Looking for Mystery novels and short story collections and anthologies with more than 50,000 ratings. mjf

Books with less than 50,000 ratings will be removed from this list.

For purposes of this list it doesn't matter if the book is a cozy mystery or a crime mystery or a historical mystery or a literary mystery or a general mystery. When in doubt, check the shelves for the book - if it is shelved more than a 100 times as mystery and you want to, put it on this list.

See also:
Agatha Mystery Award Nominees and Winners
100 Mysteries and Thrillers to Read in a Lifetime Readers Picks
Best Mysteries of the 21st Century
Best Mysteries of the 20th Century
Popular Highly Rated Mystery

Best Mysteries by Subgenre
Best Cozy Mystery Series
Best Crime Mystery Books
Best Historical Mystery
Best Literary Mysteries
Best Thrillers

Edgar Awards:
Edgar Award Winners
Edgar Award Winners for Best First Novel
Edgar Award Winners for Fact Crime
Edgar Award Winners for Best Young Adult Fiction

Best Mysteries By Decade
1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, 2020

Best Mysteries By Ratings
100,000 or more
50,000 to 99,999
25,000 to 49,999
10,000 to 24,999

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1

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4.08 avg rating — 66,801 ratings
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3.97 avg rating — 64,361 ratings
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4.08 avg rating — 78,917 ratings
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4.12 avg rating — 53,782 ratings
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3.91 avg rating — 99,017 ratings
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4.24 avg rating — 92,405 ratings
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4.48 avg rating — 82,026 ratings
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8

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4.04 avg rating — 87,923 ratings
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3.78 avg rating — 97,014 ratings
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10

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3.98 avg rating — 84,385 ratings
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4.11 avg rating — 94,529 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 69,980 ratings
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13

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4.20 avg rating — 94,684 ratings
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14

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4.48 avg rating — 98,376 ratings
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15

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4.07 avg rating — 98,365 ratings
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16

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3.94 avg rating — 70,694 ratings
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17

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 79,249 ratings
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18

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3.99 avg rating — 58,953 ratings
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19

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4.02 avg rating — 68,142 ratings
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20

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3.90 avg rating — 84,618 ratings
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21

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4.10 avg rating — 73,000 ratings
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22

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3.98 avg rating — 85,694 ratings
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23

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4.12 avg rating — 99,232 ratings
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24

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3.99 avg rating — 87,743 ratings
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25

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4.03 avg rating — 93,299 ratings
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26

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3.86 avg rating — 66,281 ratings
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27

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4.14 avg rating — 63,905 ratings
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28

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3.98 avg rating — 88,909 ratings
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29

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4.02 avg rating — 83,725 ratings
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30

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4.08 avg rating — 92,374 ratings
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31

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4.07 avg rating — 80,797 ratings
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32

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3.97 avg rating — 76,866 ratings
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33

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3.91 avg rating — 75,049 ratings
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34

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4.05 avg rating — 67,936 ratings
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35

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4.23 avg rating — 96,849 ratings
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36

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4.10 avg rating — 83,879 ratings
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36

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4.35 avg rating — 98,089 ratings
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38

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3.89 avg rating — 75,244 ratings
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39

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3.95 avg rating — 62,530 ratings
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40

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3.92 avg rating — 67,187 ratings
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41

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4.14 avg rating — 72,813 ratings
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42

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3.76 avg rating — 79,213 ratings
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43

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3.99 avg rating — 78,402 ratings
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44

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4.11 avg rating — 90,138 ratings
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45

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3.96 avg rating — 72,914 ratings
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46

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3.76 avg rating — 92,199 ratings
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47

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4.04 avg rating — 85,850 ratings
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47

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3.87 avg rating — 69,659 ratings
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49

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4.01 avg rating — 86,492 ratings
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50

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4.27 avg rating — 70,650 ratings
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51

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3.85 avg rating — 98,405 ratings
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52

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4.07 avg rating — 76,754 ratings
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53

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3.88 avg rating — 71,994 ratings
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54

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3.79 avg rating — 62,863 ratings
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54

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4.44 avg rating — 79,735 ratings
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56

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3.93 avg rating — 100,572 ratings
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57

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3.85 avg rating — 94,700 ratings
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58

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4.32 avg rating — 73,654 ratings
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58

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3.57 avg rating — 74,853 ratings
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58

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4.18 avg rating — 79,391 ratings
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61

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4.20 avg rating — 91,126 ratings
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62

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4.06 avg rating — 63,623 ratings
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63

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3.73 avg rating — 84,978 ratings
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64

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3.88 avg rating — 83,630 ratings
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65

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4.05 avg rating — 83,131 ratings
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66

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4.06 avg rating — 76,258 ratings
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67

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3.77 avg rating — 60,160 ratings
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67

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4.32 avg rating — 90,078 ratings
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67

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3.96 avg rating — 57,209 ratings
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70

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4.24 avg rating — 80,007 ratings
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71

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3.28 avg rating — 72,435 ratings
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72

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3.85 avg rating — 58,447 ratings
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73

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3.96 avg rating — 75,117 ratings
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74

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4.03 avg rating — 96,363 ratings
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75

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4.24 avg rating — 97,502 ratings
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76

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4.07 avg rating — 64,056 ratings
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77

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4.43 avg rating — 84,098 ratings
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78

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4.01 avg rating — 69,717 ratings
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79

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4.07 avg rating — 59,612 ratings
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80

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4.12 avg rating — 72,613 ratings
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81

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3.82 avg rating — 69,268 ratings
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82

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3.87 avg rating — 66,443 ratings
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82

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4.27 avg rating — 72,733 ratings
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82

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3.93 avg rating — 53,840 ratings
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82

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3.85 avg rating — 52,837 ratings
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86

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4.01 avg rating — 82,923 ratings
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87

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3.69 avg rating — 97,920 ratings
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88

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4.06 avg rating — 61,795 ratings
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88

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4.16 avg rating — 62,047 ratings
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88

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4.46 avg rating — 70,083 ratings
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91

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4.07 avg rating — 80,568 ratings
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92

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4.33 avg rating — 81,433 ratings
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93

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4.25 avg rating — 75,508 ratings
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94

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3.72 avg rating — 58,365 ratings
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95

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3.84 avg rating — 71,427 ratings
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96

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4.01 avg rating — 94,013 ratings
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96

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4.21 avg rating — 75,142 ratings
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98

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4.05 avg rating — 61,669 ratings
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99

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4.22 avg rating — 77,545 ratings
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99

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3.96 avg rating — 88,949 ratings
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329 books · 146 voters · list created October 7th, 2014 by Mitchell Friedman (votes) .
144 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Mitchell 11579 books
172 friends
Dennis 823 books
0 friends
Anna 119 books
4 friends
Viktoriia 9490 books
31 friends
Mickey 24232 books
74 friends
Judith 5758 books
19 friends
Frank 3325 books
59 friends
Beth 2191 books
23 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-20 of 20 (20 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) @ Mitchell
Aren't 'Crime Mystery' and 'Mystery' often the same? If not, where do you draw the line?


message 2: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman Booklovinglady wrote: "@ Mitchell
Aren't 'Crime Mystery' and 'Mystery' often the same? If not, where do you draw the line?"


I definitely don't have any deep knowledge on Mystery. For this list I'm happy enough if the book has mystery of some sort as it's biggest tag. Or shows up on the first two pages of one of the other mystery lists. Or has some minimum number of Mystery tag that is still unspecified.

At 183 books, this list is still pretty knowable and watchable. There are probably some books on this list that most of us would agree aren't Mystery. But an exception adds somewhat.


message 3: by Greg (new)

Greg Mitchell wrote: "Booklovinglady wrote: "@ Mitchell
Aren't 'Crime Mystery' and 'Mystery' often the same? If not, where do you draw the line?"

I definitely don't have any deep knowledge on Mystery. For this list I'm..."


Mitchell, I LOVE murder-mysteries (rather cozy murder mysteries with little violence). But about the definition of 'mystery': isn't every non-fiction book a mystery? Because really, we read to find out what happens, who did it (crime or not), who did who,who will fall in love with who, will X finally have the pursue a dream, etc. So, I think 'crime mysteries' works very well, as many novels don't have a crime, but still we read them to solve some kind of mystery.


Charlotte Igelkott Removed for not having enough shelvings as "mystery":
Bring Up the Bodies
Micro

Removed for having too few ratings:
The Third Twin
This one qualifies for the 25000-49999 list, if anyone wants to add it there.


message 5: by Mbuye (new)

Mbuye BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) wrote: "@ Mitchell
Aren't 'Crime Mystery' and 'Mystery' often the same? If not, where do you draw the line?"


This is a wild guess: I think in the eighteenth century, a lot of what are called Gothic novels had the word 'Mystery' in the title. In the nineteenth century, Dickens set this in stone when he named his last novel 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood'. And there was a lot of actual crime in these so-called mysteries.

So yes, there is a very thin line between the two.

And today, there is plenty of crime, and not much mystery, so the confusion!


message 6: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman Just a heads up - on Sat Dec 16th, this list will be split up and a new list will be created. This list will become just for mysteries from 50,000 to 99,999 ratings.

And a new list will be created for mysteries from 100,000 ratings and more. The primary list maintainers will add books to the new list and remove them from the old. But feel free to help out by voting for as many books on the new list as fit the criteria (but at least your most favorite books that meet the criteria).

When the new list is created I will post a link.


message 7: by Mitchell (last edited Dec 15, 2023 10:43PM) (new)

Mitchell Friedman A new list has been created for Mysteries with 100,000 or more ratings.

Most Popular Mysteries on Goodreads

We will be deleting books from this list in bulk that are now on the new list. Please vote for those books there.

And that process is done. There are few books now on this list with over 100,000 ratings but not enough tags as mystery - but we are still checking those


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