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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4.08 avg rating — 66,496 ratings
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3.98 avg rating — 63,695 ratings
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4.08 avg rating — 78,178 ratings
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4.12 avg rating — 53,550 ratings
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3.91 avg rating — 98,571 ratings
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4.24 avg rating — 91,969 ratings
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4.48 avg rating — 81,863 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 87,539 ratings
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3.78 avg rating — 95,734 ratings
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3.98 avg rating — 83,650 ratings
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4.11 avg rating — 93,949 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 69,746 ratings
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4.06 avg rating — 99,817 ratings
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14

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4.20 avg rating — 93,760 ratings
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4.07 avg rating — 97,856 ratings
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4.48 avg rating — 97,351 ratings
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17

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3.94 avg rating — 69,705 ratings
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18

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 78,818 ratings
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19

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3.99 avg rating — 58,711 ratings
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20

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4.02 avg rating — 67,970 ratings
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21

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3.90 avg rating — 84,201 ratings
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22

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4.10 avg rating — 72,772 ratings
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23

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3.98 avg rating — 85,197 ratings
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24

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4.11 avg rating — 98,531 ratings
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25

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3.99 avg rating — 87,231 ratings
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26

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4.03 avg rating — 91,723 ratings
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27

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3.86 avg rating — 65,269 ratings
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28

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4.14 avg rating — 63,419 ratings
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28

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3.98 avg rating — 87,763 ratings
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30

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4.02 avg rating — 82,460 ratings
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31

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4.08 avg rating — 90,836 ratings
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32

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4.07 avg rating — 80,163 ratings
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33

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3.97 avg rating — 75,854 ratings
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34

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3.91 avg rating — 74,685 ratings
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35

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4.05 avg rating — 67,622 ratings
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36

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4.23 avg rating — 95,803 ratings
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37

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4.35 avg rating — 96,999 ratings
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38

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4.10 avg rating — 83,200 ratings
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39

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4.13 avg rating — 100,162 ratings
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40

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3.89 avg rating — 74,324 ratings
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41

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3.95 avg rating — 61,446 ratings
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42

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3.91 avg rating — 66,768 ratings
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43

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4.14 avg rating — 72,142 ratings
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44

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3.76 avg rating — 78,850 ratings
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45

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3.99 avg rating — 77,970 ratings
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46

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4.11 avg rating — 89,683 ratings
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46

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3.56 avg rating — 104,219 ratings
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48

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3.96 avg rating — 71,715 ratings
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49

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3.76 avg rating — 91,872 ratings
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50

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3.87 avg rating — 68,652 ratings
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51

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4.04 avg rating — 85,026 ratings
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52

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4.01 avg rating — 85,203 ratings
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53

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3.98 avg rating — 104,347 ratings
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54

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4.27 avg rating — 70,019 ratings
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55

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3.85 avg rating — 96,984 ratings
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56

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4.07 avg rating — 76,103 ratings
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56

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4.44 avg rating — 78,724 ratings
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58

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3.88 avg rating — 71,617 ratings
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59

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3.79 avg rating — 62,557 ratings
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60

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3.93 avg rating — 98,829 ratings
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61

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3.57 avg rating — 73,531 ratings
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62

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4.18 avg rating — 78,423 ratings
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63

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3.85 avg rating — 94,064 ratings
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63

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4.32 avg rating — 72,581 ratings
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65

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4.20 avg rating — 90,231 ratings
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66

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4.06 avg rating — 63,169 ratings
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67

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3.73 avg rating — 84,620 ratings
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68

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3.88 avg rating — 81,998 ratings
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69

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4.05 avg rating — 82,399 ratings
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70

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4.06 avg rating — 75,748 ratings
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70

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3.96 avg rating — 56,447 ratings
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72

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3.77 avg rating — 59,875 ratings
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72

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4.32 avg rating — 89,106 ratings
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74

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4.23 avg rating — 79,284 ratings
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75

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3.28 avg rating — 72,196 ratings
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3.85 avg rating — 57,301 ratings
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77

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3.96 avg rating — 74,438 ratings
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78

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4.03 avg rating — 95,839 ratings
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79

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4.23 avg rating — 95,854 ratings
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80

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4.07 avg rating — 63,711 ratings
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81

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4.43 avg rating — 83,150 ratings
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82

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4.01 avg rating — 68,717 ratings
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83

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4.07 avg rating — 59,246 ratings
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84

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4.12 avg rating — 72,002 ratings
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84

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4.13 avg rating — 100,199 ratings
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86

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3.82 avg rating — 69,156 ratings
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86

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3.93 avg rating — 53,145 ratings
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86

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3.85 avg rating — 52,049 ratings
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89

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3.87 avg rating — 66,340 ratings
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4.27 avg rating — 72,121 ratings
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4.01 avg rating — 82,030 ratings
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92

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3.69 avg rating — 96,745 ratings
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92

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4.06 avg rating — 61,282 ratings
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94

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4.16 avg rating — 61,653 ratings
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94

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4.07 avg rating — 79,716 ratings
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94

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4.46 avg rating — 67,665 ratings
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97

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4.33 avg rating — 80,194 ratings
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97

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4.25 avg rating — 74,636 ratings
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99

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3.72 avg rating — 58,226 ratings
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100

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3.84 avg rating — 70,598 ratings
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335 books · 147 voters · list created October 7th, 2014 by Mitchell Friedman (votes) .
144 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Mitchell 11515 books
168 friends
Dennis 823 books
0 friends
Anna 119 books
4 friends
Viktoriia 9428 books
31 friends
Mickey 23822 books
74 friends
Judith 5753 books
19 friends
Frank 3316 books
59 friends
Beth 2177 books
22 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-19 of 19 (19 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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