Cozy Mysteries discussion

I would love to find out people's thoughts on book length. I have a friend who insists he will not read anything under 200 pages because the story is not developed enough. I disagree. One of the many things I like about cozies is the fact that they are often smaller in length. So many of the mystery novels are 250-350 printed plus pages and I always shied away from those because with the time I have to read, I like to read as many books as possible. I always compare this idea to the attention span of people for TV. 90 min movie vs. 3 hr movie, 30 min vs 60 min shows. The former is more popular. Thoughts?

I will almost always pick up a novella if it's part of a series I read, and don't seem to find many that are standalone that I wind up reading.

Seriously the most irksome thing about series novellas is that they're often not done as audio books -- I'll listen to a whole series without finding "print read time" to knock out the novella until long after the fact.

I would say, it depends. It's a story that I love, I will read any length. But, a book with 350 pages, is usually the norm.

I don't mind tackling a thick book if all the text is necessary for story development and the story is good. With some exceptions, many of the longer books these days contain lots of fillers, and I find myself skimming. Editors are essential to get rid of repetitive dialogue and unnecessary descriptions and character actions. Happy reading!

I will not normally read anything that is longer than 200 pages, due to a lack of time to finish. I am not fond of being distracted for a month and then trying to remember what happened in the beginning, again, just so I can read the end. I just put the book down and call it done. I just don't have that kind of spare time.

Oh, yeah. In response to that "developed" comment -
A good writer can develop the heck out of a book that's less than 200 pages. That friend needs to look around and find some new authors to follow. I sure would!

Sounds like you prefer short stories and novellas to novels. Nothing wrong with that, only most stories under 200 pages are considered novella, not novels.

I have read all over the place this year, in length and genres. That includes more than 100 short stories, about a half dozen novellas and more than 100 books. The longest book read was 870 pages, but most were between 200 and 350 pages.

Page/word counts may vary greatly by genre and publisher. A typical cozy or romance is generally 200 to 350 pages.

Short stories can vary greatly in length, from as few as five pages up to fifty. Novellas tend to run about 50 to 120 pages. Anything over 200 is generally considered a novel.

I find some shorter books totally fine. Marian Babson's mysteries are on the shorter side, and they are complete and satisfying. Some novellas or short stories are satisfying in the mystery, but I am left wishing the visit with friends was longer. It really just depends on the book/story.

YA novels are generally shorter than books for adults

Icewineanne wrote: "YA novels are generally shorter than books for adults"

I don’t find that true at all. Most of the YA books I have read are 200-500 pages, which puts them on a par with adult fiction in any genre.

Really? Wow, haven’t read any in years. It sounds like they’ve really progressed. No wonder kids are smarter now than when I was growing up!

Many years ago, Worldwide Mystery which is owned by Harlequin published a bunch of anthologies with 3 or 4 novellas in each one. They were all originals by authors that already had a series, and used the series characters. One was called "Deadly Morsels" and all the cozies were related to food. One was called "Murder, Mayhem and Mistletoe," and all the mysteries were Christmas themed. There were others, but I forget there rest.
Then for a while there were publishers that were putting 3 already published novels in one volume - I think Harper collins used to do that with mysteries.

It seems the newer publications, that I've read anyway, have a lot of filler words and pages, so sometimes less words and pages is a good thing. I read short and long but if there's a lot of filler I might just skip a page or two and get on with the story.

Renee' wrote: "Oh, yeah. In response to that "developed" comment -
A good writer can develop the heck out of a book that's less than 200 pages. That friend needs to look around and find some new authors to follo..."

One of them being Rex Stout - Nero Wolfe books are usually right around 200 pages. I reread several of them this past summer.

Totally agree with Sheri - it used to be that a cozy mystery novel might top out at 300 pages - longer maybe if it was a historical mystery. But a lot of the novels I've read lately seem like there's a lot of padding - descriptions of landscapes, descriptions of food, etc that don't really add to the plot.

Short stories are too quick for me. A good cozy mystery needs a beginning/middle/end, interesting characters, quaint locations, humor, clues, red herrings, plot twists and turns, and a surprise ending. It's not possible to have all of that in a short story. Novellas and novels are more my style. However, I don't enjoy a book that is overwritten and padded. 50,000 words/200 pages is the perfect length for me.

Because I'm working on so many challenges in another GR group that has a 150-page minimum, I don't like reading books that are shorter than that. Otherwise, it doesn't matter how long the book is, as long as it has -- as Joe said -- a beginning, middle and end, with some character development, red herrings and plot twists and turns. I don't like predictable stories, and many shorter books tend to be predictable, at least for me.

I have no problem with long books, as long as the story is good or the topic is interesting. So far in 2021, my longest book was just over 650 pages, but it kept my interest, so it didn't seem to drag on and on.

I agree with Joe and Barb - a beginning, middles and end. Most short stories fall flat for me and don't advance the relationships of the characters.

I'm up for long books. I actually enjoy sagas, but the plot or storyline needs to keep moving.

I love short reads. As an author of Paranormal Cozy Mysteries, my series, The Ghost Detective, is made up of 3 books and all are short reads ranging from 60-113 pages. I won't promo here, but I like short-reads because of the quicker gratification and also, to be honest, I find many books contain a lot of filler and fluff designed just to make them longer.

I like a mixture of genres and sizes. If it is short, I still want a developed storyline. If it is large, I am fine with that as long as it isn't full of fillers. I have read books that I have liked that are less than 200 to books a little over 1000 pages.

First, some definitions. The word "pages" is confusing to me because how many "pages" are in a book depend on the size of a printed book (e.g. 8.5in x 5.5" or bigger or smaller) and the size of the text (11 pt., 12pt, etc.),

I use word count which is more helpful to me. Cozies tend to be in the 55,000 to 65,000 word range which is usually 200 to 220 "pages" in a print book. As a reader, I like that size because I can read it quickly. I don't have much time so that's important to me.

As a writer (author of the Cat Miranda cozy series), I find that 55K-65K size to be about right to tell the story. But I've heard that a lot of readers like novellas (17K to 40K words), again for time reasons. We all seems to be short on time!

I'd like to try my hand at novellas. Also I know one cozy writer who publishes some of of her e-books as novellas, then bundles two or three together into one print book. That's another idea that seems to work.

I love short stories and if the story or plot isn't well developed, I find it's because of the writing, not the form. Short stories, and novellas to a lesser degree, seem to require more discipline on the part of the writer and I really enjoy the instant gratification.

On the other hand, I read a lot of door stoppers, too!