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 — 66,501 ratings
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3.98 avg rating — 63,699 ratings
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4.08 avg rating — 78,186 ratings
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4.12 avg rating — 53,553 ratings
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3.91 avg rating — 98,573 ratings
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4.24 avg rating — 91,971 ratings
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4.48 avg rating — 81,864 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 87,542 ratings
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3.78 avg rating — 95,758 ratings
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3.98 avg rating — 83,656 ratings
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4.11 avg rating — 93,953 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 69,747 ratings
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4.06 avg rating — 99,823 ratings
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4.20 avg rating — 93,764 ratings
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4.07 avg rating — 97,862 ratings
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4.48 avg rating — 97,367 ratings
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17

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3.94 avg rating — 69,716 ratings
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18

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 78,820 ratings
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19

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3.99 avg rating — 58,714 ratings
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20

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4.02 avg rating — 67,972 ratings
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21

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3.90 avg rating — 84,206 ratings
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22

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4.10 avg rating — 72,775 ratings
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4.11 avg rating — 98,546 ratings
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25

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3.99 avg rating — 87,238 ratings
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4.03 avg rating — 91,740 ratings
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27

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3.86 avg rating — 65,278 ratings
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28

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4.14 avg rating — 63,424 ratings
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3.98 avg rating — 87,774 ratings
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4.02 avg rating — 82,476 ratings
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31

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4.08 avg rating — 90,855 ratings
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32

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4.07 avg rating — 80,170 ratings
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33

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3.97 avg rating — 75,864 ratings
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34

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3.91 avg rating — 74,687 ratings
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35

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4.05 avg rating — 67,626 ratings
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36

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4.23 avg rating — 95,816 ratings
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4.35 avg rating — 97,007 ratings
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38

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4.10 avg rating — 83,209 ratings
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39

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4.13 avg rating — 100,165 ratings
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40

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3.89 avg rating — 74,334 ratings
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41

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3.95 avg rating — 61,455 ratings
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42

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3.91 avg rating — 66,775 ratings
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43

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4.14 avg rating — 72,146 ratings
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44

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3.76 avg rating — 78,853 ratings
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3.99 avg rating — 77,976 ratings
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46

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4.11 avg rating — 89,691 ratings
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3.56 avg rating — 104,241 ratings
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48

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3.96 avg rating — 71,734 ratings
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3.76 avg rating — 91,878 ratings
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50

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3.87 avg rating — 68,664 ratings
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51

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4.04 avg rating — 85,032 ratings
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52

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4.01 avg rating — 85,211 ratings
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53

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3.98 avg rating — 104,560 ratings
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54

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4.27 avg rating — 70,024 ratings
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55

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3.85 avg rating — 97,000 ratings
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56

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4.07 avg rating — 76,107 ratings
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56

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4.44 avg rating — 78,737 ratings
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58

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3.88 avg rating — 71,620 ratings
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59

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3.79 avg rating — 62,564 ratings
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60

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3.93 avg rating — 98,842 ratings
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61

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3.57 avg rating — 73,549 ratings
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62

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4.18 avg rating — 78,438 ratings
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63

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3.85 avg rating — 94,068 ratings
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63

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4.32 avg rating — 72,598 ratings
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65

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4.20 avg rating — 90,240 ratings
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66

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4.06 avg rating — 63,171 ratings
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67

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3.73 avg rating — 84,629 ratings
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68

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3.88 avg rating — 82,009 ratings
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69

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4.05 avg rating — 82,405 ratings
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70

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4.06 avg rating — 75,759 ratings
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70

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3.96 avg rating — 56,449 ratings
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72

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3.77 avg rating — 59,882 ratings
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4.32 avg rating — 89,115 ratings
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74

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4.23 avg rating — 79,291 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 — 57,313 ratings
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3.96 avg rating — 74,448 ratings
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78

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4.03 avg rating — 95,847 ratings
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4.23 avg rating — 95,873 ratings
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80

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4.07 avg rating — 63,717 ratings
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81

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4.43 avg rating — 83,158 ratings
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82

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4.01 avg rating — 68,724 ratings
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83

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4.07 avg rating — 59,252 ratings
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84

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4.12 avg rating — 72,009 ratings
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84

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4.13 avg rating — 100,206 ratings
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86

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3.82 avg rating — 69,159 ratings
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3.93 avg rating — 53,158 ratings
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86

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3.85 avg rating — 52,061 ratings
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3.87 avg rating — 66,341 ratings
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4.27 avg rating — 72,132 ratings
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4.01 avg rating — 82,045 ratings
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92

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3.69 avg rating — 96,775 ratings
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92

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4.06 avg rating — 61,285 ratings
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94

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4.16 avg rating — 61,655 ratings
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94

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4.07 avg rating — 79,723 ratings
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4.46 avg rating — 67,692 ratings
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97

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4.33 avg rating — 80,207 ratings
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97

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4.25 avg rating — 74,644 ratings
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99

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3.72 avg rating — 58,229 ratings
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100

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3.84 avg rating — 70,604 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 11518 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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