Author Spotlight: Shelly Jones

Shelly Jones is the author of the Wren Winters Mysteries, a cozy mystery series featuring a game-loving amateur sleuth. The first book in the series, Player Elimination, was nominated for a 2026 Agatha Award (named for Agatha Christie) for Best First Novel. Shelly has also published over 170 short stories and poems.

The Wren Winters mystery books in order are:

• Player Elimination

• Murder, She Rolled

• Game Over

Cozy Crime Reads Interview with Shelly Jones

What attracted you to the cozy mystery genre?

I had read a lot of Nancy Drew as a child and loved a good British crime show or two (looking at you Death in Paradise). But several years back I was wandering a bookstore while at a conference in Ohio and I came across one of Anne Canadeo’s Black Sheep knitting mysteries. I bought it, devoured it before the end of the conference, and wanted more like it. That really solidified my interest in the genre. I liked the small town charm, the friendships, and as an avid knitter and crocheter myself, I liked how the books were centered around a hobby I enjoy in addition to the whodunit. It’s why when I finally decided to write my own cozy mystery, I centered it around a different hobby I love: playing board games.

What are a few of the essential elements that make a cozy stand out to you as a reader?

While the lack of violence on screen is a major element to me, I really like focusing on the amateur sleuth and their friends that help solve the crime. Cozy mysteries are comforting and welcoming, highlighting a small community that, despite a sudden rash of deadly crimes…is still safe. That sense of community on a macro-scale is mirrored by the sleuth’s bestie(s) who help investigate, come to the rescue in a pinch, and have the sleuth’s back when things get bleak. And better yet: they’re there to celebrate and signal to us a return to the safe status quo at the end of the book (until some new crime is committed in the next in the series).

Do you have a favorite amateur sleuth?

Of course the impulse here is to say Jessica Fletcher, because who doesn’t love Angela Lansbury? But I’m going to go a little off the grid here and say Shawn Spencer of Psych. I think this is because Shawn’s key to sleuthing is his eidetic/photographic memory, which is reminiscent of the very first amateur sleuth books I ever read, the Cam Jansen children’s series. Before I read the Nancy Drew books or Mary Higgins Clark or Agatha Christie, I read about Cam Jansen solving mysteries with her eidetic memory. So when I first watched Psych, I couldn’t help but think back to that favorite childhood series. Both showcase a brilliant sleuth and highlight the close friendship with a complementary sidekick, who helps solve crimes.

What inspired your first cozy mystery?

Before I wrote Player Elimination, I had been writing sci-fi and fantasy short fiction. These were strange, atmospheric pieces that often got some variation on the following as a rejection: “this was lyrically beautiful, but we’re not sure what actually happened in the story…” I got enough rejections like that that I decided to challenge myself to write the most plot-forward thing I could think of: a mystery! It was a good literary challenge to refocus my writing, and honestly, I’m not sure why it took me so long to write a mystery when I have loved reading and watching mysteries since I was a kid. Murder, She Wrote and Columbo were staples for me growing up, and I’m happy to find a comfy cozy home in the genre I’ve always loved.

How do you research and create the cozy elements in your books, such as the setting and community?

I live in a small college town in upstate New York, so coming up with a cozy community was relatively easy for me. I like living in a place where I can walk to the farmer’s market every Saturday and to the coffee shop and bookstore every Sunday. The setting and community are part of the fabric of a cozy mystery and take on a life of their own like another character helping the sleuth solve the crime.

Another cozy element I reveled in researching was the board gaming hobby. I’m an avid gamer and love playing a board game with my spouse while our cats look on (or bat at the pieces…we have a special box set up for our one cat, Spruce, so she can curl up and watch us play). For my Wren Winters mystery series, I referenced a few very popular game titles (e.g. Settlers of Catan), but I also made up several dozen fake games to reference in my books. I have a spreadsheet of them with their titles and the type of game it might be (e.g. card drafting, roleplaying game, etc.). Of course, I had to research to see if there were already games with my made-up titles and spent several hours coming up with new possible game ideas. There are several on my list that I wish were real!

What is one key step in your writing process that helps you transform an idea into a finished book?

Stick with it. Before I finished my first novel, I had a few quarter-started (not even half-started) would-be novels that I lost momentum on. For a long time I threw myself into short fiction, enjoying the (more) instant gratification of finishing something in a relatively short time period. Novels take a lot longer and it’s easy to give into that devilish voice in the back of your mind that says, “This stinks. Close the laptop. Give up.” Muting that voice is hard. Banishing it completely to the void from which it came is even harder. But as long as you can keep shushing it and keep going, keep typing, keep writing, anything is possible.

What advice would you give aspiring cozy mystery authors who want to start writing their first novel?

Read, read, read, write, read some more. Learn from others’ brilliance, but don’t be intimidated by it or worse, compare yourself to others. Absorb what others have done, but find your own voice and your own way forward. Take what works, but put your own special twist on it, and write the book you want to read.

How can readers connect with you online?

Feel free to connect with me on social media and/or my website. I have a monthly newsletter where I share writing updates and book recommendations.

• Website: shellyjonesauthor.com

• Instagram: @shellyjonesauthor

• Bluesky: @shellyjones.bsky.social

• Bookbub: @shellyjonesauthor

Shelly Jones Cozy Mystery Bookshelf

Use the arrows on either side of the images shown below to cycle through cozy mysteries by Shelly Jones. Click on any book to see a description, reviews, and an excerpt on Amazon.