Agatha Christie, Alfred Hitchcock, and Arthur Conan Doyle. Other than having names that all start with the letter A, all these three people have one more thing in common—popularity in the mystery genre. The mystery genre is easily one of the most difficult genres to write. With great precision, lots of planning, and a ton of creativity, you are sure to make the best of this genre. Here’s a crash course on mystery writing.

A Brief History

The genre emerged with Edgar Allan Poe’s creation of the first known fictional detective, Auguste C. Dupin, in the nineteenth century. Dupin appeared in stories such as “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841), “The Mystery of Marie Roget” (1842), and “The Purloined Letter” (1845), making Poe the Father of Mystery. Poe’s contributions to the genre includes making the characters study the criminal’s mind as opposed to the usual problem-solving of an event. Poe’s “Rue Morgue” was also a perfect example of what is known as a “locked room” mystery, where the victim is found in a sealed enclosure and the detective must solve the murderer’s mode of operation. Anna Katherine Green is the first female writer in the genre, publishing The Leavenworth Case in 1878. The elements she used in her novel were studied by mystery writers later in the 1920s. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, writer of the classic Sherlock Holmes stories, caused another major shift in the genre. By making Sherlock Holmes a highly intelligent and formidable character, Doyle turned crime-solving into a science. Holmes’s brand of deduction is still being studied to this day. The 1920s was the height of the genre’s popularity, its most famous author being Agatha Christie. During this period, known as the Golden Age of Mystery Fiction, Christie created over eighty novels and is regarded as the best-known mystery writer in history. In America, the Golden Age of Mystery lasted from the 1930s to the 1940s, with Ellery Queen in the spotlight. This name was used by cousins Manfred R. Lee and Frederic Dannay. The two created thirty-three novels and introduced a popular author in the American mystery tradition, Drury Lane, in 1932. Over the years, the genre spawned many different subgenres:

1. Black mask: hard-boiled fiction that rose to popularity in magazines known as pulps.
2. Violent and sex-focused mystery fiction: Mickey Spillane pioneered and wrote stories that focused on blood and guts and attracted mostly male readers.
3. Police procedural: crime fiction which was popular on television and presented realistic police methods.
4. Children’s mystery fiction: these include long-running series such as Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys.

The popularity mystery genre has since gone beyond print and has bled into television, film, and even games. The Basics Mystery is one of the most technical genres in literature. Up until variations were created after the Golden Age, mystery followed a single template. Today, the genre is a lot more open to innovation. Here are some of the basic elements to writing mystery fiction.

1. Plot

Unlike fantasy stories, which may rely heavily on world-building and backstory, plot is the backbone in mystery fiction. The plot must flow smoothly without any loopholes and with sufficient action.

2. Detective and Culprit

No mystery is complete without its main characters. In mystery, the main character is of course the detective. Conversely, the antagonist is the culprit. Of course, the character’s identity of the culprit will not be revealed until the end of the novel. However, introducing your culprit as a character too late in the novel may make readers reject them as a suspect.

3. Crime

The crime and the process of solving it are what hooks your readers and keeps them reading. With mystery, the crime must be believable and violent. Making the crime believable will help your readers empathize with your characters, and making it violent will amp up intrigue. Mysteries often feature murders, but some stories feature other taboo violence such as rape, molestation, and animal cruelty.

4. Detection and Deduction

Your detective must be intelligent enough to carry out believable investigation. Luck, coincidence, divine intervention, and intuition are simply not enough to solve a crime. Therefore, research is key in the mystery genre in order to make not only your crime, but also your method believable.

5. Motive

Just as your crime and method are plausible, your culprit and their motive must be just as believable. Before deciding who to pin the crime on, make sure that they have enough power, physically and emotionally, to commit such a violent act.

Sources:

1. Top Rules for Mystery Writing

2. History of the Mystery

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