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Craft and Hobby Mysteries
0 Playsin 13 hours
Many mystery fans love to craft, or so it seems based on the number of titles in this popular sub-genre. In today's episode, Brook and Sarah discuss what makes a craft and hobby mystery.
Discussed and mentioned
Picking Up the Pieces (2024) J. B. Abbott
Button Holed (2011) Kylie Logan
Crossword Mysteries (2019-2021) Hallmark Movies & Mysteries
Garage Sale Mystery (2013-2019) Hallmark Movies & Mysteries
Rosemary & Thyme (2003–2007) BBC
For more information
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Contact us: hello@cluedinmystery.com
Music: Signs To Nowhere by Shane Ivers – www.silvermansound.com
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Order Life or Delft by Brook and Sarah
For a full episode transcript, visit https://cluedinmystery.com/craft-and-hobby-mysteries/
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Transcript
Introduction & Love for Craft Mysteries
00:00:12
Speaker
Welcome to Clued in Mystery. I'm Sarah. And I'm Brooke, and we both love mystery. hi Brooke. Hi, Sarah. Today we're discussing craft and hobby mysteries. So tell me, aside from reading, what are some of your hobbies?
00:00:32
Speaker
Well, I really enjoy baking. If I'm watching something on TV, I often have crochet or knitting with me as well. What about you?
00:00:44
Speaker
i love that. My crochet skills are very rusty, although I did learn when I was young and I like to do needlepoint. Probably the hobby I engage most in lately has been jigsaw puzzles.
00:00:58
Speaker
And they're all perfect examples for this topic.
The Allure of Craft & Hobby Mysteries
00:01:02
Speaker
Craft and hobby mysteries may be one of the coziest corners of the genre. These are stories where the backdrop isn't just a charming town, it's even more intimate. A quilting circle, a knitting club, a scrapbooking class.
00:01:19
Speaker
The crime may be serious, but the world around it feels comforting, creative, and deeply rooted in everyday life. While the modern cozy that began in the 1990s fully embraced hobby-themed mysteries, their roots stretched back to the Golden Age.
00:01:36
Speaker
Mystery writers of the past understood the appeal of domestic spaces and shared pastimes, as well as the opportunity quietly doing a cross-stitch in the corner afforded a sleuth.
00:01:49
Speaker
Today's craft mysteries lean all the way in, making the hobby itself part of the investigation and sometimes part of the sleuth's special skills. These stories have great balance.
00:02:01
Speaker
There's the intellectual puzzle part paired with the soothing notion of making something by hand.
Craft Mysteries: Balancing Puzzle & Comfort
00:02:09
Speaker
Whether it's knitting one more row, finishing a crossword puzzle, or tending a prize-winning garden, these are the hobbies that foster friendships and community.
00:02:22
Speaker
And ah mystery writers know whenever there's a gathering, there's also the potential for misunderstandings and mischief. Let's dive in to the world of craft and hobby mysteries, why they work so well in the cozy space, how they connect back to the genre's earlier traditions, and which books readers might want to add to their TBR.
00:02:48
Speaker
Thank you for this introduction, Brooke. There are a couple of things in there that I hope we can unpack, particularly around um your point about the setting being a little bit more intimate.
00:03:01
Speaker
h Right. It's it almost is like we're zoomed in. Like, yes, you're in this cozy world, but we're going to zoom in even closer to someone's, you know, living room or their quilting bee meeting.
Intimate Settings Enhance Mystery
00:03:17
Speaker
Well, and and as you said, those are great opportunities to just get a little bit of gossip, to overhear what's happening. And, you know, we see it certainly with Miss Marple, where she's just in the corner doing her knitting and ah solving crimes.
00:03:37
Speaker
Exactly. The golden age authors, I think, really understood this. And quite possibly it's because it was so much more a part of their daily life. You know, these days, if we want a decorative runner for our table, we might go down to the department store, but they would get out their thread and their needle and and do some embroidery work or darn the socks or knit the baby blanket for the friend who's expecting. I think that it was so much more a part of their daily life that they infused the background with of their stories with this. And like you said, it was very handy to just be working away quietly in the corner to ah gather some clues along the way.
00:04:30
Speaker
I remember the conversation that we had about Agatha Christie and how she liked to do the dishes and that would spur on ideas for her. And I think, you know, you mentioned using your hands to be producing something, whether it's a quilt or a blanket or or some needlepoint, but
00:04:52
Speaker
the The sleuths often are doing their craft or their hobby as the pieces of the mystery come into place. And so I think that's, you know, that idea of doing something manual while letting your brain work.
00:05:10
Speaker
<unk> We're seeing that in these mysteries. Absolutely. I love that connection. That is absolutely true. We had Lord Peter Whimsey. He liked doing crossword puzzles.
00:05:23
Speaker
And Niall Marsh included characters with hobbies in her books too, although they might have been more out and about involving the theater or artistic groups. But I love that idea that you have brought to mind about when our hands are busy, it kind of puts us in a different state. and it lets our mind be able to
Defining Craft & Hobby Mysteries
00:05:43
Speaker
work. And I think that the sleuths in our contemporary craft and hobby mysteries really use that because very often after they go out and they do some investigating, they come back to their house and they start working on their quilt or or they you know pull out their yarn. And that's when we get some of that introspection in the story.
00:06:06
Speaker
So, Brooke, what makes a mystery fall into the category of hobby or craft? Like I think about the book that we wrote, it has, there's a a garden, reference to a garden and and and and a garden festival that's part of the plot.
00:06:26
Speaker
But would you consider it a ah craft or or hobby mystery? Yeah, that's a really interesting point, Sarah. So I was you know looking online at what the online bookstores consider craft and hobby this week, and it's very broad. I think ours falls into that. like As far as if you're shopping, i you know yeah i saw um some series where the it was based up around camping or RV Living. But there again, having read some of those stories, um it is more of a backdrop similarly to what we did with the Garden Festival.
00:07:07
Speaker
So I think that there's a difference between what their technical category is and versus what readers want. And I think to really be considered a craft or hobby,
00:07:17
Speaker
ah mystery for me, I want it to be ah something you see almost on every page, right? Whether it's a cute metaphor that draws in the the idea of the craft that we're talking about, or the sleuth is actively involved in it, um that to me really makes it more of a craft and hobby mystery. What do you think, Sarah?
00:07:46
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think I would agree with where you would put our book. and you know Technically, according to Amazon, it probably does fall in that category. But you know I think a lot of these books have, um they really lean into the lingo that people who are really familiar with that particular craft or hobby would be using. Or they might have a recipe or a sewing pattern or some kind of add-on to the book that really demonstrates the author's deep knowledge of that particular activity.
00:08:27
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. I love the mention of the patterns or the recipes. I think that's when things really get well-rounded and readers who are particularly knowledgeable about that craft as well feel a connection to that series or that author because they have this shared love of a hobby. um i think it also creates for those authors who fully embrace the craft and hobby reader retention and loyalty because they've provided this world and, as you said, patterns or information. So the readers aren't just, you know, popping in for the mystery. They really have this entire experience with particular authors.
Revival of Traditional Hobbies
00:09:11
Speaker
I think that there's such a timely thing for these. As I mentioned in the opening, Craft and hobby mysteries were probably some of the very first cozies. We had tons of quilting that mysteries and knitting and scrapbooking that came out in the 1990s when this new resurgence of what is we now call cozy mysteries came about. But we've really seen a big push again for this. I think a big part of that is our return to wanting to do, on the internet, they call it grandma hobbies. I was scrolling last night and it was so perfect. I came across this post and it said, study says women with grandma hobbies live an extra eight years.
00:10:03
Speaker
By grandma hobbies, researchers mean activities like knitting, gardening, reading, puzzles, painting, and other repetitive tasks. Just as you said, Sarah, that um that comforting repetitive task.
00:10:18
Speaker
These activities shift the brain into a parasympathetic state, the nervous system mode linked to healing, repair, and longevity. We're seeing a resurgence in people wanting that analog, ah tactile, soothing activity. And I think it's really great that you can, reading is one of them, but then you can also enjoy one of your hobbies at the same time and it just kind of bring it all together.
00:10:47
Speaker
I love that, Brooke, because in my household, I do get a little bit of ribbing for having some some grandma activities. So now I'll be able to say that I'm going to live longer because of it.
00:11:02
Speaker
That's right. I'm adding to my health and longevity here. Well, and I think, um you know, I mentioned that I'll, you know, sit down in front of the TV, so I might have Midsommar Murners on and I'm doing some crochet. Or I think people will listen to audiobooks and sew or knit or, you know, engage in in one of those activities. So, you know, there's a a pairing there where you're able to
00:11:35
Speaker
I mean, enjoy two great things at the same time and and maybe solve the mystery along with the sleuth, right? You're using your hands just like Miss Marple is in the corner.
Layers of Hobby & Mystery Experience
00:11:47
Speaker
I love that. I think there's something kind of meta about that. Because for me, um it's the jigsaw puzzle. I love doing a jigsaw puzzle and listening to an audio book. But I've never considered doing a jigsaw puzzle and listening to a jigsaw puzzle mystery.
00:12:05
Speaker
But I do have an idea. I found a book called Picking Up the Pieces by J.B. Abbott. And I'm very interested in this. J.B. Abbott is a pen name for two men who write together. And guys are not well known to be authors of cozy mysteries. So I'm really excited about that in this way, too. But ah in this book, Katie Chambers runs her mother's company, Cedar Bay Puzzles, and must clear her father's name when a member of their weekly puzzle club is murdered. So I'm thinking of ah how fun this could be to just like layer on all the the hobby aspects.
00:12:44
Speaker
Oh, I think that's so great. Yeah. If you are solving a jigsaw puzzle while you are listening to characters solving a puzzle about a puzzle, I love it.
00:12:59
Speaker
ah a long time ago, Brooke, I read a book um called Button Hold by Kylie Logan. And it features the sleuth owns a button store.
00:13:13
Speaker
So speaking of a specific hobby, right, Sarah, um I think there is the risk of being so niched down that you won't have a large enough audience to be included in that hobby, right? Like there are knitters and crocheters and scrapbookers galore, but part of the draw to these is the involvement in the activity. So I think that there You run that risk.
00:13:46
Speaker
i will say, though, I used to love going through my grandma's button box, so I probably would have had a little nostalgia reading that one. Yeah, for sure. There's, you know, um I feel like there were some very ah expensive buttons were part of the story. I can't remember. It was a very long time ago that I read it. Maybe that nostalgia that you're talking about looking through your grandmother's button box, because I certainly did the same thing. Um, and maybe that's what can draw readers in if, even if they are not, um, you know, involved in that particular hobby of, of button collecting. But what I really liked about the book is the title, the whole series, the books play with the button theme. So the second book is hot button. The next one is panic button. And then the fourth one is buttoned up.
00:14:39
Speaker
Oh, those are great. And that is something we often see in this subgenre, isn't it? Fantastic punny titles. So it it gives away the hobby or the craft that's going to be featured. ah It also lets you know that this is going to be cozy and a fun mystery.
Craft Mysteries: Fun & Nostalgia
00:15:00
Speaker
So um I think that's something they do really well.
00:15:05
Speaker
Well, that's exactly it right? it It sends those signals to readers. This is what you can expect, right? um Particularly, and I think we've talked about this before in the in the cozies, that um authors tend to approach the titles with playing with some element of the story or or having some kind of some some kind of pen. And it really is that signal that this is a lighter mystery. Right.
00:15:30
Speaker
I think it's interesting too that often in these ah hobbies or crafts that have lasted for generations, there's some idioms that have have developed and so they can also play with those in in their titles.
TV Recommendations & Episode Wrap-Up
00:15:47
Speaker
If anyone is interested in watching some hobby or craft mysteries, um I do think that Hallmark Mystery is kind of the place to go for this because we need that very cozy setup. They have the Crossword Mysteries, and this features a puzzle editor named Tess Harper, and she solves ah clues in her crosswords.
00:16:12
Speaker
And then one of my favorites is the Garage Sale Mystery series, and in this one, the antique expert Jennifer Shannon uses her eye for detail to solve cold cases.
00:16:24
Speaker
And then there's also on BBC, we have Rosemary and Thyme. I have not seen this, but it sounds like a lot of fun. It's a British cozy mystery series featuring Rosemary Boxer and Laura Thyme. They're professional gardeners who solve murders while working on horticultural projects in locations all around the UK and Europe. So yes, I know they're professional, but I really think that appeals to people who are hobby gardeners.
00:16:57
Speaker
Oh, those sound like lots of fun, Brooke. Well, thank you so much for this conversation about hobby and craft mysteries. I am sure that there are several others out there that we haven't mentioned. So if listeners have any recommendations, we'd love to hear them.
00:17:17
Speaker
Absolutely. And before we go, it's time for our question of the week. What's your favorite cozy pastime to pair with a good mystery?
00:17:28
Speaker
We'd love to hear what you're stitching, puzzling, or planting while you read. You can email us or reach out on Instagram or Facebook. And stay tuned.
00:17:40
Speaker
We'll be continuing this conversation soon with craft mystery author Regan Davis. But until next time, thank you for joining us on Clued in Mystery.
00:17:50
Speaker
I'm Brooke. And I'm Sarah. And we both love mystery. Clued in Mystery is written and produced by Brooke Peterson and Sarah M. Stephen. Music is by Shane Ivers.
00:18:03
Speaker
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00:18:17
Speaker
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