My book blog tour for Killer Tied wrapped up this week. While I was busy on the tour, writers on one of one of my online digests talked about the make up of cozies. Their comments made me think about my Eve Appel mysteries, which I consider a cozy mystery series. Like other cozies, I set it in a small town in rural Florida, although I move Eve in visits to places such as Key Largo, Orlando, Hartford, Connecticut and other locations in the Northeast where Eve once lived. But all these departures from rural Florida are only temporary. Eve now considers the swamps, prairies, woods and cattle ranches of rural Florida her home. It hasn’t been an easy transition, but tall, thin, punk haired, fashionista Eve had won the hearts and respect, for some not, but not all the native Floridians she calls neighbors. She has married a man who is half white and half Miccosukee people and they have adopted three Miccosukee boys who lost their parents. They also have a daughter.

I have avoided bloody violence. There are murders, but I don’t go into undue detail, although Eve catching the head of a corpse during a mud bog race is kind of grisly. The books don’t focus on forensic detail other than what is required to help Eve and her friends and helpers solve the case.

As for sex, well, I throw Eve and Sammy in showers where they get a bit pruney, into bed where they romp under the covers, and in the swamps at their favorite rendezvous in a swamp cabin.  No bad language either, unless you consider the phrase, “it was so quiet you could hear a toad pass gas,” offensive. I address many social issues such as drug use, human trafficking, sexual assault, mistreatment of indigenous peoples and others. So do other cozy mysteries.

Eve Apple mysteries do seem to adhere to what we mean when we think of cozies, except, perhaps, for this: Eve still owns the consignment shop, a legitimate enterprise for a protagonist in a cozy, but she is also apprenticing to be a private detective. Killer Tied presents her with her first case, but one she would have meddled in even if she wasn’t a PI. I’ve burred the line between amateur sleuth and private detective. I still think I’m writing a cozy mystery. What do you think?

Here are a few reviews from my blog tour:

 

Killer Tied (Eve Appel Mystery)
by Lesley A. Diehl

. . . this book definitely couldn’t be put down I read it one day. Eve has a way of dragging you in and not letting go until the perps are arrested and justice has been correctly served!
~Community Bookstop

The plot is full of twists and turns . . . If you’re a fan of Cozy Mysteries you’ll love Killer Tied and all the Eve Appel series books.
~My Reading Journeys

Diverse characters and interesting twists made this a very enjoyable read.
~Cassidy’s Bookshelves

If you are looking for interesting cozy reads with social issue seasoning, you can’t find tastier reads than Diehl’s heroines.
~Back Porchervations

Keep your dancing shoes on, because this will have you doing the twist along with the turns! Not only does the story-line jump from character to character, it also jumps locations from Florida, New York, and Connecticut.
~Ms. Cat’s Honest World