Author Spotlight: Lynn Cahoon
Award-winning, Bestselling Author of Seven Cozy Mystery Series
SIX STUNNING SIRENS is the sixth book in the Kitchen Witch Mysteries, VOWS OF MURDER is the seventeenth book in the Tourist Trap Mystery series, and READING BETWEEN THE LIES is the fourth book in the Survivors’ Book Club Mystery series. Image credit: Lynn Cahoon.
Lynn Cahoon is an award-winning New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. She has written well over 50 mysteries and sold more than a million copies of her books. Lynn is known for writing delightfully addictive stories set in quaint towns like the one she grew up in. She also writes contemporary romance under the name Lynn Collins.
Lynn Cahoon's cozy mystery series include the:
Tourist Trap Mystery Series: This award-winning cozy mystery series is set in a small coastal California town with lots of tourist attractions, including a charming bookshop café owned by amateur sleuth Jill Gardner.
Kitchen Witch Mystery Series: This popular cozy series features a catering kitchen witch who lives in a small Idaho town where mysteries abound and magic is an open secret.
Survivors' Book Club Mystery Series: In this uplifting and heartwarming mystery series, cancer survivor Rarity Cole solves mysteries in between running a bookstore devoted to healing and a Tuesday Night Survivors book club.
Farm-to-Fork Mystery Series: This tasty cozy culinary mystery follows amateur sleuth Angie Turner, who moved back home to rural Idaho and opened a farm-to-table restaurant.
Cat Latimer Mystery Series: This fun cozy mystery features a mystery-solving English professor who runs a cozy Colorado writing retreat in the Aspen Hills.
Haunted Life Mystery Series: In this paranormal cozy mystery series, Eddie Cayce moves to New Orleans hoping to realize her dream of opening an antique shop, but her ability to see ghosts is getting in the way.
Bainbridge Island Mystery Series: This brand-new meta-mystery series is about Meg Gates, an author’s assistant who is writing a guidebook for amateur sleuths.
Many of these cozy mystery series have related novellas if you want a short read or extra ways to visit the fun settings. You can learn more about Lynn, her books, upcoming events, and more on her website LynnCahoon.com. Sign up for her newsletter to get a free Tourist Trap short story.
Cozy Crime Reads Interview with Lynn Cahoon
What attracted you to the cozy mystery genre?
I started reading cozies back in 2007 when I was going through cancer treatments. They were light and happy but kept me involved in the mystery. The one thing you have during treatment is time, so I always had a book (or two) with me. I read a lot during those days.
What essential elements make a cozy stand out to you as a reader?
I love the cozy community writers build. I want to be friends with my characters. Growing up, I loved the Robert Jordan and Katherine Kurtz fantasy worlds. I kept coming back to find out what was happening with the characters. I've always loved series where I get invested in the characters on the page. Stand-alone stories didn't have that pull for me, especially as a fast reader.
Do you have a favorite amateur sleuth?
I loved watching Moonlighting. I know it's a PI and a model, but they worked together to solve their mysteries. And I see a little of my Tourist Trap main characters (Jill and Greg) in them. Currently, I'm finding I like the wounded main character a lot (like Will Trent.) He's more interesting.
The Farm-to-Fork Mystery novels and novellas
What inspired you to write your first cozy mystery?
After surviving cancer, I promised myself I'd try to become a writer. I wrote, learned, and submitted for five years when I sold my first romance. I had this picture of an old house in California that I'd considered buying during my divorce. I was going to uproot my life, quit my job, and move to restart my life--right after my son graduated high school. Instead, I wrote a story about Jill who changes her life when she realizes all she has is work. Guidebook to Murder was my first cozy, and the Tourist Trap series is still going strong.
How do you research and create the "cozy" elements in your books, like the settings and community?
I do a lot of traveling for book events so I'm always in cozy-feeling little towns. I write about food a lot. For Killer Green Tomatoes (A Farm-to-Fork Mystery) I ordered fried green tomatoes everywhere I ate until I understood the appetizer. I often armchair research when I'm looking for ideas to add to the storyline. For Reading Between the Lies, from my Survivors' Book Club series, I researched different art galleries and then made the book have a Sedona flare by studying and using the different energy vortexes people believe exist in the area.
The first five books in the Survivor’s Book Club Mystery series.
What is one key step in your writing process that helps you transform an idea into a finished book?
As a pantser, the answer might surprise you since I don't outline. I start planning a book with three things that are tied together by the end. I need to know those three things before I start writing. Like in Vows of Murder (Tourist Trap Mystery Book 17), I played with the idea of a cult moving into town, Jill's wedding, and adding in Amanda, her new mother-in-law who dated a PI searching for a missing girl. Sometimes, it takes a while for me to put everything together, and it comes either while writing or late at night when I can't sleep and the story keeps running through my head in layers. With long-running series, I tend to pick and choose who is on the page. South Cove (from Tourist Trap) has a lot of recurring characters, but not all of them get to play in the mystery I'm writing.
What advice would you give aspiring cozy mystery authors who want to start writing their first novel?
Don't start writing until you understand the genre. I've had people ask me to blurb their new cozy series that didn't understand the rules of cozy. (Low on violence, low on sex, high on fun.) I can't blurb something that my readers won't like. It doesn't do either of us any good. Once you know the cozy rules, then write the story you love and see if it works. A cozy can have a long-tail simmering romance as long as the bedroom door is fully shut.
How can readers connect with you online?
Either through my website at www.lynncahoon.com or on Facebook at Lynn Cahoon, author.
Books 1-10 in the Tourist Trap Mysteries.
Get a Recipe From Lynn Cahoon
Like many authors, Lynn Cahoon includes recipes in many of her cozy mysteries. This Easy Quiche Recipe comes from Reading Between the Lies, the fourth book In Lynn’s Survivors’ Book Club Mystery series.
Explore Lynn Cahoon’s Cozy Mysteries
You can find Lynn Cahoon’s books through many booksellers, including (but not limited to) Amazon, Bookshop, Books-A-Million, and Barnes and Noble.
Lynn Cahoon Cozy Mystery Bookshelf
The following image gallery features book cover images from Lynn Cahoon’s cozy mystery series. Use the arrows on either side of the image to cycle through all of the pictures in this image gallery.
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