Crafting a killer cozy can be perilous. Fans of the genre expect authors to forego explicit gore and violence while at the same time creating a mind-boggling murder mystery with pulse-pounding tension and a twisty plot. But how is a writer supposed to satisfy such disparate demands?

How to Craft a Killer Cozy Mystery tackles this exact problem by providing an actionable roadmap for starting (and completing!) a manuscript that will leave readers dying for more. Packed with charts and questionnaires designed to streamline the writing process, this comprehensive step-by-step guide will help you create compelling characters, vivid settings, and clever storylines.

Whether you’re a new writer or just new to the genre, you will walk away from How to Craft a Killer Cozy Mystery with a checklist for everything you’ll need to complete the novel of your dreams, and you will also learn…

• The history behind the modern cozy and why they’re so popular with today’s audiences
• The 13 key reader expectations for the genre
• The 10 essential rules every cozy must follow to create a fair play puzzle
• The difference between cozies, thrillers, capers, detective stories, and police procedurals
• The difference between a premise and a hook—and how to kick-butt writing both
• The essential beats for the four-act plot structure
• How to effectively hide clues and create plot twists

SPECIAL BONUS: How to Craft a Killer Cozy Mystery contains an extensive ★GLOSSARY OF LITERARY TERMS★ and modern as well as classic examples of commonly used mystery solutions and misdirects.