Mystery vs Thriller

And don't forget Suspense!

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From Reddit contributor Claraak

Mysteries have puzzles that offer solutions. By the fair play standard of the Golden Age crime writers, readers should be given all the information to find the solution. The definition is very clear—if the book doesn’t feature a plot centered around solving something (usually a crime), it’s not a mystery. In addition to a solution, mysteries often (but in nodern times not always) offer Classics are Agatha Christie (who also wrote thrillers!) and Conan Doyle, PD James; moderns are Michael Connelly, Peter Robinson, Ann Cleeves, and many more.

Thrillers and suspense are less clearly defined and are mostly marketing terms, but there are some distinguishing factors.

Thrillers may or may not have a central puzzle, but they do tend to have a faster pace and often more overt violence and sense of danger. While a mystery can be placid, introspective, or even cozy, thrillers are meant to have propulsive plots and high emotions. It’s also a bigger genre, incorporating things like spy books most notably, where the mystery (if it exists) may not be solved, or may be inherently insolvable because of the veils and machinations of bureaucracy and power. Agatha Christie’s spy novels are early examples. Lee Child and Janes Patterson writes thrillers, so did Robert Ludlum. Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is a thriller even though the first book has a mystery with a solution. Then you have domestic and psychological thrillers, like Gone Girl, where any mystery is internal and this ultimately unknowable. In movies, thrillers often end on a note of ambiguity (think many Hitchcocks, or Basic Instinct).

Suspense is vibes. If a book is marketed as suspense, expect the setting or characters to be tense or spooky. A main difference between a suspense and a thriller is iften gender of the author—Lisa Gardner is a thriller author I thought, but when I looked her up, she’s called suspense. Unlike thrillers, suspense rarely deals with politics and large plots and conspiracy; the scale is often smaller. May have paranormal elements. While thrillers get your blood pumping, suspense engages a sense of dread. I think books classified as suspense are often horror literature, or mysteries without solutions or resolutions. Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None is suspense; Highsmith’s Ripley series may be suspense; Tana French, with her often unresolved plots, may be suspense; Megan Abbott writes suspense. But it’s a real marketing term more than a strict genre, and suspense versus thriller is often rather arbitrary.