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 — 67,181 ratings
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3.97 avg rating — 65,211 ratings
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4.08 avg rating — 80,033 ratings
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4.12 avg rating — 54,046 ratings
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3.91 avg rating — 99,845 ratings
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4.24 avg rating — 92,891 ratings
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4.48 avg rating — 82,168 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 88,625 ratings
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3.79 avg rating — 99,237 ratings
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3.97 avg rating — 85,136 ratings
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4.11 avg rating — 95,312 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 70,297 ratings
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4.20 avg rating — 95,852 ratings
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14

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4.07 avg rating — 99,047 ratings
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15

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4.48 avg rating — 99,735 ratings
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16

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3.94 avg rating — 71,791 ratings
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17

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 79,802 ratings
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18

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3.99 avg rating — 59,308 ratings
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19

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4.02 avg rating — 68,510 ratings
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20

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3.90 avg rating — 85,194 ratings
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21

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4.10 avg rating — 73,286 ratings
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22

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3.98 avg rating — 86,197 ratings
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23

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3.99 avg rating — 88,258 ratings
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24

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4.03 avg rating — 95,172 ratings
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25

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3.86 avg rating — 67,532 ratings
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26

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4.15 avg rating — 64,366 ratings
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27

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3.98 avg rating — 90,234 ratings
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28

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4.02 avg rating — 85,170 ratings
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29

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4.07 avg rating — 81,801 ratings
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30

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3.97 avg rating — 78,012 ratings
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31

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4.08 avg rating — 94,143 ratings
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32

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4.05 avg rating — 68,600 ratings
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33

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3.91 avg rating — 75,506 ratings
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34

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4.23 avg rating — 98,269 ratings
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35

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4.35 avg rating — 99,473 ratings
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36

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4.10 avg rating — 84,713 ratings
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37

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3.92 avg rating — 67,620 ratings
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38

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3.88 avg rating — 76,408 ratings
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39

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4.14 avg rating — 73,607 ratings
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40

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3.95 avg rating — 63,676 ratings
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41

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3.76 avg rating — 79,806 ratings
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42

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3.99 avg rating — 78,875 ratings
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43

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4.11 avg rating — 90,776 ratings
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44

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3.96 avg rating — 74,310 ratings
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45

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3.76 avg rating — 92,473 ratings
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45

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4.04 avg rating — 87,703 ratings
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47

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3.87 avg rating — 70,697 ratings
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48

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4.01 avg rating — 87,932 ratings
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49

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4.27 avg rating — 71,594 ratings
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50

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3.89 avg rating — 72,466 ratings
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51

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3.79 avg rating — 63,143 ratings
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52

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4.07 avg rating — 78,026 ratings
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53

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3.85 avg rating — 95,546 ratings
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54

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4.32 avg rating — 74,876 ratings
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55

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4.06 avg rating — 64,462 ratings
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56

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4.20 avg rating — 92,403 ratings
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57

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3.57 avg rating — 76,344 ratings
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58

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3.73 avg rating — 85,231 ratings
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59

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4.05 avg rating — 84,081 ratings
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60

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3.77 avg rating — 60,427 ratings
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60

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3.68 avg rating — 72,988 ratings
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62

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4.07 avg rating — 57,248 ratings
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63

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4.32 avg rating — 91,335 ratings
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63

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3.88 avg rating — 85,576 ratings
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65

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3.96 avg rating — 75,974 ratings
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65

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4.03 avg rating — 96,886 ratings
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67

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4.06 avg rating — 77,175 ratings
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68

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4.24 avg rating — 81,040 ratings
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68

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3.85 avg rating — 59,545 ratings
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70

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3.28 avg rating — 72,842 ratings
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71

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3.96 avg rating — 58,195 ratings
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72

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4.43 avg rating — 85,356 ratings
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72

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4.07 avg rating — 60,034 ratings
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74

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4.07 avg rating — 64,764 ratings
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75

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4.12 avg rating — 73,389 ratings
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76

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4.01 avg rating — 71,121 ratings
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77

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4.16 avg rating — 62,613 ratings
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78

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3.87 avg rating — 66,575 ratings
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4.44 avg rating — 81,063 ratings
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80

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3.82 avg rating — 69,405 ratings
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80

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4.33 avg rating — 82,901 ratings
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82

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4.27 avg rating — 73,480 ratings
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82

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4.07 avg rating — 81,640 ratings
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82

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3.86 avg rating — 53,952 ratings
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85

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4.01 avg rating — 84,026 ratings
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86

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3.69 avg rating — 99,372 ratings
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87

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4.06 avg rating — 62,478 ratings
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87

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4.46 avg rating — 73,112 ratings
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89

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4.25 avg rating — 76,549 ratings
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3.94 avg rating — 54,755 ratings
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91

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3.84 avg rating — 72,448 ratings
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92

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4.18 avg rating — 80,796 ratings
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93

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3.73 avg rating — 59,166 ratings
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93

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4.02 avg rating — 71,836 ratings
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95

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4.07 avg rating — 77,511 ratings
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96

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4.06 avg rating — 61,849 ratings
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96

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4.01 avg rating — 95,526 ratings
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96

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4.21 avg rating — 75,986 ratings
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99

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4.22 avg rating — 78,403 ratings
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99

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3.96 avg rating — 89,584 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 11098 books
172 friends
Dennis 823 books
0 friends
Anna 119 books
4 friends
Viktoriia 9573 books
31 friends
Mickey 24607 books
74 friends
Judith 5528 books
19 friends
Frank 3364 books
59 friends
Beth 2216 books
23 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-21 of 21 (21 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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