The exploration of the small-business cozy mystery continues, with a different “flavor” of the subgenre. We’re moving from an ode to independence in Color Me Murder to a more nuanced look at the small business experience (and some of the other beats that ride along). And Board to Death, a recent release by CJ Connor, is a great vehicle for this second look. (Many thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books for the gift copy!)

Board to Death follows Ben Rosencrantz, a queer English professor who returns to Salt Lake City to support his father’s board game store. When a sketchy customer (ish) dies on his doorstep, Ben decides it’s time to to dig deeper and clear his name in the process. It is a great examples of so many of the story beats that typify the small-business cozy, from the return to a hometown, the outsider’s perspective, and the challenges of running a business.

Returning home

Many a cozy mystery series starts with a son or daughter returning home from the Big City. Typically, these returnees left on purpose, in search of greater things. Their return is precipitated by a perfect storm: a personal crisis abroad (often the dissolution of a relationship) combined with a reasonable reason to return. The returnees are often well-educated, boasting a grad school degree or some other challenging Big City bona fides, that make it clear they’re no slouches.

Take a look at Ben from this lens. He’s 30, an English professor in Seattle, when his father confirms a muscular dystrophy diagnosis. Like a good son, he rushes home to Salt Lake City to support the family-run game store. This allows him, also, to escape his ex-husband and the Seattle scene, full of painful memories. In theory, Salt Lake City is a way to rest and recuperate.

Structurally, this does a few things for a cozy mystery. It establishes that our main character is no small-town naïf – they’ve experienced the world and chosen to return. It sets up an internal conflict, as they dealt from the damage dealt in their external explorations. And it establishes a moral compass around family and community, who are always there to support our protagonists.

In my favorite cozy mysteries, it also allows for a bit more local flavor. Board to Death is full of interesting detail about Salt Lake City and Utah, from the Claw to the rivalry between North and South Utah-ans. When local voices (or great researchers) tell these stories, they can end up a window into under-explored parts of the world. And when written well, they can show of all the charm and beauty that lie in these small corners. Which almost begs the question – why would the main character ever choose to leave?

An outside-in view

When a main character returns home, it’s usually because they felt like an outsider to start with. Whether simply a case of outsized ambition or a deeper sense of identity mismatch, small business cozy protagonists often start out with a keen sense of how Different they are from those around them. In Board to Death, this is pretty well justified – it’s hard to be queer in Utah, and particularly in Salt Lake City. Little moments, peppered throughout the novel, give a sense of what it means to grow up queer in such a religious place.

This sense of outsider-hood allows our main character to take less for granted, to investigate more closely. It gives them a slightly different perspective than the default – and a reason to distrust the major authorities. Who can fault Ben, a queer professor, for choosing to dig deeper, when the entire government is set up to support religious views?

Even though the police in Board to Death are relatively tame (more attention is paid on the general case closure rates than the specifics of being queer), there’s a current of mistrust underlying other authority figures. When Ben recounts going to a weekly religious event as a teenager, it’s easy to understand why he’s so tense.

This tension sets up a natural story arc for the protagonist as they learn to appreciate the community they have. Often, this is a community related to the business – in Board to Death we see a local small business owners’ group that meets weekly fill this role. It’s particularly heartwarming to see how he connects with other queer members of the group, rekindling old relationships and building new ones. And of course, there’s the cute crush, who serves as the ultimate symbol of connection with the community. In this way, small-business cozies set up an infrastructure for community that meets our modern needs. When work is life, work (not church, not activities) becomes community and family.

The peaks and valleys of small business ownership

But why is that community needed in the first place? Sure, there’s a murder, that’s unsettling, etc. Even before the inciting incident, though, there’s often a sense that things are not going as well as they could. The business is often wilting away, loved less over the years, and it’s particularly difficult to bring it back to life.

In Board to Death, Of Dice and Decks is on the ropes. Fewer people then even are buying games in-person, and Ben wants to save the business mostly for his father’s sake. Even though he’s smart and well-educated, he struggles to see how to keep the store afloat. And he misses teaching, which feels more suited to his nature.

Like other small business stories that feature a second-generation owner, Board to Death establishes that this is a hard job, even with a world-class degree. And it explores the values dissonance familiar to those in family businesses – how do you honor your family legacy while staying true to yourself? We are seeing so many more of these stories in modern small business cozies, and they reflect an evolution in the American Dream. What happens when your parents achieved theirs, but you have your own goals?

Reader’s notes & rating (⭐⭐⭐)

Board to Death is a fun example of the modern small business cozy mystery. I particularly enjoyed the intersection of the protagonists’ queer identities with the presumed realities of Salt Lake City – as a coastal girl, it’s not something I’ve experienced personally. If you enjoy this kind of story (as I do), you will have a good time here. Three stars.

Board to Death was published on August 22, 2023.