Time to Relax: A cup of coffee, smooth jazz, and murder…
by Tina deBellegarde
My husband will never understand why I find murder mysteries so relaxing. I understand his point since I don’t have a violent bone in my body. In fact, I escort spiders and mice out of my farmhouse rather than kill them. But when it’s time to relax, nothing works better than a murder mystery. I brew my favorite coffee (just as much for the aroma as for the taste) , turn on some smooth jazz, and settle in with my book. It’s so compelling for me that I can hum the notes of my favorite sax and I can smell the coffee as I write this (it doesn’t hurt that there’s never a cup too far away). The aroma, the music, the mystery. It’s an ambiance. You’re with me now, aren’t you? Maybe for you it’s tea and a waterfall soundtrack, or a martini and oldies, but I know I’m not alone.
So, what is it that attracts us?
I think for many of us it’s the puzzle at the heart of the story. It’s pleasantly challenging and it can be worked out with a coffee in one hand and some jazz playing in the background. No need to get out into the scary world and actually face the perpetrators. We can sleuth safely from our armchairs. We gloat over zeroing in on the perpetrator and try to get one step ahead of the detective. We even enjoy the misdirection. This is probably the only place in our lives where we enjoy being misled by the unexpected twist. “I never saw that coming” is music to a mystery writer’s ears. Every time I write a book in my series or a short story, I’m convinced that my perp is so evident, that the story won’t hold until the end. And then it does. I am so pleased that my readers will be able to immerse themselves in the same things that I enjoy about the genre.
Another aspect of murder mysteries that I find escape-worthy is that my favorites are often set in small towns or other intimate communities. The dynamics of the tightknit group is welcoming to me. Despite the murderer in their midst, when all is said and done, the community members have stuck together and helped each other. The authorities apprehend the killer (usually with the help of a few community members), justice prevails and the community returns to normal or a new normal – the balance has been restored. This order over chaos that happens in most mysteries is soothing on an almost subconscious level. We have nowhere near that much control or resolution in our everyday lives. We are left with a cathartic, hope-producing feeling.
When we have finished the reading, and order has been restored, we are pleased to have picked up on some clues and maybe even solved the puzzle a minute before the authorities do, or maybe we’ve been blindsided completely, but either way, we are satisfied and run to the shelves for the next adventure and puzzle.
Time to brew a fresh cup, put the needle down on another LP and pull a new mystery off the shelf…
Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash