Mystery genres 
By Kennedy Poyser 

You can expand your mystery reading list at the Biblioteca Pública this summer by finding gems in unlikely places. Your preferred leisure reading might fit under the mystery umbrella, but the category includes at least a dozen subgenres, depending on how finely you sift the classifications.

Millions read mystery novels—major publishers and bookstore chains are kept prosperous by readers’ fascination with crime, investigations and justice. The mystery novel has become more complex and crosses over into other genres with such frequency that knowing the subgenres helps the reader find delightful new books and authors.

Large bookstores may shelve thrillers and action/adventure in separate sections, techno-thrillers with war stories, or almost anything in general fiction/historical. Prolific authors often write across several genres, or even mix them. If you think of Ken Follett as a thriller writer, you could miss his best book, Pillars of the Earth, which often is shelved in general fiction. Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe series might be in three places in the same store—imagine the difficulty of finding his sea stories, Civil War novels and Arthurian tales. 

The dedicated book scout keeps an updated list of 30–50 authors. If you shop from a list of so many favorites, chance is on your side at the Biblioteca or a bookstore.

If you try a new author on speculation, favor those with a substantial backlist. If you like one title, you could find yourself with 10–20 books in the hopper waiting to be found.

Similarity is the most cunning strategy. If you like Tom Clancy, you don’t have to be content with the recent “writing team” releases. Try Larry Bond, Dale Brown, Stephen Coonts or David Robbins. Their work is similar enough to warrant a subgenre—the techno-thriller.

Your new scouting strategy thus has four parts—Crossovers, Author list, Backlist and Similarity—CABS, for short. 


The subgenre sections below do not list older classics, since many will have read them already. A cited title is the first book in a series, or the most notable. In a few instances, the author’s name is noted in parentheses following a pseudonym. 

Cover cues are important for classifying paperbacks. Not only can you judge a book by its cover, you do it all the time. A publisher’s marketing department uses cover-art codes such as pistols, badges and sprawled bodies for a standard mystery, with a presidential seal added, as appropriate, to indicate a political dimension to the crime. Airplanes, submarines, tanks or helicopters mean techno-thriller, while espionage is cued by a swastika or hammer and sickle.

For extensive lists by subgenre, check the website for the Murder Most Sweet mystery book group in Massachusetts. The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Modern Crime Fiction by Mike Ashley also will help, if you can find a copy.


Action/adventure

Wilbur Smith began writing novels at age 31, but made a leap in stature at age 60, with River God and its sequels. He’s 76 now and his last nine novels all have been bestsellers. Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child deliver with Thunderhead and Riptide. Clive Cussler, Jack DuBrul and Matt Reilly also are lodged here.



Amateur crime-solvers

The protagonist is not a detective, but someone who has a personal stake in solving a crime. They usually work outside the law, and their ranks might include lawyers, reporters or Janet Evanovich’s bounty hunter Stephanie Plum. Agatha Christie is a noted example. More recently, Keith Ablow’s psychiatrist-character runs into mad killers often. Greg Rucka’s slightly kinky early books are naturally hard to find.



Business capers/financial thrillers

The past year has given writers in this area a tsunami of new material. Try the fiction of Joseph Finder, John Grisham and Steve Frey for a break from the realities of fraud and bungling on a massive scale.



Courtroom drama

We love to witness the ways criminals are brought to justice. Attorneys battle it out in the courtroom, and the underdog defense attorney must save a falsely accused client. John Grisham, David Baldacci and Steve Martini are major figures, but also try Richard North Patterson and William Bernhardt. 

Historical Mix mayhem with ancient Roman history in the Roma Sub Rosa series by Steven Saylor.  For eighteenth-century England, get to know the blind magistrate Sir John Fielding in 11 books by Bruce Alexander (Cook). Crocodile on the Sandbank is the first book on Egypt by Elizabeth Peters (Barbara Mertz). The Amber Room by Steve Berry should serve interests in art, World War II or Russian history.

Medical/forensics

Medical mysteries usually are set in hospitals, and villainous doctors or administrators drive the plot. Authors often have medical backgrounds, such as Robin Cook or Michael Crichton. Patricia Cornwell’s medical examiner, Dr. Kay Scarpetta, fits here.




Private detective

A victim seeks help from a private detective in dark, violent stories of horrific crimes. A private detective also may appear in a suspense/thriller novel. Robert Parker’s Spenser first shows up in The Godwulf Manuscript; other firsts are George Pelecanos, A Firing Offense and John Connolly, Every Dead Thing. Harlan Coben’s inadvertent detective is sports agent Myron Bolitar. For women sleuths, try Sue Grafton, "A" Is for Alibi with Kinsey Millhone.



Romantic suspense

This crossover developed from Gothics when historical romance writers took up mysteries as a way to expand reader base. J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts) was one of the first, joined later by Iris Johansen. Gothic and supernatural thrillers by Barbara Michaels (Barbara Mertz, who also is Elizabeth Peters) could go here.


Suspense/thriller

Although not strictly a mystery subgenre, many suspense/thriller novels are centered around a heinous crime. The tales are harrowing because the stakes are so high and the adversaries so formidable. Lee Child introduces Jack Reacher in The Killing Floor and Stephen Hunter reveals “Bob the Nailer” in Dirty White Boys; both men dispatch villains with satisfying regularity. Also try Michael Connelly, James Patterson or Stephen Dobyns, Church of Dead Girls. Robert McCammon has some horror crossovers and Intensity by Dean Koontz is aptly titled. 




Techno-thrillers/War/Espionage

From military campaigns to computer forensics, techno-thrillers are exciting because they expose the latest technological threats. Tom Clancy anticipated 9/11 with a book about a Japanese 747 flying into the Capitol. He shifted from Russians to terrorists as bad guys in Sum of All Fears, released just days before the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Other exemplars are Larry Bond, Red Phoenix; Dale Brown, Flight of the Old Dog; Stephen Coonts, Flight of the Intruder; Frederick Forsyth, The Fist of God (terrorists); and David Robbins, War of the Rats (Stalingrad snipers)



Police procedurals

In the classic whodunit, the story focuses on the detective, who works through carefully hidden clues to solve the crime, usually a homicide. Most are written from the detective’s point of view. Try Nicholas Blake, Simon Brett, Lawrence Block.

Cross-over writers  Authors who jump around the genres are a joy because they’re so good, but finding their books is a challenge. Nelson DeMille’s Cathedral and By the Rivers of Babylon are about terrorists, but The General’s Daughter is military courtroom drama.

Warren Murphy and Molly Cochran may have 50 books between them, from the Dressing Thin how-to book to postwar romance for Cochran, and the Destroyer series and the Lethal Weapon 2 screenplay for Murphy. Together they created the superb thriller Grandmaster and a wonderful Arthurian trilogy which begins with The Forever King. 

Dean Koontz has a dozen pseudonyms for suspense/thrillers and one Gothic romance. Early in his career, he wrote science fiction paperbacks under his own name. Scouting for Koontz books years ago was fun, since you could buy them for a dollar and sell them for US$10–40. 


Kennedy Poyser’s degrees in literature and art history are evidence of a misspent youth. College teaching in three states, editing in New York and repping book cover illustrators confirm his dissolute nature. Some say he was gainfully employed for 16 years while owning bookstores in Connecticut and Texas.