice about how to save the old family plantation home.
Carolyn Hart, whose books have won multiple Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity Awards, began the Bailey Ruth series in 2008, starring Bailey Ruth, a ghost on a mission to right wrongs and solve mysteries. Nine books comprise the series so far; the most recent was published in 2020.
In Mary Stanton’s Beaufort & Company Mystery Series, which began in 2008, Bree Winston-Beaufort inherits her uncle’s law firm and discovers that her paralegal, her secretary, her landlady, and her dog are all angels in disguise.
Sue Ann Jaffarian’s Ghost of Granny Apples Mystery Series began in 2009 and features Granny Apples, a 100-year-old ghost.
Terri Reid’s Mary O’Reilly Series began in 2010. Coming back from the dead, with the new ability to communicate with ghosts, changes Mary O’Reilly’s life. The 20-book series also has a ghost dog who saves lives.
In Amanda M. Lee’s 2017 cozy, The Bigfoot Blunder, “it seems the one and only Sasquatch extraordinaire itself may have killed a woman.”
Esme Addison’s A Spell for Trouble (2020), the first book in the Enchanted Bay Mystery Series, features a quiet seaside town that is home to residents descended from mermaids. This is a fresh trope, for sure!
Lately, I’m seeing a formula in paranormal cozy mysteries: A young woman with occult powers (usually a witch or a medium who can see ghosts) stumbles upon a dead body. She has an aunt/grandmother/relative, who owns an inn/bookstore/shop. The young woman has just arrived in the small town where the shop is located. Either she intends to help run the shop or has inherited it. Usually a ghost comes along with the shop, and often it’s the ghost of the aunt/grandmother/relative. After discovering the dead body, the young woman, her best friend, or her aunt/grandmother/relative is accused of the crime. The hero is a devastatingly attractive young man, usually a cop. He suspects the young woman or her relative at first, but ends up helping/saving her from the murderer—whose identity the young woman has discovered through her magical/psychic powers.
Oh, and there’s usually a cat involved in one way or another.
Of course, there’s something to be said for formulas. Just look at romance novels! These books follow a formula, because that formula is successful, and readers love it. Perhaps it’s the same with paranormal cozies.
About the Author, Gloria Lesher
An award-winning business writer and ghostwriter, “indie” author Gloria Lesher (https://glorialesher.com/) is published both traditionally and independently. Her supernatural thriller, L’incantesimo Della Sciamana (Spell of the Shaman), was published in Italy by RCS Libri under her maiden name, Gloria Cook. Lesher is the author of two independently-published paranormal cozy mysteries: The Skinny on the Jinni, and In a Black Monk Funk. Her fascination with all things preternatural began in the Land of Enchantment—New Mexico. She spent her early grade school years in Roswell, a renowned site of a 1947 UFO crash.
About her Book, The Skinny on the Jinni
A Saudi billionaire is murdered in his American ex-wife’s ski resort mansion. When his teen daughter begs retired professor-turned-paranormal researcher Blythe Golightly to prove her mother innocent—and to banish a jinni—Blythe can’t say no. MURDER, SHE WROTE meets THE X-FILES in this tribute to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s tale, “Rappaccini’s Daughter.”
Support local bookstores by purchasing a copy on Bookshop.org or purchase a copy on Amazon. Or add to your Goodreads reading list.
Quite more to that genre than I’d have expected. Thanks for sharing.