In your opinion, what is the difference between mystery and suspense?

[Georgia]

Feliks, sorry I misspelled your name.

[Feliks]

Well that is high praise, indeed. Thank you very kindly!

I hope instances like these make up a tiny bit for all the other times when I'm stumbling around Goodreads, blowing my stack like a crazy person. ha! Jekyll/Hyde, I guess.. :(

[R.F.]

Excellent answer Feliks. My book in progress is a caper novel, quite a bit different than the mystery preceding it, but both have elements of suspense.

R.F. Sharp

[Feliks]

Thank you as well. I wish you luck with your publishing. Capers and heists are extremely difficult to conceive and write.

[David]

In a mystery you know as much as the protagonist, in suspense you know more and feel conflicted about it.

[[deleted user]]

Feliks wrote: "A thriller invokes excitement by dangerously upsetting something which we typically take for granted in our world as 'stable'. The narrative makes us sweat and itch until it is put-back-in-place.
..."

Fantastic post Feliks. Thanks for sharing your insight to the topic here.

[Feliks]

Thx! This thread is chock-full of thoughtful people contributing interesting perspectives. Its a pleasure to participate. :)

[Perri]

Feliks wrote: "A
'thriller'
invokes excitement by dangerously upsetting something which we typically take for granted in our world as 'stable'. The narrative makes us sweat and itch until it is 'put-back-in-p..."

Interesting! I agree that as we become more cynical, mysteries matter less. But as our society becomes more chaotic, I would argue that we need thrillers and crime stories MORE to try and make sense in this world. Of course this may only explain my interest in them :)

[Perri]

From a previous idea: mystery is less active through cynicism of today's legal system. thriller and suspense are active through a struggle to make sense of today's world

[Janis]

The classic distinction is level of suspense and threat. In a thriller, the level is intense and pretty much unrelieved.

[Dan]

My latest book, Complicit WitnessComplicit Witness is featured on Booksends and on sale for only 99 cents at Amazon reached top 4 best sellers in crime genre

[Peter]

For me the mystery is the event/murder the investigators are trying to solve. It's either happened or it happens very early in the story. The suspense part is knowing the 'bad guy' is going to do something that will impact the outcome -but you don't quite know what it is until it happens. This is the bit that keeps you reading even if you have figured out the mystery. Of course, the story can be set up so that you know who did it and the suspense is driven by the question of whether the investigators will work it out or will the bad guy get away with it.

[[deleted user]]

You're correct. There'e been a whole bunch of thoughtful perspectives and insights contributed by various members here regarding the topic at hand.

[Eduardo]

Interesting question, which can be more or less be answered by looking at the meaning of the two words. Obviously mystery and suspense can happen within the same story, but one does not need the other. For me a good mystery is about solving a riddle, about discovering answers to an array of questions. That most mysteries happen with a good deal of suspense is simply a by-product of good story-telling, since pursuing a set of unknowns can be rather academic without it.

Now, suspense can happen completely in the absence of mystery. Often the unknowns a character faces add to the suspense. On the other hand you can have plenty of suspense if the bad guy is threatening to toss our protagonist over a mile high cliff. Everything's known, nothing mysterious to solve, and yet, there's the suspense: will it happen or will our good guy live on?