In Defense of the Cozy

At last fall's Bouchercon, we asked mystery authors Rhys Bowen and Lauren Henderson to talk about the perception that the "cozy" mystery gets no critical respect. During a panel on transgression and taboo, Lauren stated that writing a cozy is perhaps the most transgressive thing one can do in crime fiction today, and she elaborates on that thought in this video interview. Rhys, who doesn't like the term "cozy" (and neither do we; we think the mystery fiction landscape is much, much more diverse than the cozy vs. noir distinction would imply), is a little bit tired of having her work characterized as "charming." What do you think? Are you a cozy fan? Or do you hate labels tout court? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVuyUypB-aI