What makes a mystery novel

The character is based on a real person — a criminal who became a police officer and started solving the crimes he once would have committed. Watson, in A Study in Scarlet. But any issues with his personality take a back seat to his genius powers of deduction, knowledge of forensics, talents with disguise, and the fact that he can win a fist fight. No fictional detective has been so replicated or admired since. The and 30s are considered the Golden Age of Mystery for the blockbuster authors who emerged.

Dorothy L. Sayers soon follows with another unforgettable detective, when Lord Peter Wimsey makes his debut in Whose Body? In the United States, the hardboiled mystery explodes on the scene in , when H. Mencken launches Black Mask magazine, publishing serial stories from previously unknown pulp fiction writers, launching their careers. The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew bring the excitement of amateur sleuthing to the next generation of readers, ensuring the popularity of mysteries for years to come.

Today, the genre remains a cornerstone of the publishing industry, and readers can always find a good mystery on any bestseller list. The mystery genre is immense, with many sub-genres and sub-sub genres within. Here are the biggest ones. Detective Fiction is the category everyone most identifies with mysteries. Thrillers are more plot-driven, action-packed, and full of heart-stopping moments than most other mysteries.

Cozy or Domestic Mysteries are most often solved by amateur sleuths, and the crimes happen off the page, making them far less gruesome. Familiar settings such as bookstores, libraries, and bakeries also feature prominently. Supernatural or Paranormal Mysteries investigate the appearance of ghosts, UFOs, or other unexplainable mysteries.

Historical Mysteries bring the past and its mysteries to life. Subscribe to get articles about writing, adding to your TBR pile, and simply content we feel is worth sharing. And yes, also sign up to be the first to hear about giveaways, our acquisitions, and exclusives! I more fully developed my main characters and even expanded the interaction with some select supporting characters to round-out the story.

Of course, I also added better hints of twists to come and then added those twists and a fuller storyline , made my evil characters more evil, and made my sympathetic characters more sympathetic.

My best critics have now reviewed my final draft. So, that brings me around to your remarks about how well the book is marketed and promoted. For Amazon, I see approaches like initial day half-price or even free offers. Do you have any suggestions regarding marketing and promotion? Or, do you have any materials websites, etc that you could refer to assist with marketing and promotion for new authors? By the way, aside from the marketing and promotion question, I do have one other question with regard to the topic of this site mystery writing.

I have two main characters, a husband and wife. However, he is NOT the hero in the story. The crime occurs, but it appears to be related to the relationship between them. He gets the opportunity to be on the detective team to solve the mystery, but the more and more the story develops, the more he realized that the crime appears to be dependent on his own actions.

The strategies you mentioned initial discounting, for example are widely used. This will help grow awareness. As a newcomer to marketing your work, it may seem daunting, so it could be helpful to take a course. It would maybe read a little strangely for the protagonist of the story not to be the one to make the most crucial discovery. Thank you VERY much! Your feedback was very helpful and the link you provided was awesome!

Best of luck and please feel free to email us any questions any time at [email protected] , too. I completely agree with what you have written. I hope this post could reach more people as this was truly an interesting post. Hi J, thank you for your question.

A good place to start is looking at lists of mystery tropes and deciding for yourself which seem the most hackneyed, contrived or stale. Is it that it was easy to work out the mystery all along? Or were there certain character stereotypes? This should help. Thank you for reading our blog! Your email address will not be published. Close Menu Start Login. Start your Novel. A story that actively engages readers in solving the mystery or in trying to piece together the narrative threads needs at least 7 elements: A strong hook Active reader involvement in piecing together information Red herrings Suspenseful dialogue Effective, descriptive mood and language Well-structured chapters A satisfying conclusion 1: Writing a mystery novel?

Craft a strong hook All novels need effective hooks: the reader should be interested to uncover more from the first page or even better , the first line.

Does it pose a question the reader will strongly want answered? Include characters who are truthful along with those who lie, leaving it to the reader to decide whose information seems more honest. Have multiple possible explanations. In a murder mystery, that means having multiple suspicious characters. Related Posts: 5 mystery elements for intrigue in any genre Writing cozy mysteries: 7 clues for coziness 8 story hook examples how to grab attention.

You need to be able to rely on reflexes developed after years of reading experience. If you want to know how to write a mystery novel, you have to understand the conventions of the genre ; you have to know what makes a mystery a mystery. People who read mysteries like to solve puzzles and anticipate a resolution at the end. But reader expectations go far beyond that. Readers want to identify with the hero, to experience the thrill of the hunt and the satisfaction of seeing the perpetrator punished.

The mystery genre attracts a massive following, accounting for roughly thirty-three percent of fiction sales in the English language. Many sub-genres nestle under the mystery umbrella, and different writers are suited to different types of mystery. Cozies , for instance, require a great deal of setting and character description, maintaining a slow pace while keeping it interesting.

Cozies are gentle, characterized by a bloodless crime, often featuring a victim with few emotional ties to any of the characters, and the violence takes place off-stage. Cozy writers must be able to produce upwards of 60, words, without a lot of action, and still make it engaging.

Focus is on the main character, rather than the crime. Police procedurals , as well as medical and legal mysteries, require extensive specialized knowledge. These are suited for professionals in these fields, detail-oriented writers who love the nitty gritty of procedure. Readers will chew you up and spit you out if you get it wrong, and light research is not enough to get you through. This type of writer should also be good at building teams for their characters, as much of the clue gathering and analysis will fall to a group, each member contributing to the solution of the crime.

The PI will have interactions with police, and those must be realistic, so knowledge or research in this area is necessary, but not to the exacting degree required for police procedurals. The protagonist makes a living solving crimes, doing background investigations, and such. Mystery, like all genres, is rife with tropes, common themes or devices readers recognize and understand by implication.

The trick is not to avoid them, but to innovate them, finding fresh ways to approach them so that readers get the best of both worlds—a comfortable familiarity and a rush of surprise. How they accomplish such a thing is the real mystery. And crafting the outline for a mystery novel can be a boatload of fun. It may even be my favorite part. An outline should never be a confining box, but more like a scaffold to support you while you construct the story.