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• What is the difference between mystery, suspense, and thrillers? 
• What is a cozy?
• What about some of those other mysterious terms?

Q. What is the difference between mystery, suspense, and thrillers?
A. There are no hard-and-fast rules, of course, but mystery and detective fiction emphasizes the puzzle aspect of the plot, with clues and "fair play" for the reader -- i.e. the readers should be able to determine the solution at the same time as the protagonist. In suspense, the essential question is not necessarily whodunit, but rather, will they catch the villain before (s)he strikes again? Suspense novels involving in-depth analysis of character are sometimes referred to as psychological suspense. Thrillers are fast-moving, propelled by action, chase scenes, and violence, and frequently involve larger-scale villainy such as espionage, terrorism, and conspiracy. Crime writing is used in the UK and internationally to encompass all of these sub-genres, whereas in the US we tend to use mystery as the umbrella term.

Q. What is a cozy, besides a sweater for a teapot?
A. (By Polly Whitney, with permission.) Cozies I have known. Rather than supply a dictionary sort of definition, I shall provide an operational definition via the following list:

1. A cozy must include at least one cat.
2. The murder is usually a domestic crime. Example: bashing in your rich uncle's skull is a much cozier activity than taking out 7-ll clerks with your Uzi.
3. The sleuth is almost always an amateur. It's much cozier for a pink-haired elderly lady to point her knitting needle at the murderer than to have the villain collared by the cops and read his Miranda rights.
4. Tea is served in cozies (double entendre intended).
5. Graphic violence is eschewed in cozies. Example: the murder is discovered, the ghastly deed having been done offstage. Some ill-mannered person MIGHT mention blood, but if so, characters overhearing the remark must either turn white as sheets or shudder deliciously. Nobody in cozies has ever seen blood before.
6. The murder weapon in cozies is usually a blunt instrument, i.e., a candlestick, a lapis lazuli paperweight, a fireplace poker, or Larry King.
7. Poison is allowable as the agent of death in cozies but only if death is instantaneous. Prolonged suffering (much less nausea and vomiting) is not permitted. The ban on vomiting, I think, is in deference to the cat.
8. The language of cozies does not permit the use of four-letter words. You can leave a cozy open on your kitchen table without fear that your ten-year old will adopt linguistic behaviors that will embarrass you before your bridge club.
9. Cozies usually take place in country houses or small towns. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, people are far more likely to hate each other if confined in a small area together. The same is true of rats. This phenomenon is called "the behavioral sink," or "St. Mary Meade Syndrome."
10. You can read a cozy in front of your mother. However, you can read anything in front of a cat.

More of Polly's humorous definitions are available at Mystfield House.

Q. Seriously, now, I need a glossary for some of the terms people are throwing around on DorothyL and rec.arts.mystery.
A. OK, OK here's a short dictionary of detection (from ClueLass herself):

caper -- A story built around the detailed planning and execution of an elaborate crime. More popular in movies than books, but Donald Westlake has written some corkers.

cozy -- A "traditional" mystery whose best-known practitioner is Agatha Christie. Common elements include: a domestic setting such as a country house or quiet neighborhood; a limited roster of suspects, all part of the victim's social circle; little or no description of violence or sex; a mildly romantic subplot; and an amateur sleuth or eccentric professional.

fem-jep -- Short for "female in jeopardy," a sub-genre most often seen in movies of the week, wherein a lovely young women is placed in a perilous situation, e.g. stalked by a crazed killer, and the rest of the plot is devoted to her rescue by a white knight. Also known as WIP, or woman in peril.

Golden Age (of mysteries) -- The period between the World Wars, when detective novels became extremely popular and the "conventions" of the genre were established. Many Golden Age writers are still in print, including Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Marjorie Allingham, Ngaio Marsh. For more on the history and sub-genres of crime fiction, see A Guide to Classic Mystery and Detection.

had-I-but-known (HIBK) -- An early form of gothic or romantic suspense, in which the eponymous phase is used by the first-person heroine addressing her readers.

hard-boiled -- Another traditional sub-genre, originally found in the "pulp" detective magazines but reaching literary excellence in the works of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Features a lone-wolf private detective, cynical yet quixotic; the mean streets of the inner city; characters from both the professional criminal class and the criminally rich; and liberal additions of violent action and disassociated sex.

inverted mystery -- A story in which the reader knows whodunit, but the suspense arises from watching the detective figure it out. This is a popular form for mystery TV-movies; the best-known example is the Columbo series.

Macguffin -- An object which is pursued by the characters in a story purely for the purposes of propelling the plot, without having any intrinsic relationship to the solution of whatever mystery arises in the course of the pursuit. Best-known example: the Maltese Falcon. The term originated with Alfred Hitchcock.

noir -- Usually applied to movies with dark lighting and darker outlook, a particularly bleak variety of hard-boiled crime story, where everyone is a villain, betrayal is inevitable, and frequently no-one is left standing at the end.

police procedural -- A sub-genre focusing on the work of a team of police officers, usually investigating more than one case simultaneously, and traditionally emphasizing the technical aspects of investigation. Modern police procedurals often develop the characters and interactions of the police in great depth.

red herring -- A "clue" that leads the detective on a wild goose chase away from the real perpetrator (from the practice of anti-foxhunting protestors dragging smelly fish across the trail to distract hounds from pursuit of the fox).

romantic suspense -- Something of a hybrid between mystery and romance, with an adventurous heroine and stalwart hero who together solve a mystery and fall in love. Well-known writers of this form include Barbara Michaels and Mary Higgins Clark. Usually not part of a series.

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