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 — 66,499 ratings
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3.98 avg rating — 63,696 ratings
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4.08 avg rating — 78,180 ratings
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4.12 avg rating — 53,553 ratings
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3.91 avg rating — 98,572 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 — 87,540 ratings
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3.78 avg rating — 95,742 ratings
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3.98 avg rating — 83,654 ratings
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4.11 avg rating — 93,951 ratings
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4.04 avg rating — 69,746 ratings
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4.06 avg rating — 99,823 ratings
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14

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4.20 avg rating — 93,762 ratings
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4.07 avg rating — 97,860 ratings
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4.48 avg rating — 97,355 ratings
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17

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3.94 avg rating — 69,710 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 — 58,711 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 — 84,203 ratings
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22

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4.10 avg rating — 72,772 ratings
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3.98 avg rating — 85,203 ratings
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4.11 avg rating — 98,534 ratings
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25

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3.99 avg rating — 87,234 ratings
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26

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4.03 avg rating — 91,727 ratings
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27

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3.86 avg rating — 65,273 ratings
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28

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4.14 avg rating — 63,420 ratings
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28

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3.98 avg rating — 87,768 ratings
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30

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4.02 avg rating — 82,467 ratings
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31

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4.08 avg rating — 90,842 ratings
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32

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4.07 avg rating — 80,166 ratings
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33

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3.97 avg rating — 75,859 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 — 67,624 ratings
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36

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4.23 avg rating — 95,806 ratings
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37

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4.35 avg rating — 97,001 ratings
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38

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4.10 avg rating — 83,202 ratings
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39

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4.13 avg rating — 100,163 ratings
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40

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3.89 avg rating — 74,330 ratings
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41

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3.95 avg rating — 61,448 ratings
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42

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3.91 avg rating — 66,773 ratings
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43

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4.14 avg rating — 72,144 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 — 77,973 ratings
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46

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4.11 avg rating — 89,685 ratings
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46

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3.56 avg rating — 104,228 ratings
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48

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3.96 avg rating — 71,718 ratings
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3.76 avg rating — 91,872 ratings
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50

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3.87 avg rating — 68,655 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 — 85,206 ratings
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53

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3.98 avg rating — 104,453 ratings
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54

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4.27 avg rating — 70,021 ratings
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55

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3.85 avg rating — 96,990 ratings
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56

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4.07 avg rating — 76,104 ratings
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56

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4.44 avg rating — 78,727 ratings
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58

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3.88 avg rating — 71,618 ratings
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59

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3.79 avg rating — 62,560 ratings
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60

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3.93 avg rating — 98,833 ratings
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61

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3.57 avg rating — 73,539 ratings
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62

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4.18 avg rating — 78,428 ratings
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63

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3.85 avg rating — 94,066 ratings
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63

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4.32 avg rating — 72,585 ratings
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65

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4.20 avg rating — 90,235 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 — 84,624 ratings
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68

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3.88 avg rating — 82,004 ratings
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69

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4.05 avg rating — 82,402 ratings
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70

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4.06 avg rating — 75,753 ratings
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70

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3.96 avg rating — 56,448 ratings
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72

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3.77 avg rating — 59,877 ratings
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72

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4.32 avg rating — 89,108 ratings
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74

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4.23 avg rating — 79,286 ratings
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75

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3.28 avg rating — 72,195 ratings
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3.85 avg rating — 57,305 ratings
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3.96 avg rating — 74,440 ratings
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78

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4.03 avg rating — 95,841 ratings
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79

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4.23 avg rating — 95,859 ratings
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80

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4.07 avg rating — 63,713 ratings
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81

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4.43 avg rating — 83,152 ratings
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82

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4.01 avg rating — 68,722 ratings
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83

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4.07 avg rating — 59,251 ratings
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84

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4.12 avg rating — 72,005 ratings
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84

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4.13 avg rating — 100,202 ratings
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86

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3.82 avg rating — 69,158 ratings
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86

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3.93 avg rating — 53,150 ratings
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86

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3.85 avg rating — 52,055 ratings
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3.87 avg rating — 66,341 ratings
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4.27 avg rating — 72,123 ratings
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4.01 avg rating — 82,036 ratings
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92

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3.69 avg rating — 96,755 ratings
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92

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4.06 avg rating — 61,284 ratings
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94

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4.16 avg rating — 61,654 ratings
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94

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4.07 avg rating — 79,719 ratings
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94

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4.46 avg rating — 67,672 ratings
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97

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4.33 avg rating — 80,201 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 — 70,600 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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