Bloodless crimes and amateur detectives ... why does cozy crime triumph?

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Selling more than 100,000 books in three days is within the reach of very few. This is what

achieved

in the United Kingdom with the launch of

the continuation of

(edited here by Espasa), one of the biggest

of 2020, also in Spain. Osman adds in just over a year more than two million copies sold after turning the group of elderly people who star in his books into great references of the so-called

or

, a sales phenomenon in much of Europe and the United States.

The most notable identity signs of this subgenre arise in opposition to the crude realism and explicit violence common in crime novels, to offer old-fashioned mysteries solved by amateur detectives. A necessary twist to the classic Cluedo board and that of "it was the butler in the library with the poison", with undoubted pull among the public.

There is no room here for the squalor of the urban underworld or for cops on the verge of retirement steeped in alcohol. Instead we find a single fifty-year-old who leaves her public relations company to retire in a small town in the English countryside or Elizabeth II herself using all her cunning to solve a possible murder case committed in one of the rooms of Windsor Palace. . We are talking about

considered the queen of

with 30 deliveries behind her, and another queen, in this case that of England, the protagonist of

by

Both,

from

have reached Spanish bookstores in recent months thanks to Ediciones Salamandra. Its editor,

, offers some keys to understand why the words

means cozy, comfortable or friendly) are not an oxymoron: "it is the most sympathetic subgenre of criminal fiction. It tells us about the personal relationships of the People look for evil in everyday events, where it is least expected. There are usually as many good clues as there are false ones, because one of the joys of these novels is uncovering the mystery. "

In recent weeks another title has been added to this list,

(Seix Barral), in which

delves into this growing trend of turning public figures into amateur detectives. If the idea of ​​having the German chancellor investigate a case in rural Germany after leaving politics was not already suggestive enough, the humor with which Safier permeates each page takes care of the rest. Can you imagine

calling her husband "cupcake"? Well, that is just one of the details of some adventures that, according to Safier himself, will have continuity shortly, after selling nearly 300,000 copies in Germany in six months.

Pulling from a stereotype with a certain macho stink, one might think that it is a genre whose target audience is middle-aged women who drink tea, participate in cooking classes and live with one or more cats. Prejudices aside, delving into the pages of

or

means discovering a sharp character portrait, attractive to all readers, with waves of typically British sarcasm honing each page. It is a tribute to the classics that avoids falling into parody and updates some of the tropes of the mystery novels that were successful in the 40s and 50s.

Also, nothing is as idyllic as it seems. If Raisin is a "skilled emotional blackmailer" who confronts the villagers of the Cotswolds with large doses of caustic irony, the villains in Osman's novels are portrayed with ruthless scathing. For her part, the nonagenarian Elizabeth II of

brings her incisive point of view with respect to those around her. One of her assistants presents her as someone with "lynx eyes, a nose for nonsense and a prodigious memory", something that she more than demonstrates at various points in the plot. Safier's Miss Merkel is not far behind either: she brings out her sharp vision of the human race by analyzing the six suspects in the death of an aristocrat who has been found dead in the dungeon of her castle dressed in medieval armor.

The popularity of

in today's cultural landscape seems somewhat unexpected, an echo of bygone times, perhaps more naive than this 21st century so far back from everything. But it is worth looking further and realizing that behind the

the trails of blood in the snow and the language of autopsies and police interrogations, the black genre is much more diverse than it seems. These gentle puzzles are not the antidote to

or an abundance of "

violent, addictive and frenetic, as the girdles say so well, "according to Anik Lapointe. She herself gives the answer through a question, as good detectives usually do:" What better refuge from the traumas of reality than a postcard world where justice is done, villains are defeated and everything ends well? ".

The

top five

of

cozy crime

The following Thursday.

In old age, murder cases.

Four octogenarians face a second investigation involving an old friend, some stolen diamonds and the mob.

The Windsor knot.

A hybrid between

and the stories of Miss Marple in which Elizabeth II reveals a gift for observation and deduction worthy of Sherlock Holmes.

Agatha Raisin and the cruel vet.

The second installment of the series takes us back to the idyllic town of Carsely and its not so idyllic inhabitants.

Miss Merkel.

The case of the retired chancellor.

In 2022, just a few months after leaving office, Angela Merkel discovers an unknown vocation: investigating crimes.

The trick of the mirrors.

The reissues of the "mother" of

return jewels like this one, set in a mansion where a strange family and a reformatory for young criminals coexist.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

• Angela Merkel

• Germany

• USA

• Europe

• United Kingdom

• culture

• literature

• black novel

• novel

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