I’m a fan of cozy mysteries and offbeat jobs. The mysteries because they put engaging characters in puzzling situations, and one or more of those characters turn out to be amateur sleuths who right wrongs in their communities. I like offbeat jobs because I’ve had a few myself—folding towels in a towel factory, transcribing ancient Akkadian for a professor compiling a dictionary, and writing cozy mysteries with offbeat characters. It’s an added pleasure, for me, when a cozy mystery is layered with humor and the sleuth has an offbeat job. Here are six cozy mystery series with those qualities.
Glory Broussard, in Danielle Arceneaux’s Glory Broussard Mystery series, is a small-time bookie. She conducts the bulk of her business from a booth in the local coffee shop in Lafayette, Louisianna, heading there as soon as church is over on Sundays. She describes herself as an “old, fat, black woman.” But be advised—Glory grew up in segregated Louisianna, knows what it’s like to be minimized and overlooked, and she isn’t shy about using that to her advantage. Her daughter, a hot shot New York lawyer with problems of her own, reluctantly helps Glory with her investigations. Together they uncover corrupt oil tycoons, drug dealers, love affairs, church gossip, and a psychic voodoo priestess. Glory banters with the best of them and has a strong sense of justice. The books are bright, funny, and cover themes not seen in typical cozies, including some explicit content. To date, there are two books in the series. They’re available in print, e-book and audiobook editions.
Bernie Rhodenbarr, in a series by Lawrence Block, is a used bookseller with a burglary addiction. Or he’s a burglar with a book addiction. Either way, Bernie won’t quit the burgling or the books anytime soon. He pulls occasional, very discreet jobs, often at the invitation of wealthy people who want to collect the insurance on valuable belongings without actually losing those belongings. These jobs help Bernie maintain his comfortable New York City apartment, keep the Greenwich Village bookstore afloat, and keep his offbeat vocation a closely-guarded secret. The New York Times says Bernie is the “Heifetz of the picklock.” It’s astonishing, though, how many times his meticulously planned B&Es are spoiled when he finds a dead body. The books are clever and light (rather than light-fingered). Bernie is an all-around nice guy who’s been breaking and entering since he was a teenager. He first appeared in Burglars Can’t be Choosers in 1977. There are twelve books in the series. They’re available in print, e-book and audiobook editions.
Gloria Lamerino, protagonist in the Periodical Tables Mysteries by Camille Minichino, is a former Berkley physics professor. Gloria left California for her hometown, Revere, Massachusetts, and now works part-time as a science consultant for the Revere police department. Her former and current jobs are offbeat only because so many cozy mysteries feature crafters, cooks, café owners, and the like. Gloria is fifty-six, turning gray, and thinks of herself as amply proportioned. She has brains and hips. She uses her science background and everything she absorbed from the dynamics and traditions of her Italian family to help her solve murders in her own well-mannered way. There’s something else offbeat about her—she doesn’t live in a quaint or cute cottage and she hasn’t inherited an inn or B&B. She lives in an apartment above a friend’s funeral home. These are intelligent, well-written, tightly-paced mysteries with appealing, sympathetic characters and a real Boston feel. There are eight books in the series and several short stories.
Tempest Raj is a stage magician following in her mother’s footsteps as a master illusionist. She’s Gigi Pandian’s protagonist in the Secret Staircase Mysteries. Tempest has stepped away from her job, headlining huge shows in Las Vegas, after a disastrous accident on stage. She lost her career, and the life she built, and returned to Hidden Creek, her small hometown in California’s Bay Area. She’s returned to her childhood home and bedroom, too. The bedroom is only accessible by a secret staircase activated by a hidden lever. Tempest is now working part-time for Secret Staircase Construction, her father’s home renovation company. They specialize in architectural misdirection—secret staircases, hidden libraries and passages, sliding bookcases, etc. In her spare time, Tempest unravels puzzling crimes. Tempest is twenty-seven, half Indian, half Scottish, and she likes poori masala for breakfast as much as a bowl of porridge. Pandian is rightfully called the modern-day queen of the locked room mystery. To date there are four books in the series. They’re available in print, e-book and audiobook editions.
The Monster Hunter series by Annelise Ryan stars Morgan Carter, a cryptozoologist. She studies and tries to find creatures rumored to exist though they’ve never been proven real—Nessie-like lake monsters, Big Foot, hodags, werewolves, etc. Morgan comes to her calling naturally. She was born on a boat in the middle of Loch Ness while her parents’ searched for Nessie. She has multiple college degrees and considers herself a professional skeptic—she wants proof before she’ll believe. For Morgan’s parents, hunting cryptids was an expensive hobby, one that cost them their lives. For Morgan, it’s a part time job. She’s developed a friendly working relationship with a local police chief. He calls her in to assist when crimes seem to involve cryptids and to uncover the hoax if they aren’t. Morgan’s full-time job is owning and running Odds and Ends, the bookstore she inherited from her parents, in Door County, Wisconsin. She knows how dangerous it could be if she ever tangled with a real monster. She’s even more aware of the danger that can come with exposing con artists. To date there are three books in the series. They’re available in print, e-book and audiobook editions.
Thursday Next is my hero. She appears in Jasper Fforde’s comic fantasy alternate history mysteries. She lives in an alternate England where she has a pet dodo and ducks are extinct. As a member of Special Operations, Thursday is part of SO-27, the Literary Detectives. She literally jumps into books to solve crimes. She interacts with a book’s characters. The characters are familiar with their stories, so they know when they have time off page and are free to help or hinder Thursday’s investigations. The characters can jump from book to book, too, creating another level of intrigue. Thursday’s work sometimes results in altered storylines. This happened in Jane Eyre. Brontë had Jane going off to India at the end of the book. It’s thanks to Thursday that we have the ending people so admire today. To date there are seven books in the series. They’re highly entertaining and available in print, e-book and audiobook editions.
In my Haunted Shell Shop Mysteries, Maureen Nash had an offbeat career before grant money ran out. She was a malacologist—a biologist who studies mollusks. She was into freshwater mussels in particular. Now she owns and runs the Moon Shell, a shell shop on Ocracoke Island off the coast of North Carolina. Emrys Lloyd, the sidekick character in the series, had an offbeat job, too. He didn’t lose his because of budget issues. He was a pirate in the mid-1700s, a poor career choice, as it turned out. Now he haunts the shell shop, and he, Maureen, and the elderly siblings who live across the street make one shell of a good detecting team.
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