May is Mystery Month. The mystery genre is one of the most popular writing genres. To be classified as a mystery, there are certain elements a story should have. There must be a crime, or a possible crime. Sometimes people aren’t abducted. They disappear of their own volition without the intent to defraud an insurance company or run from the scene of a crime. Sometimes objects are misplaced and not stolen, and a sometimes tragedy turns out to be an accident. It’s part of the element of not knowing that keeps readers turning pages long into the night. Whatever happens must be interesting enough to grab the reader from the first page, so they want to solve the mystery.
To discover if a crime has been committed and to find out “whodunit” you need an investigation. How the mystery is investigated is an important factor in determining how the book will be classified. Typical mystery sub-genres include (Some books fit in multiple sub-genres):
Private Investigators: John D. Mac Donald’s Travis McGee; J.J. Hensley’s Trevor Galloway (Galloway is a cross between standard private eye and hard-boiled detective); and Luke Murphy’s Calvin Watters.
Amateur sleuth: Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple; Lilian Jackson Braun’s Jim Qwilleran (a reporter) and his Siamese cats, Koko and Yum Yum; Annette Dashofy’s Zoe Chambers (Zoe a paramedic & coroner teams up with police chief Pete Adams); and Julia Spencer Fleming’s Clare Fergusson (Clare an Episcopal priest teams up with police chief Russ Van Alstyne).
Police procedural: John McMahon’s Detective P.T. Marsh; Tess Gerritsen’s Detective Jane Rizzoli who teams up with coroner Maura Isles is also considered a medical thriller series; Tony Hillerman’s Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn – Navajo Tribal Police; and Craig Johnson’s Walt Longmire.
Hard-boiled detective: Robert B. Parker’s Spenser; Raymond Chandler’s Phillip Marlowe; Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade; Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone; and Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski.
Classic detective: Edgar Allen Poe’s C. Auguste Dupin; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes; and Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot.
Kid’s Mysteries: Kid’s mysteries usually involve kids who are amateur sleuths – they may have a parent who is a police detective or private investigator. Donald J. Sobol’s Encyclopedia Brown, David A. Adler’s Cam Jansen, Carolyn Keene’s Nancy Drew, Franklin W. Dixon’s The Hardy Boys; and Gertrude Chandler Warner’s The Boxcar Children series with sibling amateur sleuths who live with their grandfather.
Every good mystery needs a twist. The investigation can’t be a straight line leading to the guilty party or your reader will get bored. The investigation should reveal information slowly. Give your reader a few possible suspects and crime scenarios. Always throw out a few false leads or “red herrings” to keep them guessing. One of the most exciting parts of a mystery is the breakthrough where your protagonist solves the case. Once the case is solved and the guilty party has been identified, it’s time to tie up the loose ends. Don’t present your reader with an antagonist with no motive or no opportunity to have committed the crime. It shouldn’t be someone added to the story just to be the guilty party. Your readers need to know why the crime was committed. Was it personal or was the victim in the wrong place at the wrong time? Was the crime committed because of greed, jealousy, or revenge? Even a senseless crime must have some sort of explanation.
A further subdivision of the mystery genre includes how the mystery is presented.
In a Cozy Mystery there is a lack of profanity, minimal violence, no gore, and no sex in the storyline.
Thrillers tend to have a threat to public safety such as a serial killer preying on a community or an act of terrorism. There may also be a conspiracy of some type in the police department, government, or at the corporate level. Most likely there will be people in power abusing that power for personal gain.
True crime novels can also fall into the mystery genre if the case is still under investigation or was never solved.
Many publishers want mysteries to follow a certain formula while avoiding the appearance of being “formulaic” because the formula is easy to edit, and it has a proven track record for sales. This is often challenging for writers of mystery series who want complete creative control of their work, but it can be popular with many readers. They know and expect certain behaviors from the protagonist. They like the personal storyline and the interaction/banter of characters. They may identify with certain aspects of community life in the setting.
Mystery lovers enjoyed Cabot Cove, the setting of the popular mystery television show about mystery writer JB (Jessica) Fletcher (played by Angela Lansbury), but the producers soon realized they couldn’t continue to have murders in such a small town without spoiling its charm. Wisely, Jessica started going on book tours or visiting friends in larger cities where she would stumble upon a murder. During the popular series, she even relocated to New York to teach a writing class, but wisely she kept her Cabot Cove home and occasionally returned there to solve a mystery.
Now that I’ve covered the basics for you, why not try to write a mystery I this month in honor of mystery month? Start a new mystery series or fall back in love with one of your favorites. Read a mystery with your kids or help them create their own amateur sleuths.
Sources for this article:
https://guides.library.appstate.edu/c.php?g=65444&p=422034
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-is-the-mystery-genre#what-is-a-mystery-novel