The virtues of The Residence’s Cordelia Cupp and other locked room mystery detectives
- Brandi Bradley
- May 13
- 5 min read
I just finished watching The Residence.
In an effort not to burn through the entire season in one sitting, we would watch two episodes at a time with the intention of watching once a week, and ended up making it two episode a night, clearing through the entire series in a week.
We couldn’t wait.
And then, when the closing credits rolled across our screen, me, Behr and Hubs were all chanting “Season 2! Season 2! Season 2!”
As a group, we enjoy stories where a smarty pants detective waltzes into a room post-crisis and reveals through observing the most minute details, who orchestrated dastardly deeds. Knives Out, Sherlock, Murder She Wrote, and the occasional Agatha Christie mystery as well as Murder She Wrote, Columbo, and Psych.
It’s a good time to love mysteries and whodunnits. There are plenty on television and many streaming services replay the classic ones.
A great locked door detective possesses a few common attributes.
The constant pursuit of knowledge. They absorb facts and are generally interested in things, particularly when things don’t add up. But to be able to identify that things don’t add up, one must have a knowledge of how things typically are.
Constantly being underestimated by the general public. Locked room detectives are odd and those oddities are what make them disarming and underestimated.
They make those being interviewed feel slightly uncomfortable. Not the questions themselves, but the way that they ask the questions. Either by being brusque, making the person repeat themselves, speaking rapidly or slowly to disarm them, or by pretending to be in the midst of a fake-psychic vision. If the person being interviewed is already uncomfortable, adding too that discomfort is likely to make them crack.
They never work alone. Even if the locked room detective arrives alone, they either bring with them or recruit a helper.
While watching The Residence’s consulting detective Cordelia Cupp explain the details of the many birds she adored and obsessed over and how they connected to the suspects, I turned to Hubs and said, “This is not the kind of mystery writer that I am. I hope you are aware of that.”
As a mystery writer, and I often tempted to write a locked door mystery. I have a notecard on my desk that only says: dark capsule mystery … catfish lure. There is a level of smarty pants confidence these detectives possess and unless I am channelling some alter ego, I cannot fathom crafting any mysteries with the attention to detail that is necessary for those stories.
I’m only being slightly self-deprecating. I am smug enough to know that I enjoy a smug, always-certain, super-confident detective and also humble enough to know that I’m not that guy.
I write different kids of mysteries. But I enjoy locked door, smarty pants, often funny, mysteries as a break from the gritty bourbon-drinking, emotionally flawed characters that appear in most of my stories.
Even more than that, I love a Shondaland production. Shonda Rhimes, and Betsy Beers, pull together series that showcase strong female characters who are confident, smart, and possess a series of peculiarities that are almost always virtues.
Cordelia has a few virtues that were used in the story for character development and delightful comedy.
She writes things down. She also draws things. It’s a processing thing for her, but also for everyone. Consistently when I work with writers, I encourage them to write away from screens because it allows you to be more creative, think in a flow state. The show uses two different styles of notebooks and tries to pretend that they are the same. They are not. Notebook people can see that one is an A5 and the other a Traveler’s Notebook, which is tall and narrow. They even show her unwrapping a new Traveler’s Notebook, with the official logo. But a Traveler’s Notebook is either tall and skinny or passport-sized. Her larger notebook is from a different company and there are several subreddits speculating which one it is right now.
She appreciates the importance of protein for a woman her age. As women get older, we are encouraged … almost forced … to consume more protein because it is so good for muscle mass. She chooses tinned cans of fish, which are portable and excellent sources of protein. The comedy is that they smell awful. Even if you are a human who digs the taste of mustard, lemon and herbs, or substances that are described with the adjective “unctuous”, no one around you wants to smell that. Which is where the comedy comes in. Because she does not care that everyone else despises it. Cordelia has to stay strong to trek into the wild for her birding adventures and to stay up all night solving mysteries.
She’s family forward. She often calls her sister and includes her nephew in her adventures. She does not condescend him and takes his observations as fact. There is respect, which is nice considering most television writers have a habit of writing children as liars, monsters, and disruptors. But that’s also where the comedy lies because her cool and direct communication style, paired with the fact that she doesn’t need the child’s friendship to validate her, makes it seem like the two would not have a good time together. And yet, they do. In fact, her nephew becomes a key asset in solving the mystery.
Cupp does not struggle with self-doubt. Cordelia Cupp does not have unsolved cases, only cases that people have insisted that she step away from. She doesn’t struggle about whether she has made the right choice. She is quick and decisive with her actions. But she also does not accuse people willy-nilly. She doesn’t have suspects, only people who are interesting. Which is fresh because most mysteries have an us vs them mentality. By not accusing anyone, it makes people more comfortable talking to her because she doesn’t suspect them. Which makes them feel more free to say things they think she might ignore or overlook.
She dresses for the job she has and the job she wants. As a birder, she wears neutral light layers, shoes that can handle any terrain, pockets for notebooks and binoculars, and a messenger bag large enough to carry a reference text. She wears the same thing when solving crimes. Because it’s also a career that requires neutral light layers (because you don’t know when you’ll be in a walk in freezer or a crowded room. Also, you also want to blend into the background), shoes that can handle any terrain (because who knows when you might have to run across a lawn or parking lot), pockets for notebooks and binoculars (because those are both handy for investigating) and a messenger bag (because it’s the most versatile of bags – all you backpack people have to remove your bag to get to what you want, while us cool messenger bag folks can just reach down inside a pocket on our hip. Messenger bag people are cowboys).
The people in my home are hoping for more Cordelia Cupp, perhaps even an international story. Personally, I love seeing female detectives who are absolute in their certainty. I will watch the light mystery to unwind from the dark mysteries I write during the day.
But by studying this show, and admiring the moves of the many locked door detectives with whom I have enjoyed, perhaps I do have it in me to write a locked room mystery. And while I decide that, I will also shop for a new messenger bag and a few tins of mackerel along the way.
Be sure to check out my latest mystery Pretty Girls Get Away With Murder, here at brandibradley.com shop.
XOXO,
B.
If you are looking for a gossipy small town mystery for your summer travel plans, grab a copy of Pretty Girls Get Away With Murder! Available in digital or paperback, mailed direct to you with love.
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