By Dennis Fischman

At the beginning of the pandemic, I read a slew of cozy mysteries. Partly, the times were too grim for police procedurals, psychological thrillers, or serial killer novels. Partly, the public libraries were closed and people were trading their used books, and a good soul passed along her collection. The Hat Shop Mysteries by Jenn McKinlay were some of my favorites.

What makes a mystery “cozy”? Some fans of the genre would say it goes all the way back to Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple books or classic English country house mysteries like The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne. (Do not worry: Winnie the Pooh does not make an appearance!)

“Cloche and Dagger” by Jenn McKinlay.
Berkley, 2013,
281 pages

In recent years, though, the cozy has become a recognized formula within the mystery genre. Its elements include an amateur sleuth, usually a woman, who’s not a private investigator but a librarian, a bookstore owner, a domestic servant, a restaurant reviewer, someone who runs an ice cream parlor … or, as in Cloche and Dagger, a high-end hat shop.

The violence occurs offstage and is not particularly bloody. The sex, too, occurs offstage, if it occurs at all. In fact, many cozy mysteries share a border with romance novels, and the characters who live in both genres find themselves alternately pining for a man and completely despising him because of some misunderstanding or other. (There are lesbian and bisexual cozy mysteries, too, but I haven’t read them yet!)

In Cloche and Dagger, the lead character, Scarlett Parker, has fled an embarrassing end to a romantic relationship in Florida and joined her cousin, Viv Tremont, in London, to help run the hat shop their grandmother left to both of them. That is, she thinks she’s joining her cousin. Instead, the handsome lawyer and business manager Harrison Wentworth picks her up at the airport with the news that Viv is missing.

Scarlett thinks Harrison is looking down his very British nose at her. His sense of humor escapes her. And as if that weren’t bad enough, when Scarlett tries to save the business and delivers a cloche hat to a valued but obstreperous client, she finds the woman naked and dead on the floor. Who has stabbed the client? Where is Viv, and what has happened to her? And are the sparks flying between Scarlett and “Harry” the explosive kind, or the romantic?

I found this book and the whole series delightful. No need for strenuous thinking here, just appreciation of doubles entendres and cross-cultural gaffes. Many mystery series that advertise themselves as cozies are generally too cloying, but for me, this one was a welcome break from Elizabeth George and Tana French during the lockdown and afterwards. A new book in the series came out in 2023, so if you enjoy this book, you can rely on the Hat Shop Mysteries for light entertainment for a while.

Dennis Fischman is a member of the Somerville Public Library’s Mystery Book Club and an inveterate reader.