How do you choose a particular town for a cozy mystery setting?

That’s a question many authors get from readers. For me, the answer is easy. I need to have more than a casual acquaintance with a location to use it for a book setting.

In Murder at Last Chance Cove, Saffi Graywood finds a new home-on-the-road at Last Chance RV Park in Last Chance Cove. I modeled the park and the town on a place I lived for nine months during the pandemic: Lighthouse Cove RV Park in Crescent City, CA. Not only did I live there, I wrote much of the book there while also working as… can you guess? A park host!

Yes, like Saffi, I got a free site with all amenities for my troubles. That said, the occasional massive poo-clog left in the men’s room explains Saffi’s revulsion to cleaning park bathrooms. This not-fit-for-a-cozy-mystery visual proves my point: the in-person experience of a place makes for far more visceral writing than can be done if the writer is limited to online research for a setting.

It takes time to get to know a place like a native, but you can learn a lot by settling in for several months. You can study people—from the typical to the quirky to the suspicious—observe weather, watch activities, notice oddities and idiosyncrasies. You can visit historical museums, visitors centers, libraries, and tourists “traps.” You can ferret out places locals try to keep to themselves: the best chowder joint in town, for example. You can drive the roads, walk the trails. Wander. And… wonder. What if?

If you haven’t yet read the first book in my Pacific Northwest Cozy Mystery Series, this deal might whet your appetite.