Cozy...or not

When is a cozy book not a cozy? What is a clean mystery that doesn't fit the general criteria of a cozy?

Many of you know I write mystery books. I started with police procedurals back in 2012 and have a prequel, three novels, and one companion novella in that series, the Klondike PA Mystery Series.

I also have my C'Mon Inn Mystery Series, set on the island of Kauai. It is a clean mystery that tends to get classed as a cozy because it's close. I've actually gone through several sets of covers, trying to find the right market. The top left are my current four covers, adapted from when the series fell under an Amazon Kindle World (now defunct). Then I moved to a more cozy feeling with the top right. Sales didn't change much, I got the bottom right designed. Again, no bump in sales so I went for the clean cozy look with the bottom left.

The series involves a fairly wide cast of characters and the elderly Thompson twin sisters, Betsy and Anna, run the C'Mon Inn B&B on Kauai. Nothing graphic, nothing overly sexual, no swearing. So kinda clean, right? Oh, and the police are involved in solving the murders, but definitely not a police procedural.

My next venture was into the Red Line Coffee Shop Mystery Series. I bought three pre-made covers and have added self-designed prequel and novella covers. Again, a wide cast of characters and the police are involved. But no swearing, nothing overly graphic, and romance is behind closed doors. (I hope to get books two and three written next year).

See a trend here? Small town whodunit mysteries where the police help solve the crimes and there are a lot of characters. I seem to fall into that rabbit hole - even with my holiday mystery books.

So what is a cozy and why don't I really fit the genre? Cozy mysteries tend to have an amateur sleuth with an occupation or hobby, i.e. cooking, baking, sewing, librarian, bookstore owner. And often there are pets the help solve the mystery. While I have pets in many of my books, they aren't actively involved in helping their owners find the killer (or other perp). Here's a link with more information and explains why I somewhat fit into the cozy genre, just not completely.

There is no good answer. I tend to classify my books as "almost" cozies and will stick with that until there is a better definition.