Can you believe I opened THIS can of worms?

I opened my wormy can in a Facebook group by asking some cozy mystery readers which tropes they hated.

It was a tad disingenuous on my part because I had just finished the first draft of a manuscript and was getting ready to do a revision. Not that I was pandering or trying to write by committee, mind you, but if everyone hated a certain thing, and I had a chance to not do that certain thing, well, I’d be foolish not to listen, right? Right?

Well, listen I did. For a long, long time because these readers had loud and proud opinions!

love triangle (I lost count at all the people who agreed and expounded on this. It was far and away the biggest gripe)business owners closing their store to chase clues (second biggest gripe)more job-related gripes include the sleuth having a specialty job she doesn’t know how to do; having a job they never go to; the character gets dumped by boyfriend and moves home to start a businesstoo perfect an ending“she got out of a bad relationship and inherited a fortune”sleuth accidentally stumbles on the solutionauthor doesn’t play fair with the cluessleuth puts herself in danger because she doesn’t think it throughand there were opinions about law enforcement … some people don’t like the cops to be inept or jerks; “I don’t care what the police say, I’m doing it!”; sleuths who talk about how they solved previous crimes, like the police did nothing; characters who sleuth because the police aren’t doing enough; characters (or authors) who know nothing about the law

And there were more. So many more. I got disheartened and gave up when I saw that over the course of my books I’ve done, oh, most everything they hated.

Except the love triangle.

So I’ve got that going for me.

Can you believe I was so stupid to ask this?? I might as well have asked people to critique me in my swimsuit. Readers, I’m curious, even if you hate some trope, will you let a beloved writer get away with it? And for the love of all that is holy, next time you see me wandering the streets in my swimsuit, please find me a cover-up.