mystery fiction
Clue-driven narrative genre
Mystery fiction is a genre built around a puzzle—typically a crime, most often murder—that the narrative works to solve.
The classic structure follows a detective uncovering clues until the solution is revealed.
The genre ranges from cozy mysteries with amateur sleuths to hard-boiled noir: She reads mystery fiction to relax.
Also called mysteries or detective fiction.
- cluesHints toward answers
- red herringsMisleading clues or information
- false alibiInvented proof of absence
- smoking gunIrrefutable proof of wrongdoing
- caseContainer or instance
evidence · crime scene · dead body · motives · dark secret · justice · psychological depth · Agatha Christie · butler did it · deception · whodunit · noir · betrayal · denouement · final chapter · investigations · unreliable narrator · revelations
- fictionnovel, novels, novella, novellas, short story
- Japanese LiteratureNorwegian Wood, Rashomon, Confessions, Kappa, Genji
- world literatureworld literature, French novels, American literature, Russian novels, African American literature
- Victorian literatureDickens, Charles Dickens, Victorian novel, Victorian literature, Victorian novels
- Edward Goreymacabre humor, pen and ink, crosshatching, alphabet books, Victorian aesthetic
mystery fictionliterary fiction
Prose emphasizing craft and depth
character study · slice of life · stream of consciousness · experimental fiction
mystery fictionromance fiction
Genre centered on courtship
science fiction · fantasy · western fiction · literary fiction · erotica
mystery fictionnonfiction
Literature about real events
true crime · investigative journalism · journalism · documentary · biography
mystery, fiction, fictional, mysteries, nonfiction, fictionalized, fictionalize, fictionalizing, detective story