Are the Cotswolds more Dangerous than Cabot Cove?

Cozy mystery authors often speak about the ‘Cabot Cove’ syndrome and I was surprised to find it is a real thing.

Under Wikipedia’s entry for Murder, She Wrote, it states ‘Cabot Cove Syndrome was coined to describe the constant appearance of dead bodies in remote locations’. 

Cabot Cove is the fictional town where English teacher turned mystery writer, Jessica Fletcher, lived. And she was always being called upon to help solve a suspicious death in the town. As the number of cases increased over the course of the TV and book series, Cabot Cove became an increasingly dangerous place to live!

I rewatched a number of Murder, She Wrote episodes last year so I was astounded to find in the same Wikipedia entry that there were a total of 264 episodes over 12 seasons, as well as 4 movies. I have some catching up to do.

Of those episodes I did watch, a considerable number were not actually set in Cabot Cove. I was amused at how many nieces, nephews and other relations Jessica visited, and there were also many friends, as well as book signings, editing and other author related appearances. 

Cabot Cove, over the course of the Murder, She Wrote series did have an unusually high number of suspicious deaths. But what about England’s idyllic Cotswolds?

The Cotswolds is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty covering over 800 square miles. So unlike Cabot Cove which is one town, it is home to many towns and villages - real and fictional. 

CotswoldWebsite.com from Cotswold Poster Co

Take Peridale, Agatha Frost’s Cotswold village where her character Julia South has moved back from London to run the village tea shop. In the first book, Pancakes and Corpses, when a critic of her cafe is killed she’s curious to know how, and by whom. Her snooping brings her into contact with the village’s new Detective Inspector Barker Brown.

The book is a light cozy with all the elements you’d except and at over 30 books, there’s plenty to enjoy about it.

It was reading Pancakes and Corpses, and before that, Katie Gayle’s An English Garden Murder, that made me realise the Cotswolds might be a more dangerous fictional location than Cabot Cove.

So what is it about the Cotswold’s that draws such interest from cozy mystery authors and readers alike?

To start with it’s in the heart of England with rolling hills, hidden woods and meandering rivers and streams.

Towns and villages have wonderful names like Lower Slaughter, Upper Oddington and Shipton-under-Wychwood. Their buildings are constructed from honey-coloured stone, and because of the many photographs taken of the area, people imagine quaint cottages with thatched roofs and gardens full of colourful flowers. 

Arlington Row, Bibury

The weaver’s cottages of Arlington Row, Bibury are some of the most photographed properties in the area. I think this is because they have a magical fairytale feel about them with tall chimneys, steep sloping slate roofs, and windows which are regular yet individual: the ground floor ones are recessed and mostly mullioned, while the first floor has a variety of shapes and sizes of dormer windows. 

There is also a feeling of history, and of time passing but leaving the many towns and villages unaffected. This is not entirely true, but agriculture is still a mainstay of the economy, succeeded now by tourism.

So who has written books and series based in the area?

I asked Chat GPT but it gave me books set in Devon, not that close, Southwold, definitely nowhere near the Cotswolds, and Somerset, which does have many similar features. 

So here are some of the series I found: 

• M.C. Beaton’s Agatha Raisin series about a prickly but competent retired public relations professional who moves to the Cotswolds for a quiet life, only to find herself solving murders in an around her village of Carsbury.

• Rebecca Tope’s Cotswold Mysteries centred around Thea Osborne, who house-sits for various Cotswold residents, and becomes involved in the mysteries she encounters.

• Matthew Costello and Neil Richard’s Cherringham Mysteries set in a sleepy village and bringing together an unlikely sleuthing duo: English web designer, Sarah, and American ex-cop, Jack.

• Stella Cameron’s The Cotswold Mysteries, where Alex Duggins returns to her childhood home and starts solving murders which threaten her community.

• Debbie Young’s Sophie Sayers Village Mysteries, set in the fictional village of Wendlebury Barrow and follow Sophie, who inherits her grandmother’s cottage.

• Ann Granger’s Mitchell and Markey series which starts with Meredith Mitchell visiting her cousin in the village of Westerfield, and joining forces with retired Chief Inspector Markby to solve a murder.

• Agatha Frost’s Perivale Cafe Mysteries, as mentioned above.

• Wilkie Martin’s Inspector Hobbes series, for readers who enjoy a supernatural twist with their cozy mysteries.

• Betty Rowland’s A Mellissa Craig Mystery: ‘Perhaps the village of Upper Benbury in not as idyllic as it first seemed?’

• Blythe Baker’s Helen Lightholder Murder Mysteries: ‘Spies. Treason. Shadowy secrets lurk beneath the surface of an idyllic country village…’ A 1940s Cotswold Mystery.

• Nancy Atherton’s Aunt Dimity Mysteries. Lori Shepard inherits Aunt Dimity’s Cotswold estate - complete with her ghost.

• Kate Kingsbury’s A Bellhaven House Mystery. Set during the Edwardian era, with a paranormal aspect, Headmistress Meredith Llewellyn investigates.

• J.A. Lang’s A Chef Maurice Mystery. In a sleepy Cotswold village, a larger-than-life French chef has an appetite for solving crime.

• Kathy Manos Penn’s A Dickens and Christie Mystery. Recently widowed, Leta Parker, crosses the Atlantic with her talking cat and dog, to start a new life in the Cotswolds.

• Katie Gayle’s Julia Bird Mysteries. Julia leaves London for a fresh start in a picturesque Cotswold village.

• Helena Marchmont’s Burberry. Alfie McAlister is co-opted by his late Aunt’s two elderly friends, Liz and Marge, to investigate mysteries.

• Karen Baugh Menuhin’s Heathcliff Lennox Investigates. Some of her books are based in the Cotswolds including Murder at Ashton Steeple and The Belvedere Murders.

• Liz Fielding’s Maybridge Murder Mysteries. Abby Finch, busy mum of three, expert gardener and cozy mystery sleuth.

• Karen Baugh Menuhin and Zoe Markham’s new series based in the Cotswolds in 1922.

• Kate Hewitt’s Willoughby Close Series set in Wychwood-on-Lea.

• Faith Martin’s Murder by Candlelight, a new historical series. One suspicious death. Two amateur sleuths. And an utterly impossible crime.

• Lorrie Holmgren’s A Killing in the Cotswolds. An Emily Swift Travel Mystery.

I’m sure this list is not exhaustive, so please add others in the comments below.

So are the Cotswolds more dangerous than Cabot Cove? Let me know what you think.

I also have two series based in the Cotswolds.

In my Dotty Sayers Antique Mystery series, recently widowed Dotty Sayers accepts a position at an antique emporium and auction house. But life in the Cotswolds is more than she bargained for.

In the Waterwheel Cafe cozy mystery series, Sergeant Keya Varma juggles jobs as the Cotswold’s Rural Engagement Officer and local cafe owner.