Ron: "We set out to create a 'kinder, gentler' mystery series, the sort of mystery novels that used to be written decades ago, when clever plot twists played a more important role than graphic, in-your-face violence and coarse language, when the action took place in unusual settings that were fun to read about."

Janet: "We began by looking at the classic 'cozy' mysteries written by Agatha Christy, Charlotte MacLeod, Edmund Crispin, and others. Their books honor a tradition that readers have long enjoyed. For example, the typical cozy is set in a small town rather than a large city so that interesting relationships can develop among the cast of characters. And the story deals with a small 'family' of potential suspects all of whom are nice people, the sort who would never, ever commit murder."

The Royal Tunbridge Wells
Coat of Arms

Ron: "The lead characters in a cozy mystery — its protagonists — are usually 'amateurs with attitude.' He, she, or they are drawn into to an investigation that really should be conducted by the police. Much of the fun of a cozy is watching a quirky, eccentric amateur sleuth outthink the proper authorities who despite their access to forensic evidence have managed to get everything wrong. Along the way, the readers learn a lot about the protagonists' lives, their careers, their interests, and their relationships."

Janet: "The murderer in a cozy is almost always a previously upstanding citizen driven by straightforward motives: greed, jealously, revenge, or self-protection. I can't imagine a cozy mystery about random murders, or a bank robbery gone wrong, or a serial killer. And the murder itself tends to be bloodless, which helps to maintain the light-hearted, cheerful tone of a cozy-despite the fact that a murder has been committed. All of this is true of the murder and the murderer in both Dead as a Scone and The Final Crumpet. The culprits are the sort of people you would be happy to invite to dinner at your home."

Ron: "The setting for a cozy is often a 'character' in its own right. An elegant manor house. An ocean liner in mid Atlantic. A ski lodge in the mountains. We decided that a tea museum is an interesting, unusual place that people will enjoy reading about. The Royal Tunbridge Wells Tea Museum seems real to us — a place where vistors can see tea-related paintings, maps, documents and other artifacts. We worked hard to create a rich atmosphere for our story by incorporating lots of fascinating details about tea, the history of tea, and the general operation of a medium-sized museum. Some of these become 'red herrings' in our story to keep the reader unsure who did it until the last chapter."

Janet: "We decided to put the tea museum in Royal Tunbridge Wells for three main reasons. First, the Wells has a veddy, veddy British flavor that makes it an ideal location for a cozy mystery. Second, we couldn't find any other mystery series set in the town. We felt the time had come to correct this obvious oversight. And third, I grew up in Royal Tunbridge Wells — this seemed a perfect opportunity to 'remove' the petrol station that was built where my house used to be and replace it with a more appropriate edifice."

Ron: "Another cozy mystery tradition is to feature at least one cat. Well, we included two for good measure, and also a dog and a bird. We had great fun choosing unusual breeds for our menagerie."

Janet: "Dead as a Scone and The Final Crumpet are not "romance novels," but we did include romantic subplots that will blossom in future novels in the Royal Tunbridge Wells Mysteries series. A well-written cozy mystery makes you care about the main characters — you're anxious for the next book in the series to be published. We hope we've done just that."