Cozy Mysteries discussion

Do you prefer your book to have a known location or a totally made up location?

I'm okay with either one, though sometimes it depends on what reading challenge I happen to be working on. =)

It all depends on how well the description is made real to the reader.

It doesn't really bother me. I do know that when I read a book with a real location, I tend to look up that area and try to get more information. I also do the same with made-up areas, trying to find out about the supposed area. For instance, my husband and I have family up in the areas listed in books by Amanda Flowers (Amish Candy Shop Mystery) and so I know the area and some of the people.

Mary Ann wrote: "It doesn't really bother me. I do know that when I read a book with a real location, I tend to look up that area and try to get more information. I also do the same with made-up areas, trying to fi..."

I also like to look up locations.

I enjoy reading books about places I have been to. I read one it wasn't a cozy about Pattaya, Thailand and it was so cool to say I've been there and I've done that. We used to own a condo there as a rental property so we went every year to meet with our manager and to spend 2 weeks vacationing at the beach.

Doesn't matter to me, but if you're going to use a real location, you'd better describe it accurately. Readers will let you know if you don't :)

What Barb said. Readers take offense at writers who get details of real places wrong. For example, a popular cozy author has a book in which she claimed there were mountains in Wisconsin. Though we have bluffs and high hills, there are zero mountains, even though “Mount” and “Mountain” are attached to some place names. For example, Cascade Mountain and Rib Mountain, popular places for skiing. They are, in fact, hills.

By the same token, if you are going to create a fictional town, do yourself and your readers a favor and make yourself a map. Keep files with details about each home or building used in your book(s). Karen was just telling me in another discussion about an author who inserted a building next door to one place, when there was a different building there in the previous book.

Readers notice every detail and will call you out on it if you get it wrong.

Barb wrote: "Doesn't matter to me, but if you're going to use a real location, you'd better describe it accurately. Readers will let you know if you don't :)"

This. Of course if it's a real location that is unfamiliar to me, I'm unlikely to notice. But if I know the place, I'll get messed up if the author goofs or deliberately changes something (to make it work better. This is totally legit, but it knocks me out of the story when it's something I KNOW is different).

I have so far stuck with made-up places, aside from my first (unpublished) mystery. And yes, I keep a pretty comprehensive list of everything on Pismwallops Island, though I don't seem to have the map-drawing gene.

Sadly, I don’t remember which cozy it was, but it took me twice as long to read it because I had to look up all the historic buildings in London it was describing. Same thing happened when I read Laura Childs scrapbooking series set in New Orleans. I’d get completely sidetracked checking out the architecture...and the restaurants and their menus! What did we do before google?!

And now that I live near Richmond Virginia, I enjoyed reading several historical fiction books set here. It was interesting to read about things happening 100 Years ago at locations I have visited.

Rebecca wrote: "Barb wrote: "Doesn't matter to me, but if you're going to use a real location, you'd better describe it accurately. Readers will let you know if you don't :)"

This. Of course if it's a real locati..."

Good point. If I live in Boston and you get it wrong, I'll notice. If I live somewhere in Mass. I might notice. But if I live in another country, or another part of the US, I might not notice. Another point is that some locations change rapidly in a short amount of time. I read a series of books set at the Jersey Shore in the Atlantic City area - they were written in the 90s, early 2000s - great series worth reading but Atlantic City's landscape has changed radically since then. And if you are using real places like businesses or restaurants, one author I heard on a panel once said it's okay to have your character eat or shop there, but you don't want to say they got food poisoning or attacked there - then it's better to make up a fake business.
Another point, is that if I am unfamiliar with the geography and the mystery depends too much on my being familiar with the geography, I wind up feeling disoriented and disconnected.

I love reading (and writing) cozy mysteries about places I've visited. I feel as if I am reliving the experience. That's especially important now.

I set my mysteries in Santa Cruz County where I live. I did Airbnb for a while. Guests would discover the books and tell me what fun it was to read them because the locations in the books helped them relive their trip.

I love to travel and then write mysteries taking place in those gorgeous locations. It's like visiting them twice. (smile)

And did you know you can deduct some of your trips as doing research?

I see no one has commented in this thread for a while, but it's an interesting topic. One of my favorite series, 'The Cat Who' books by Lillian Jackson Braun, gives 20 years of detailed description about an area 'North of everywhere.' Although the general location is based on a real area, the town names are fictional. She is able to paint a vivid picture without being constrained by the details of an actual town.