Why Are We Drawn to Mystery Novels? Part 1 of 2

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One of the many decisions, along with determining your audience and the process that you will follow, is determining what type of book you will write. Many people choose to write mystery books. In bookshops everywhere, one of the most frequented aisles would be where one can find the mystery novels. The question is, why are we so fascinated by mystery books with their striking (sometimes shocking), blood-covered covers?



Writers have a way of guiding their readers to become intimate with the characters of the story and their lives. They can alter the mood of a reader and take them right into the protagonist’s shoes where they can feel, see, almost taste and touch, even think along with the character. In fact, a lot of people have discovered reading fiction to be an effective therapy for modern ailments such as loneliness, boredom and isolation.



But aside from familiarity and closeness to the characters of a book, readers of mystery novels generally yearn for adventure and excitement. They want to be taken to places they could not or would not visit in their own lives. The moment a reader begins a well written fiction novel, he is transported into a mystical realm. Just like a master hypnotist, a reader reaches a totally different level of consciousness, he leaves the real world behind as he becomes overwhelmed by the story world where the characters he is reading about exist. This is the affect of reading mystery novels – it tells you about the lives of others and takes you into their minds allowing you to experience what they are going through.



It would be a safe bet to say that a lot of people are enthralled with mystery books because they offer a sheltered kind of thrill, just like when you’re riding the roller coaster for the first time. You believe it to be safe but you still feel excited and afraid. And, in mystery books, you get to visit interesting and exotic worlds apart from your own. You can see the negative side of life, but you also know that in the end, you’ll be safe in returning to your own. Readers like reading mystery books because they are able to relate to the characters in some way. If the main character is a detective or a sleuth, we respond in an animated fashion because in the end, we become part of the solution. A reader of detective stories becomes engrossed with a series because he knows that he is always with the winning team. Along with the hero of the story, he will capture scoundrels, murderers, and right the wrongs done.



But going to the root of it all, we love to read mysteries because, just like sci-fi and romance novels for other people, they provide us with the escape from the norm. It fills the void in our life and helps us understand the things that are happening around us. Reading opens up new perspectives and experiences, and this is true regardless of the genre.



Interestingly enough, a mystery novel is not simply a ‘mystery novel’. Mystery novels have been classified and tagged in so many categories over the past years. We have seen bookstore catalogs such as crime, detective, thriller, paranormal, and a lot more, and many of them have been swapped with each to label essentially the same thing. They all refer to the mystery genre of literary fiction.