DEATH BY COP is a Cozy-Noir Mystery.
It blends the elements of a Cozy-type Mystery with a Noir-type Crime Story.
A Cozy Mystery typically follows an investigation by an amateur detective,
usually in a physically-restricted bucolic setting, and features eccentric characters.
It is often droll.
It is never graphic, either in terms of violence or sex.
A Noir Crime Story typically follows an investigation by a Private Eye (often a jaded ex-cop),
usually in a corrupt urban environment, and featuring a cunning Femme Fatale.
It is characterized by the unrelenting certainty that it will not end well for the hero,
and is often lurid and graphic.
DEATH BY COP follows both an investigation of and an investigation by Tori Tremaine,
who begins this year in her life by murdering a man (c'mon...you can't get more 'femme fatale' than that!). The setting is Cleveland, Ohio -- a good-sized city in the MidWest.
Violence and sex are part of the story, but are peripherally presented.
Detective Tremaine is a police officer, but she's not very good at it, so really she's just an amateur (at best). There are humorous situations and personages, as well as the unrelenting fact that
Tori Tremaine just keeps screwing up.
And that part is not funny.