It’s a dangerous thing, moving to a small town. Or a cove. Lakeside communities aren’t much safer either—especially if someone there has a suspiciously keen interest in crosswords. In places like these, murder lurks behind every lace curtain. But don’t worry, there’ll also be tea, freshly baked goods, and an amateur detective who will have the crime neatly solved before scones get cold.
We are, of course, talking about cosy crimes. They sit on the opposite end of the spectrum from the true-crime boom, where curiosity doesn’t kill the cat—but a feisty feline might just hold the crucial clue. There’s usually still a body, but it’s merely the spark for a mystery told with a lighter touch and a charming setting. We’re not here for terror. We’re here to piece together a cinematic jigsaw while the kettle boils.
With The Thursday Murder Club making its way to the screen, and a third entry in Rian Johnson’s Knives Out series just around the corner, it feels like the perfect time to revisit the cosiest of capers. From the cocktail-fuelled antics of Nick and Nora Charles in The Thin Man to Alison Sweeney’s sleuthing bakeries in Hallmark’s quaint small towns, they all share the same spirit—dressed in different clothes, perhaps, but offering the same gentle thrill of a mystery that won’t keep you up at night.
What makes a cosy crime film cosy?
While the term cosy mystery or cosy crime feels very current, it’s hardly a new phenomenon. Early Miss Marple fits the mould perfectly, influencing literature and film for over a century. If you thought the genre peaked in the ’80s and ’90s with television staples like Murder, She Wrote or Columbo, consider this: Midsomer Murders has clocked up more than 400 deaths since 1997, and Only Murders in the Building has turned one New York apartment complex into something of a cursed hotspot since 2021.
As Tirzah Price at Novel Suspects notes, the cosy concept “really took off in the late 20th century in an attempt to recreate that Golden Age of detective fiction, and as a response to the hardboiled crime fiction that became popular in the U.S. in the mid-20th century.”
The ingredients are simple: a tight-knit community, an amateur sleuth, and any bloodshed or scandal kept firmly off screen. A perfect example is the first screen adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s The Thin Man (1934), a practically flawless pre-Code film. If the presence of the incomparable William Powell and Myrna Loy isn’t enough of a clue, it’s a dazzlingly witty and effortlessly charming mystery, wrapped inside a booze-soaked comedy. There’s even a dog, Asta, whose nose is just as helpful as the humans in unearthing a body.
Finding your cosy corner
By definition, coming home to a cosy mystery is like slipping on a favourite sock or a well-worn sweater. (Or jumper if you’re here in the Antipodes). The comfort doesn’t come from tallying the improbably high body count of a sleepy village, it’s from knowing that justice will be neatly served in 45 to 90 minutes. But how do you know which cosy corner is right for you? They’re all comforting in their own way, but they’re certainly not all created equal.
Hallmark alone doesn’t just have a sock drawer: they’ve got an entire dresser full of options. My relatively recent fondness for their spotless small towns and endless flannel shirts is well documented, and it’s where my partner and I find our soft place to land at the end of a long day. Our gateway drug was the Aurora Teagarden Mysteries, mostly because a librarian solving mysteries felt suspiciously close to our own careers.
From there it was the Crossword Mysteries with Lacey Chabert, the Curious Caterer series, the Morning Show Mysteries, the Fixer Upper Mysteries, and even the Gourmet Detective. Yet our favourites, without question, are the Hannah Swensen Mysteries (aka Murder, She Baked), based on more than 30 novels by cosy queen Joanne Fluke.
So, the key to finding your groove is based on your own interests. Do you want a classic setting with a modern sensibility? Try the Enola Holmes film series. Do you prefer a chef, a matchmaker, or a witty socialite with a cocktail in hand? You’ll land somewhere between Hallmark and The Thin Man.
A little parcel of death
Cosy crime might still deal in death, or at the very least misadventure, but it’s never really about the darkness. It’s often about the community, small pleasures of like-minded company and a healthy sense of curiosity. Whether you’re watching a glamorous couple swan about 1930s New York or a group of retirees solve a village crime, the charm is the same: a moment of calm in a chaotic world.
So, pick your poison (just the cinematic kind, hopefully), and lose yourself in a murder or two, cosy style. Shall I put the kettle on?