Digital Learning Commons: Literary Genres: Mystery

Mystery Fiction

Mystery Fiction involves a detective or another investigator collection evidence to solve a crime.

The mystery story is two stories in one: the story of what happened and the story of what appeared to happen.

Mary Roberts Rinehart

Characteristics

Setting: Mysteries can take place in a wide variety of settings. Mysteries are usually set in the contemporary real world or during a historical time period.

Plot: Mystery stories usually involve: a problem or puzzle to solve, something that is missing, a secret, or an event that is not explained.

Characters: Suspects are characters who may have cause the problem the mystery is trying to solve. Detectives or investigators try to solve the mystery.

Themes: Most mysteries use suspense. This means that the reader does not know the solution while he or she is reading the mystery.

Subgenres

Capers: Mysteries with humor or a humorous twist on criminal heists.

Detective Stories: Classic-style mysteries featuring a detective investigating a crime.

Espionage: International spy stories.

Kid Sleuths: The detectives are kids or teens.

Suspense: A high-stakes mystery with action and a ticking clock; the protagonist is often the one being pursued.

Thrillers: A suspense mystery with a wider—often international—scope and more action.

Authors

Blue Balliet
Dave Barry
Pseudonymous Bosch
Ally Carter
Lauren Child
Agatha Christie
Eoin Colfer
Caroline B. Cooney
Cynthia DeFelice
Beth Fantaskey
Lamar Giles
Anthony Horowitz
Karen Karbo
Peg Kehret
Gordon Korman
Caroline Lawrence
Kate Messner
Joan Lowery Nixon
Willo Davis Roberts
Marcus Sedgwick
Lemony Snicket
Nancy Springer
Rebecca Stead
Robin Stevens
Wendelin Van Draanen

Mystery Poll

What is your favorite kind of Mystery?

Capers: 1 votes (25%)

Detective Stories: 1 votes (25%)

Espionage: 0 votes (0%)

Kid Sleuth: 0 votes (0%)

Psychic Detectives: 0 votes (0%)

Suspense: 2 votes (50%)

Thriller: 0 votes (0%)

All!: 0 votes (0%)

Something else: 0 votes (0%)

Total Votes: 4

Notable Mystery

Capers

The Worst Night Ever by Dave Barry
Wyatt Palmer is just another undersized freshman hoping to fit in at high school, but when his best friend Matt Diaz's pet ferret ends up in the hands of the Bevins, the most popular boys at Coral Cove High, Wyatt and Matt try to get the animal back by attending a party for the cool clique and stumble onto the Bevin family's dark secret.
Skink: No Surrender by Carl Hiaasen
With the help of an eccentric ex-governor, a teenaged boy searches for his missing cousin in the Florida wilds.
Zoobreak by Gordon Korman
After a class trip to a floating zoo where animals are mistreated and Savannah's missing pet monkey is found in a cage, Long Island sixth-grader Griffin Bing and his band of misfits plan a rescue.

Detective Stories

The World's Greatest Detective by Caroline Carlson
Here is a story of crime, tricks, and hilarity for those who know that sometimes it takes a pair of junior sleuths to solve a slippery case.
Ruby Redfort Look into My Eyes by Lauren Child
Thirteen-year-old Ruby, a genius code-cracker and daring detective, gets an anonymous call setting a challenge that leads her to the headquarters of Spectrum, a highly secret anti-crime agency that needs her help to crack a code, but soon Ruby uncovers dastardly plans of the Fool's Gold Gang.
The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer
Enola Holmes, much younger sister of detective Sherlock Holmes, must travel to London in disguise to unravel the disappearance of her missing mother.
Poison Is Not Polite by Robin Stevens
Best friends Daisy and Hazel spend their school holidays at Daisý€™s family's estate. When a visitor dies after falling ill during a party, the girls suspect murder - and someone in the house is the culprit!

Espionage

Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger
In an alternate England of 1851, spirited fourteen-year-old Sophronia is enrolled in a finishing school where, she is surprised to learn, lessons include not only the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but also diversion, deceit, and espionage.
I'd Tell You I Love You, but Then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally Carter
As a sophomore at a secret spy school and the daughter of a former CIA operative, Cammie is sheltered from "normal teenage life" until she meets a local boy while on a class surveillance mission.
The Spy Princess by Sherwood Smith
When Lady Lilah disguises herself to sneak out of the castle she discovers that the country is on the verge of revolution and her brother is behind it, and Lilah and her friends decide to help by becoming spies.

Kid Sleuths

Behind the Curtain by Peter Abrahams
An avid Sherlock Holmes fan, eighth grader Ingrid Levin-Hill is kidnapped while investigating mysterious happenings in her home town.
Mission Unstoppable by Dan Gutman
On a cross-country vacation with their parents, twins Coke and Pepsi, soon to be thirteen, fend off strange assassins as they try to come to terms with their being part of a top-secret government organization known as The Genius Files.
Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief by Wendelin Van Draanen
Thirteen-year-old Sammy's penchant for speaking her mind gets her in trouble when she involves herself in the investigation of a robbery at the "seedy" hotel across the street from the seniors' building where she is living with her grandmother.

Suspense

Shadowlands by Kate Brian
Rory, a girl in witness protection, thinks the serial killer she turned in has found her and is killing people around her. But as she investigates, she discovers a dark, disturbing truth about her new hometown.
Endangered by Lamar Giles
When an anonymous photoblogger's identity is about to be revealed in a game of Dare, she soon finds herself being stalked and blackmailed in a game that turns deadly.
The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die by April Henry
She doesn't know who she is. She doesn't know where she is, or why. All she knows when she comes to in a ransacked cabin is that there are two men arguing over whether or not to kill her. And that she must run.

Thriller

The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Seventeen-year-old Cassie, who has a natural ability to read people, joins an elite group of criminal profilers at the FBI in order to help solve cold cases.
Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz
After the death of the uncle who had been his guardian, fourteen-year-old Alex Rider is coerced to continue his uncle's dangerous work for Britain's intelligence agency, MI6.
Storm by E. L. Young
In London, the teenaged geniuses of STORM, a secret organization dedicated to eliminating the world's misery through science and technology, uncover plans for a deadly weapon and race to find and dismantle it, then confront the corrupt scientist behind the scheme.

Resources

The 100 Best Children’s and YA Mysteries of the Past 10 Years
Blog post from The Booklist Reader.
The Edgars
Annual literary awards for the mystery genre.
Genre Guide: Mysteries for Teens
Blog post from the Young Adult Library Services Association.
Mystery Reviews
Book reviews tagged mystery from TeenReads.com

Edgar Award Winners

Closed for the Season by Mary Downing Hahn
Call Number: Horror F HAH
Two 13-year-old boys, Arthur and Logan, set out to solve the mystery of a murder that took place some years ago in the old house Logan's family has just moved into.
Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett
Call Number: Mystery F BAL
When seemingly unrelated and strange events start to happen and a precious Vermeer painting disappears, eleven-year-olds Petra and Calder combine their talents to solve an international art scandal.
Harriet Spies Again by Helen Ericson
Call Number: Mystery F ERI
Harriet M. Welsch is up to her old spying tricks when her beloved nanny Ole Golly, who had married and moved to Montreal, returns without her husband, Harriet's friend Sport announces he has a crush on a schoolmate, and the people across the street appear to be holding a child hostage.
Dovey Coe by Frances O'Roark Dowell
Call Number: Mystery F DOW
When accused of murder in her mountain town in 1928, Dovey Coe, a stronged-willed twelve-year-old, comes to a new understanding of others, including her deaf brother.
Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief by Wendelin Van Draanen
Call Number: Mystery F VAN
Thirteen-year-old Sammy's penchant for speaking her mind gets her in trouble when she involves herself in the investigation of a robbery at the "seedy" hotel across the street from the seniors' building where she is living with her grandmother.
The Séance by Joan Lowery Nixon
Call Number: Mystery F NIX
A seance begun as a game when a young girl insists that she can communicate with the dead ends in murder when the lights suddenly go out and one of the participants suddenly vanishes.
The Kidnapping of Christina Lattimore by Joan Lowery Nixon
Call Number: Mystery F NIX
A teenage girl is kidnapped, but when freed, is accused of masterminding the scheme to extort money from her wealthy grandmother.

Classic Mysteries

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Call Number: Mystery F CHR
Ten strangers are summoned by a millionaire to a private island and begin to die one by one upon arrival.
Elephants Can Remember by Agatha Christie
Call Number: Mystery F CHR
Features Agatha Christie's famous detective character Hercule Poirot.
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
Call Number: Mystery F DOY
One of the most famous Sherlock Holmes stories.
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe
Call Number: Horror SC POE
Includes "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "The Purloined Letter."