In my estimation, Catherine Dilts is a master storyteller. When she told me she had a new book on the horizon, I jumped at the chance to read it. What Catherine doesn’t mention in her bio is more than one of her short stories have been published in Alfred Hitchcock Magazine. Another thing I noticed when she said the genre of her new release was cozy, is Catherine always thinks outside the box. A cozy in Oklahoma? More than one protagonist? I hung on every character and word. Please welcome my friend and Author Catherine Dilts. ~ Donnell
A Unique Twist on a Cozy Mystery
By: Catherine Dilts
Spoiler alert! I like happy endings.
Thrillers, horror, and emotionally intense literary fiction have their audiences. So do cozy mysteries.
Author Catherine Dilts
I write what I want – a rational world where endings are reliably happy, mysteries are resolved, and bad people receive their just punishment. The mostly 
small-town setting of a typical cozy mystery is an idyllic place, except for the occasional murder. Cozies can have edge-of-your-seat tension, but they won’t give you nightmares.
Long cozy series offer the chance to settle in with your favorite characters as they solve a new mystery. The protagonist will face trials and tribulations, but they will overcome adversity by The End.
Cozy mysteries often feature pets on the cover. Or perhaps the focus of a series is food. Or crafts such as quilting or knitting. There is likely a plot thread involving romance.
Formulaic? I would argue that all but the most experimental forms of fiction are based on repeatable story structure.
Does knowing all will be okay in the end ruin the suspense of a story? In cozy mysteries, it’s how you get there that holds reader interest. How will the protagonist meet this new challenge?
Most of my short fiction also involves happy endings, although a couple tales are darker. I can go to those dark places briefly. But I prefer building worlds where the light will drive away those shadows.
The debut of my series, The Body in the Cattails, offers a unique twist on the cozy mystery format by introducing four point of view characters. Each has a role to play in the mystery. Each character has a life story that will carry her through several novels. Book One brings the characters together for the first time.
As is true for most of us, I have lived through my share of personal trauma. Cozies are my safe space, where I go when I need to believe the world is basically good. My goal with The Body in the Cattails is to create a place for readers to turn off the bad news and forget their problems as they spend time in Rose Creek.
About The Body in the Cattails:
The Rose Creek Reads flier promised readers the chance to discuss novels and make new friends. It didn’t say anything about solving a real-life murder. When four women join the new book club hosted by a small-town bookshop, their first meeting ends in disaster. The career women are thrown into the middle of a murder investigation that tests their unique skills as a lawyer, a chemist, an IT expert, and a mathematician. If they can’t solve the case, the historic pottery factory will be shut down forever. Set in the northeastern Oklahoma Ozark foothills, a tangle of clues leads the book club to a mysterious code. At first, the new friends enjoy playing detective, until the mystery hits dangerously close to home.
About the Author:
Catherine Dilts prefers writing cozy mysteries and short stories surrounded by flowers on her sunny deck, but any day – and anywhere – spent writing is a good day. Author of the Rock Shop Mystery series and the stand-alone Survive Or Die, Catherine also writes for Annie’s Fiction, contributing books to the Secrets of the Castleton Manor Library series, Annie’s Museum of Mysteries series, and Mackinac Island Knitters series. Her short story Claire’s Cabin appears in the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine March/April 2023 issue. Annie’s Snow appears in the Pikes Peak Writers anthology, Journey into Possibilities. Available now: The debut novel in her new cozy mystery series Rose Creek: The Body in the Cattails.
Donnell, thank you for your kind comments on my new release!
Catherine, as someone else who has pushed the cozy envelope ever since my first cozy sold in 2009, I applaud you. Genres have never been stagnant. They grow and change with each generation of new authors. Good luck on your newest release.
Thank you, Lois. I agree that the cozy genre has changed somewhat over the years.
I love the idea of pushing the envelope for cozies without losing what makes them so appealing!
It is a balance that many cozy authors handle well.
Catherine, my pleasure. Your new series is on my autobuy list 🙂