Sub-genres

It is hard to say what sub-genre of murder mysteries our books belong to.  Some might say cozy mysteries because there’s plenty of romance, not to mention characters from all walks of life, travel to interesting places, and the intimate details of everyday life.  Like most writers of cozy mysteries, we only hint at gore and sex and merely sketch police procedure.

Some might categorize our mysteries as woman-in-peril tales.  All our books feature intelligent, attractive women -- Lily Anderson, Poppy McBride, Lexie Royce -- whose lives are imperiled by people they trust.  By the time they spot the evil nature lurking behind a respectable facade, it’s almost too late. 

And all our books feature villains who are hoist with their own petard (French for a small bomb used to breach walls in fortifications).  Sometimes petards, which were activated with a match used as a slow fuse, detonated prematurely, blowing up the engineer.  William Shakespeare used the phrase “hoist with his own petard” in Hamlet to describe the reversal by which the bearers of a death warrant against Hamlet were executed in his place when the letters were altered. 

Our villains, whether men or women, are blown up by their own evil designs -- in one case, literally. 

Perhaps, then, there needs to be a new sub-genre:  the cozy bomb mystery.