Peters 4-6 Library

What is the Mystery Genre?

Stories that belong in the mystery genre usually focus on the solving of a puzzle or a crime by the main character who acts as a detective to put all of the clues together in order to find out "whodunit". It is the reader's job to follow along with the main character/detective and decode all of the clues presented by the author. To do this, the reader must notice and understand the meaning of the clues given and use logic to fill in the gaps.

The Elements of a mystery

Characters: Common characters in mysteries include the detective(s) who solves the crime, suspects who possibly committed the crime or caused the problem the detective is trying to solve, and witnesses to the crime who help point the finger at a suspect or eliminate a suspect from the list of possibilities.
Setting: The location where the story takes place. It can be as large as a town or a city or as small as a house. Stories that take place in one location, such as a classroom, are known as locked-room mysteries because all of the action takes place in a single place that the characters can not escape.
Plot: Common plots of mysteries include a crime, such as a murder or kidnapping that needs to solved, a problem or puzzle that needs to be deciphered, something that has gone missing that needs to be found, a secret that gets uncovered, or an event that needs to be explained.
Clues and Distractions: clues need to be presented to the detective and the reader throughout the story to help point them in the right direction. These can include things characters say and do or objects found that are related to the crime or puzzle. Clues may also be foreshadowed, which is a device authors use to hint at events to come. Distractions, also known as red herrings, are often included in the story to make it more difficult for the detective and reader to solve. Alibis are stories or people that help determine the whereabouts of suspects while the crime is being committed. These can help point the detective/reader in the right direction or lead them away from the real perpetrator until proven false.
Structure: Mysteries often follow the basic story structure of a beginning (when the crime is committed or presented to the detective/reader), middle (when the detective/reader works to solve the clues), and end (when the mystery is solved). While the main mystery presented may be neatly wrapped up and concluded in one book, a mystery series will often continue with the main characters working to solve another mystery in the next book and even work to solve a larger mystery that flows from one book to the next throughout the course of the entire series.

What is a Red Herring?

Uh... it's a fish. I'm kidding. Yes it is a fish, but in the world of mysteries it's a term used to refer to a misleading or false clue. Authors use red herrings to keep the reader guessing and distract them from what is really going on. Think you solved the mystery? Guess again. The key evidence was just a red herring and the case remains unsolved. So where did this term come from? It originated in the 18th century, when dog trainers would use pickled herring (a very stinky fish with reddish meat) to distract their tracking hounds. In order to succeed in their task, the trainee dogs would have to ignore this powerful oder and follow the original scent.

Edgar Allan Poe and the First Fictional Detective

You have probably heard of the author Edgar Allan Poe, but while you most likely think of his work as being more in the horror genre with his scary poem "The Raven" and his short story "The Tell Tale Heart", Edgar Allan Poe is also known as the "father" of the modern mystery. Mystery and crime stories did not emerge as we know them today until the middle of the 1800's when Edgar Allan Poe introduced the first fictional detective, Auguste C. Dupin, in his 1841 story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue". This story is also a little scary and I wouldn't read it if I were you until I got to high school. In this story, a neighborhood is awoken in the middle of the night by the screams of a woman. Neighbors rush to the scene of the crime to find two bodies in a locked room with the killer having escaped and very little evidence or motive to point the police in the right direction. In fact, the police arrest the wrong man. Dupin, having owed a favor the police's main suspect, works the case to find the true guilty party. Dupin appeared in two more short stories over the following years and in his three appearances Poe cemented the rules of the mystery genre like false clues, the perpetrator hiding in plain sight, and accusing the wrong man that future mystery authors like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie used in their own stories. Poe's contributions to the mystery genre are so important that the award given for best mystery fiction every year is named the Edgar.

The Most Well Known Detective

You have probably heard of Sherlock Holmes, but did you know that the image of the famous fictional you have in your mind right now wasn't created by the author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle? Holmes first appeared in the 1886 story "A Study in Scarlet", but it wasn't until the widely popular detective started to appear in stage plays and films in the early 1900's that the trademark deerstalker hat, pipe, and coat appeared. "Elementary, my dear Watson" was also never spoken by Holmes either. That was an invention of Hollywood. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote four novels and fifty-six short stories featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson between 1886 and 1927 with many of the short stories appearing in serialized magazines. Building upon the model that Edgar Allan Poe established for detectives in the mystery genre, Conan Doyle made sure to have Holmes expand on characteristics similar to Poe's Dupin (discussed above). Holmes uses psychology (understanding of the human mind) to help him solve cases, he doesn't take cases he doesn't find interesting, he is brash and doesn't adhere to social norms and behaviors, and he has the ability to guess correctly with little effort. Sherlock Holmes has appeared in countless TV shows and movies over the years, even being depicted as a mouse in Disney's animated move The Great Mouse Detective in 1986.

Who Wrote Nancy Drew?

The character of Nancy Drew is one of the most famous detectives written for children. The series began in 1930 and with The Secret of the Old Clock and concluded in 2003 with Werewolf in a Winter Wonderland. The original series included 175 books written over 73 years and credited to Carolyn Keene. Several spin-off series began in 2004 and many of them are still publishing new titles. Wait a minute. That doesn't seem right. How can one lady write all of those books over such a long period of time? Well, the short answer is that Carolyn Keene doesn't exist. The Nancy Drew books were written by ghost writers as part of syndicate. That means that many different people wrote books for the series and didn't take credit for writing them. The syndicate was started by Edward Stratemeyer, but he died shortly after the first the books were published. The syndicate was saved by his daughters Harriet Stratemeyer Adams and Edna Stratemeyer Squier and Harriet especially took a liking to the fictional character. One of the main authors, and the one that is most credited with creating Nancy's personality, was Mildred A. Wit. She is responsible for giving Nancy Drew her feisty spirit and independence in a time when it was common for female characters to be like that. Nancy Drew went through revisions throughout the years to fit with modern times, once in the 1950's and again in the early 2000's. Nancy Drew has appeared in numerous TV shows and movies, as well as spin-offs with another Stratemeyer syndicated series, The Hardy Boys (and no, Franklin W. Dixon isn't real either).

Popular Mystery Books and Series

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

Holes by Louis Sachar
The Mysterious Benedict Society (Series) by Trenton Lee Stewart
Chasing Vermeer (Series) by Blue Balliet
Al Capone Does My Shirts (Tales from Alcatraz Series) by Gennifer Choldenko
Sammy Keyes Series by Wendelin Van Draanen
The Fairy Tale Detectives Series by Michael Buckley
Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer (Series) by John Grisham
Three Times Lucky (Series) by Sheila Turnage
Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos
Book Scavenger (Series) by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
Framed! (Series) by James Ponti
The Secret Series by Pseudonymous Bosch
Masterpiece by Elise Broach
Hoot, Flush, Scat, and Chomp by Carl Hiaasen
Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens
All the Wrong Questions Series by Lemony Snicket
Encyclopedia Brown Series by Donald J Sobol
Nancy Drew Series by Carolyn Keene
The Hardy Boys Series by Franklin W Dixon
The Boxcar Children Series by Gertrude Chandler Warner
A to Z Mysteries by Ron Roy
Nate the Great by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat
39 Clues Series by various authors

In this video, follow along with author Robin Stevens (Murder Most Unladylike) as she explains how to plot a mystery story.

Author JK Rowling was so detailed in her writing that she was able to weave elements of the mystery genre throughout her classic fantasy series.