Subgenres of Mystery
There are many different subgenres of mystery stories. Something for everyone!
Classical Mystery
The classical mysteries are among the first mystery stories, beginning in the 1800s and continuing through the Golden Age of Detective Fiction in the 1920s and 1930s.
These stories established the concept of the private detective in fiction. The detective is typically an extremely knowledgeable man who uses reasoned deduction to solve the mystery.
Cozy Mystery
These mysteries are based somewhat on the style of classical mystery stories, and the puzzle of solving the mystery is emphasized more than the violent nature of the crime.
The detectives in these stories are typically amateur detectives, rather than professional private detectives or members of the police force, although they may have friends who are professionals. Often, the amateur detective has a profession, hobby, or special interest that gives them special knowledge that they use to help solve the crime.
Hardboiled
These mysteries emphasize gritty realism and the violence of crime.
The detectives in these stories are typically professional private detectives, often working alone. They tend to be tough and irreverent characters, streetwise, from the lower classes of society. They use their fists about as frequently as their brains to solve crimes.
Police Procedural
The detectives in these mysteries are professional members of the police force, and the stories described and emphasize the proper procedures and scientific techniques that official law enforcement uses to solve crimes.
The detectives and investigators in the stories are trained professionals, and subplots often explain how their professions affect their private lives.
Historical Mystery
These mysteries may take place in any time period in the past. The stories, besides focusing on the mystery or crime that has been committed, also focus on daily life and/or major events in the past. The historical setting isn't just backdrop. It's critical to the mystery and the solving of the crime, forming the circumstances of it and the techniques that the characters can use to solve it.
The detectives and investigators in the stories can have many possible professions. Some of them are members of the official law enforcement of their time, and others are amateur detectives. Their professions and knowledge are only limited to what would have been available in their time period. Some historical mysteries also include real historical people as characters, either as main characters or side characters.