I Need a Mystery Definition O.o

My understandings of these subgenres:
Cozy mystery is one that often (but not always) includes an amateur sleuth. Most, if not all, violence is done "off the page." There is little blood, gore, or sex described in the text. There's no profanity, though a cozy may still have a high body count and deal with vile crimes and people.

Hardboiled mystery is pretty much the opposite of cozy. Hard-boiled has much more sex and/ or violence, more swearing. Often tough characters who are hard, tough, and sometimes the good guy has done bad things in his/ her past. These often include graphic descriptions of violence or sex.

Crime Fiction is a little different. It's a bit broader and includes detective stories, howdunnit (as opposed to whodunnit) and can even include stores that are about planning the crime, as opposed to solving it.

I think, though, that the paranormal tops the mystery part of your story. I could be wrong, but I think paranormal puts it into the fantasy category rather than mystery. I'm not familiar with any paranormal mysteries shelved in the mystery section. (If I'm wrong, may someone please correct me. =)

Something seems out of kilter here. I've never seen a paranormal mystery section in a bookstore. It may even defy the term mystery in regard to publishing. Any sub-genre of mysteries must have a logical, possible solution. It cannot involve fantasy. Walter Gibson, who wrote "The Shadow" stories, was fascinated by magic but never tried to solve a crime through illusion. Having a magician as protagonist is fine, but if you hope to sell stories in the mystery genre you had better steer clear of the paranormal.

Hardboiled mysteries do not necessarily include sex, swearing or gratuitous violence. Some publishers accept that for books, Elmore Leonard's are an example, but don't attempt to sell short stories containing much more than a mild oath to the major magazines. They won't buy them.

In Borders, Anita Blake is stocked in the Horror section, not the mystery. (Amazon.com also puts Anita Blake in the Horror section.)

I owned a bookstore for twenty-five years, and I always stocked vampires, werewolves, and other monsters in the horror section. There may have been some mystery to them, but many stories have a mystery, yet they aren't classified as "mystery". There are many misdirections in a mystery novel, and Walter Gibson was an expert on misdirection. If I bought a mystery and found a vampire or magic fantasy in the thing, I'd toss it very quickly. Give me Spillane, Hammett, and the true mystery writers! BTW, The Shadow was my favorite!

We rehash the category definitions in here all the time, and for good reason. I'm going to be offline tomorrow, but when I'm back I'll start pulling together some of the our definitions/posts into one thread and sticky it. Feel free to PM me if there are particular posts in this forum on the subject that you found useful.

I've always seen Jim Butcher in the mystery section. This is in a variety of Borders and Barnes & Nobles I've been in. The MC is a wizard detective.

Romance. All Romance publishers define the genre as two people having a relationship with ins and outs and then a happy ending. They publish "romantic mysteries" but the relationship and ending mandates are required. I write my version of hard boiled with strong assertive women protagonists kicking butts having sex and solving or perpetuating crimes usually murders. They do not usually have lasting relationships and tend to ride off into the sunset. I've tend to call my writing adult/mysteries but I can't find anyone else doing that. I've always been in a quandry as how to label my work, romance? sex? erotica? I've got the mystery label down, but even then my novels drift into thrillers and just crime.

Linton, to me, it depends on how much of the story (and the story's focus) is on the mystery, vs. the relationship. It's not a magic percentage (word count or something) of course, but look at Janet Evanovich's mysteries. The mystery is clearly bigger than the romance, BUT there's a lot more romance in there than, say 'The Maltese Falcon.'

If the focus is the mystery and there's some sex, some friendships, some etc in the background, then it's just a mystery.

Every book with romance is not in the Romance Genre. Every book with police is not a Police Procedural. If you look at the MAIN part of the book, what type of story is it? Romance, erotica, mystery or something else.

A mystery can have a section where it's all break-neck-down-to-the-wire fast pace if we don't get there first they'll kill the girl! scenes, but that doesn't mean it's "part thriller."

Find the MOST DOMINANT type of genre and label it that. It may not fall into a subgenre. (I write hardboiled mysteries.)

Overall, paranormal books are just outside the normal. (hahaha, sorry ;-) They're typically, traditionally classified as horror. While that may be changing, as some have seen, I'd start with the traditional definition. Publishing, as I understand it, moves at the speed of a lethargic snail. Agents are, more than likely, using the "old" traditional definitions even if some Border's stores are not.

Good Word said:

We rehash the category definitions in here all the time, and for good reason. I'm going to be offline tomorrow, but when I'm back I'll start pulling together some of the our definitions/posts into one thread and sticky it. Feel free to PM me if there are particular posts in this forum on the subject that you found useful.

Click to expand...

Let's see, subgenres that spring to mind

Thriller: Political, Medical, Legal, Historical

Mystery: Cozy, Hardboiled, Police Procedural, Detective (PI), Historical, Paranormal

Crime Novel: I don't really consider these mysteries in the classic whoddunit sense. Crime Capers, Howdunnit, Serial Killer novels,

Suspense: Psychological, Romantic,

I'm sure I'm missing things, those are just the ones that spring to mind.

I have a friend who writes paranormal mystery. The books are listed under science fiction and fantasy on Amazon. Kat Richardson. I read a draft of her first book, and it definitely has mystery elements, but is still considered fantasy.

????

Not sure why there is a crit posted in this thread. Did you mean for that to be somewhere else Linton?

Yeah, soccer, thanks

No problem.

Clair Dickson's latest post offers great advice, as does Tom Johnson's.
When thinking of categorizing a story as a mystery, ask yourself if Mystery Writers of America would recognize it as one. If the answer is that is involves the paranormal, in other words goes beyond accepted reality, it would not qualify. A mystery can involve almost anything, including a magician working his tricks, but it cannot stray beyond reality. Most stories in any genre contain an element of mystery. What would a romance, science fiction, mainstream literature or any other type of story be without that element of mystery? But that doesn't make them a mystery.

Leigh Lyons asks how I would define a hardboiled mystery. I've been writing hardboiled as well as noir novellas and short stories for the major mystery magazines and anthologies since 1979. The next one published will be in the June issue of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, which will be available in April.