Crime

Forensic anthropologist turned author Clea Koff on how her work has inspired her debut novel, Silent Evidence

The appeal of the procedural is built upon a simple human desire: we love to solve problems, and we love to watch others solve them. Even better when solving a problem feels like revealing a hidden connection beneath the skin of the world.

Though her knitwear patterns had previously been published in books and magazines, Reagan Davis was ready to spin a different kind of yarn.

A longtime fan of the cozy mystery - wholesome whodunits more in the vein of Agatha Christie than John Grisham - the Ontario-based Davis decided to self-publish the first three books in her "Knitorious Murder Mysteries" series.

Murder is a grisly, nasty business...except in the cozy mystery subgenre, where bloodless murders are the order of the day. If the words "cozy" and "murder" sound like an oxymoron when used in the same sentence, you're not alone. The subgenre can seem downright baffling to outsiders at first glance. There is, however, a method to the madness.

The average victim of a kidnapping is dead less than 48 hours from the point of abduction. Captivity is an unusual choice for a murderer, both in life and in fiction. It requires resources, introduces variables, and produces a bizarre form of intimacy. What scares us most about captivity-centered narratives is that they break the immediacy and predictability of even the grisliest murders.  Read more