Amateur Sleuths.

Amateur sleuths are the mainstay of so-called “cozy” mysteries, in which the four mystery genre elements—the sleuth, the setting or the sleuth’s occupation, the sleuth’s associates, and the crime itself—coalesce into novels that reassure readers about the existence of order and meaning in puzzles associated with human existence. These mysteries always involve a crime, but readers often find the crime itself less important than the novel’s major emphases: acquainting readers with the sleuth’s personality and background, the sleuth’s associates, and puzzles for both sleuths and readers to solve.