This is a dumb question but...
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If your plot threatens the world or a community, it is a thriller. Otherwise it would be suspense/mystery.
I think "suspense" is just a generic catch-all for any book that uses twists and turns to move the narrative forward.
"Mystery" is usually applied to soft-boiled tales like Agatha Christie novels, or hard-boiled detective stories like a Raymond Chandler or a Dashiell Hammett. In mystery novels, there is a murderer and the hero or heroine must discover who it is.
Thrillers may or may not have a mysterious twist, but they are tales that usually use both adventure and mystery characteristics to hook the reader. There are all kinds and brands of thrillers: spy thrillers, military thrillers, high-concept thrillers, legal thrillers. The similarity all these books have is that they use suspense, unusual settings, and Hollywood-style tropes to raise the stakes and get the reader interested.
"Mystery" is usually applied to soft-boiled tales like Agatha Christie novels, or hard-boiled detective stories like a Raymond Chandler or a Dashiell Hammett. In mystery novels, there is a murderer and the hero or heroine must discover who it is.
Thrillers may or may not have a mysterious twist, but they are tales that usually use both adventure and mystery characteristics to hook the reader. There are all kinds and brands of thrillers: spy thrillers, military thrillers, high-concept thrillers, legal thrillers. The similarity all these books have is that they use suspense, unusual settings, and Hollywood-style tropes to raise the stakes and get the reader interested.
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Not a dumb question at all! I just realized I'd been pretty confused about it myself.
It's addressed in a great book I just found by Carolyn Wheat, called "How to Write Killer Fiction: The Funhouse of Mystery and the Rollercoaster of Suspense."
Discusses the difference between mystery and suspense in both historic and theoretical terms, identifies the different suptypes of each (she considers thriller one type of suspense) and then offers two models for creating story (a 4 arc model, incorporates elements of "the hero's journey.") So helpful--and readable.
Has a nifty checklist where she sums up the difference between suspense and mystery. The crucial one, she suggests, is the position of the reader with respect to the hero. In mystery, the reader is two steps behind the hero/detective--who is a wise figure, putting together clues, solving the puzzle of whodunit. We try to keep up, and at the conclusion we learn how he/she solved it and are dazzled, probably didn't piece it completely together ourselves. Much of the satisfaction for the reader is intellectual.
In suspense, on the other hand, the hero is a victim, at least initially, of bad events that keep unfolding. He's trying to figure it out--so he can survive. The reader is two steps ahead, thinking "Omigod, don't meet that guy alone at his office! Don't go into that abandoned house." The satisfaction for the reader is largely emotional.
The two subtypes can overlap--and often do, in more contemporary writing.
So one thing I learned is that the new book I'm starting to think about, which I've been calling a mystery, really isn't. It's suspense, though not a thriller. (There's a whole popular category of romantic suspense-think Duphne du Maurier's classic "Rebecca.")
Hope this was helpful.
Susan
It's addressed in a great book I just found by Carolyn Wheat, called "How to Write Killer Fiction: The Funhouse of Mystery and the Rollercoaster of Suspense."
Discusses the difference between mystery and suspense in both historic and theoretical terms, identifies the different suptypes of each (she considers thriller one type of suspense) and then offers two models for creating story (a 4 arc model, incorporates elements of "the hero's journey.") So helpful--and readable.
Has a nifty checklist where she sums up the difference between suspense and mystery. The crucial one, she suggests, is the position of the reader with respect to the hero. In mystery, the reader is two steps behind the hero/detective--who is a wise figure, putting together clues, solving the puzzle of whodunit. We try to keep up, and at the conclusion we learn how he/she solved it and are dazzled, probably didn't piece it completely together ourselves. Much of the satisfaction for the reader is intellectual.
In suspense, on the other hand, the hero is a victim, at least initially, of bad events that keep unfolding. He's trying to figure it out--so he can survive. The reader is two steps ahead, thinking "Omigod, don't meet that guy alone at his office! Don't go into that abandoned house." The satisfaction for the reader is largely emotional.
The two subtypes can overlap--and often do, in more contemporary writing.
So one thing I learned is that the new book I'm starting to think about, which I've been calling a mystery, really isn't. It's suspense, though not a thriller. (There's a whole popular category of romantic suspense-think Duphne du Maurier's classic "Rebecca.")
Hope this was helpful.
Susan
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I think they intersect one another. Mystery is about solving a mystery, most commonly a murder mystery, from a detective's point of view. Suspense has a lot of suspense in it -- could also be about solving a mystery (the movie THE RING comes to mind) -- that usually puts the protagonist in danger. Thrillers must have thrills -- chases, near-death experiences, fights, rides, bullets, etc.). It doesn't mean you can't have all of these elements, but to be categorized one way or another, something must be at the core of the story. Thrillers are more about the thrills (JURASSIC PARK), for example.
I've been sending "Icing" out as a mystery, but maybe it should be suspense. It's first person, so the readers get the clues at the same time as the MC, and the dangers are to him personally rather than the world at large.
Mystery: Try to unmask a killer.
Thriller: Try to outrun a killer.
Suspense: Pleasurable excitement and anticipation regarding an outcome, such as the ending of a mystery novel. (The American Heritage® Dictionary)
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Sharon
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Thriller: Try to outrun a killer.
Suspense: Pleasurable excitement and anticipation regarding an outcome, such as the ending of a mystery novel. (The American Heritage® Dictionary)
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Sharon
http://www.saaustin.net
SILENT STORM (89k) -- being submitted
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Are there any mysteries that don't involve murder? I've always thought the "mystery" genre involved someone being killed and finding the killer.
I've also seen the term "Crime Fiction" but I think that's just a high-brow term for (murder) mystery.
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Technically speaking, mystery is about crime -- detective stories -- but not necessarily murder. Here's a write-up in Wikipedia:
My interpretation of what constitutes a thriller may be in error for fiction writing. As a journalist, I have understood it to encompass a threat to a large group of people or is a threat to the world or universe.
I don't think it's a dumb question at all! I was cast adrift the other day when I was trying to pick a genre for Preston and Child's Pendergast books (which I really enjoy, but aren't the type I usually read). I guessed "suspense" and after reading through all these helpful answers, I think I may have been right...
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Not necessarily. Threat to people and thrills, sure, but it doesn't have to have a large scope. Jurassic Park is a thriller without a "world" scope. The Bourne series actually has a small scope -- it's all about Jason Bourne. There's a conspiracy, of course, and may involve a lot of people in the chase, but it doesn't have to be about a big group of people in threats.
This link will take you to Carolyn Wheat's checklist that Susan mentioned in her post.
Sixteen Differences between Mystery and Suspense
http://www.jasperco.lib.in.us/Booklists/Mystery/mystery_vs_thriller.htm
Sixteen Differences between Mystery and Suspense
http://www.jasperco.lib.in.us/Booklists/Mystery/mystery_vs_thriller.htm
To me, in a mystery, The Dirty Deed is done up front, and the hero (detective) has to find out whodunit, how, why, etc.
In the thriller, The Dirty Deed is foreshadowed, and the hero spends the bulk of the book avoiding/preventing it. Sometimes The Dirty Deed occurs anyway, most of the time it's thwarted, sometimes a different DIrty Deed may result.
As for suspense... I've never been able to define it clearly. I think both mysteries and thrillers have their fair share of "suspense" but Suspense as a genre, to me anyways, is closer related to thrillers.
This has been how my simplistic mind has always broken them down.
In the thriller, The Dirty Deed is foreshadowed, and the hero spends the bulk of the book avoiding/preventing it. Sometimes The Dirty Deed occurs anyway, most of the time it's thwarted, sometimes a different DIrty Deed may result.
As for suspense... I've never been able to define it clearly. I think both mysteries and thrillers have their fair share of "suspense" but Suspense as a genre, to me anyways, is closer related to thrillers.
This has been how my simplistic mind has always broken them down.
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Hitchcock, the Master of Suspense, had something to say on this. Quoted in this article:
"Mystery vs. Thriller" by Janet L. Smith
http://www.mysterynet.com/books/testimony/mystery-vs-thriller.shtml
-Derek
"Mystery vs. Thriller" by Janet L. Smith
http://www.mysterynet.com/books/testimony/mystery-vs-thriller.shtml
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So there's no killer in Suspense?
Maybe suspense would be: Where is the killer hiding and will he jump out and kill the protag before the protag figures out he's behind the door?
Not a stupid question at all... in fact.. basically the question I had. I couldn't decide that if the story involves a main character who is killing folks, is that horror, thriller, or mystery? Or, if the story involves a main character who gets "got" by something mysterious (i.e. disappearing at the end of the story).. is that mystery, thriller, or horror? Ugh! I was scanning the threads, hoping someone had already discussed the issue.
Now i'm going to read the articles. Thank you Dusty for asking the question and thank you everyone else for responding!
Now i'm going to read the articles. Thank you Dusty for asking the question and thank you everyone else for responding!