The Cold Dish straddles two major genres of fiction, mystery and western, blending influences from each.

Several tropes in the novel can be traced to the mystery genre. As a typical whodunit, the plot centers on the investigation of a series of murders, with various suspects gaining or losing prominence as the novel progresses. Additionally, Walt exemplifies the archetypal fictional detective; his observant nature and wry humor evoke the hardboiled detective fiction of Raymond Chandler. As the novel progresses, Johnson employs common mystery strategies to heighten suspense, including plot twists that put past events into a new perspective and red herrings meant to throw off the detective and the reader. Vonnie also evokes femme fatale tropes as the killer and Walt’s girlfriend, though her motives eschew genre conventions.

The Cold Dish also includes several key characteristics of Western fiction. First, the novel is set in the rural American West, with much of the investigation centering on a series of antique rifles. Climactic gunfights are a hallmark of Western fiction, and The Cold Dish is no exception. As is typical of Westerns, the novel also explores the fraught relationship between white and Indigenous communities, with the trial of a group of white young men who assaulted a young Cheyenne woman being a key plot point.