If you’re a member of the TLBrown Insiders group on Facebook, you can access an impromptu video of me reading the very beginning of Through the Door – publishing this month! I’m in editing mode, but I needed to take a break and thought, why not?
It’s a very casual, friendly group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tlbrowninsiders
Through the Door is Book 2 in the “Door to Door” paranormal, cozy mystery series, picking up months after Emily Swift has made it back (in one piece) from her adventure in the Empire. Through the Door is a bit darker than the first book, but I think it’s even better. Themes of trust and friendship are explored. Ooooo… and the Epilogue? Whew! It’s a doozy. 
I think sometimes people hear the phrase “cozy mystery” and think the books will be a bit too soft for their tastes… or (gasp!) even boring. You can hit on a lot of good (and reliable) sources online which offer definitions of cozies.
I like this simple one from Wiki: “Cozy mysteries, also referred to as “cozies”, are a subgenre of crime fiction in which sex and violence occur off stage, the detective is an amateur sleuth, and the crime and detection take place in a small, socially intimate community.”
In my experience, the “community” doesn’t need to be a small town, per se, but there is a level of intimacy that defines it in some way. Just because the sex and violence happens “off screen” doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. A sexy tease from the writer can be the fuel for the reader’s imagination. A nod to a brutal act can conjure up a frightening scene of the crime for a reader to take with them even after they close the book. I was reminded of this recently when writing Through the Door. There is a scene in which you (the reader) knows what’s going to happen. It’s going to be violent. You don’t see it (read it), but your imagination is going to fill in the story I didn’t tell to you. But you know what happens next.
You will find a range of cozies out there from very lighthearted, to pushing the limits of the “soft-boiled” (and some do it very well). I hope you explore the genre if you haven’t already. I also hope you buy Door to Door (available now here) and Through the Door (available soon) and have fun reading them.
Because we can all use a little more fun.
I have yet to hear anyone say: I was having so much fun I had to stop. Damn that good time!
About Through the Door (Second book in Door to Door series.)
Emily Swift is back – and so is Templeton! When Lydia goes missing, it’s a race between Emily and the Fringe to catch up with Emily’s wandering mother. Add the dead body of a hated art critic into the mix and things go from bad to worse.
Will Templeton join Emily in rescuing Lydia? What will it cost her? Is the price too high?
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