Mystery vs. Thriller vs. Suspense vs. Crime

mystery/crime

mystery doesn't have to be crime or murder while crime is well always crime

I really dislike the term "thriller" but that's the category my two novels most easily fit.

If an agent claims to be looking for thrillers, plus any or all of the others, I describe my work in the cover letter as a thriller. If they list suspense, but not thriller, I call it suspense. I generally don't send to an agent that only lists mystery as a category.

HOWEVER...I've found it helps to look at more than one reference, if available. One reference might say Agent X only wants mystery, yet another reference might say Agent X represents mysteries, thrillers, suspense, crime, detective, action/adventure, etc.

Crime novel encompasses anything that involves a crime, whether it's the commission of or solving of. This usually goes for the nebulous books that reveal who the criminal is at the beginning or capers with the big diamond heist at the end.

Mystery is the solving of a mystery or riddle. Often, mystery books are murder mysteries, and detective fiction usually falls under this category. The who or how is left hidden until the big reveal at the end. The mystery does not have to be a crime.

Thriller is a race against time-- only 24 hours before the dam blows or the daughter is killed sort of thing. The perpetrator has to be stopped before it's too late.

Suspense usually lets the reader see both sides-- the hero and villain-- putting the tension in by showing the reader what the villain is up to. Can the hero get to the villain before it's too late? To me, suspense and thriller are similar, exept perhaps in pacing. Suspense is slower, I believe.

The important thing in "picking" a genre is figuring out which description fits BEST. Sure, just about any story can fall into several categories, but which one fits BEST? If it's a legal thriller, then call it that even if it includes crime. Crime story is more nebulous and more of a catch-all (IMO) than legal thriller, which is rather specific.

I sell my book as either mystery or detective fiction (depending on whether the agent lists mysteries or if they prefer detective fiction.) Mystery is broader, but really my story is a detective fiction.

Which genre sells best? Call it that.

I think this is a good question. My story is a middle grade with elements of both fantasy and mystery. Both elements are pretty strong throughout the story so I will initially query agents who are interested in both. I'll widen the net to include those listing only one or the other (mystery or fantasy) if I get shot down after the first volley.

My WIP could best be described as a CRIME/SUSPENSE Unfortunately, I've never seen that classification.

basshead said:

and I feel like they belong in the other categories as well.

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I totally feel your pain. I am currently writing a Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Thriller, Mystery. lol.

I know that Sci-Fi and Fantasy is different but I ride the line between the two (depends on if you believe in some theories I guess), but its a race against time and nobody know's "whodunnit"...haha. I have no idea how I will query it in the end. sigh. But first things first...finish it.

Clair Dickson said:

Crime novel encompasses anything that involves a crime, whether it's the commission of or solving of. This usually goes for the nebulous books that reveal who the criminal is at the beginning or capers with the big diamond heist at the end.

Mystery is the solving of a mystery or riddle. Often, mystery books are murder mysteries, and detective fiction usually falls under this category. The who or how is left hidden until the big reveal at the end. The mystery does not have to be a crime.

Thriller is a race against time-- only 24 hours before the dam blows or the daughter is killed sort of thing. The perpetrator has to be stopped before it's too late.

Suspense usually lets the reader see both sides-- the hero and villain-- putting the tension in by showing the reader what the villain is up to. Can the hero get to the villain before it's too late? To me, suspense and thriller are similar, exept perhaps in pacing. Suspense is slower, I believe.

The important thing in "picking" a genre is figuring out which description fits BEST. Sure, just about any story can fall into several categories, but which one fits BEST? If it's a legal thriller, then call it that even if it includes crime. Crime story is more nebulous and more of a catch-all (IMO) than legal thriller, which is rather specific.

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Excellent definitions!

I've just spent the day searching several sites (AgentQuery, Publisher's Marketplace, WordHustler, QueryTracker), using multiple permutations of "Crime/detective/suspense/police" searching one word at a time, two words, or multiple words.
The results varied, mostly they returned many agents who listed "True Crime" or "Thrillers" somewhere in their lists of interests. After further investigation, I learned that these agents handled mostly romance. If they did handle a mystery, it was a gothic romance mystery. The message I got from their blurbs in the search results, was that it would be an extreme longshot that they would even finish reading the query letter.

After reading Noah Lukeman's How to Write a Great Query Letter, I was determined to find an agent that represented an author who wrote and published a book similay to mine. So far, I'm not having any luck.

Does anyone have any suggestions on a better search method?

Darts? ;-)

Seriously, though, mystery/suspense is a broad genre returning many agent results. I get a bit overwhelmed when I go through looking for "good matches". Sometimes you have to broaden the search. Many of the agents I saw that represented mysteries also represented a lot of other things. In fact, because of the way my novel is written, I started with agents who represented both mysteries and erotica, figuring they would be less likely to be turned off by the things the story contains.

Just because an agent likes romance and mystery both doesn't mean they won't enjoy a good mystery that doesn't have any romance.

What Clair says is true, but that still doesn't lead me to a book that an agent has repped that remotely sounds like the one I wrote. How do I find one to compare to mine, if all they seem to be hyping (and selling) is romance and fantasy.

RJK- I wanted to drop in and let you know about WordHustler's Advanced Market Wizard- it's a deeper way to search our markets. It's just to the right of our main search box at the top of each Markets page. You've got to be signed in to use it, fyi.

I selected "Novel" as the type of manuscript, "Agent" as the market type, and then I picked "Crime," "Suspense," and "Thriller" from the tags. The Wizard came up with 186 agencies that represent books that are either one, two, or all of those tags.

Once you have narrowed down agents who are looking for books similar to what you write, you can check their Client List to get a better idea of their tastes. Clair makes a good point when she said "Just because an agent likes romance and mystery both doesn't mean they won't enjoy a good mystery that doesn't have any romance."

Hope this helps!

Best,
Anne

RJK said:

What Clair says is true, but that still doesn't lead me to a book that an agent has repped that remotely sounds like the one I wrote. How do I find one to compare to mine

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Go to a bookstore or library.

Find recent books that you think are reminiscent of yours or targeted to a similar audience.

Look for the agents' names in the acknowledgments--if there are no acknowledgments, write down the authors' names and use Google or Querytracker or ask here to find out who those authors' agents are.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Basshead - sounds like a legal thriller to me. Thrillers are big right now, you want that word in your query.

RJK - sounds like a crime thriller. Mine is a literary crime thriller. Sort of. Not really a thriller though. It's hard to classify. I keep sticking thriller in the query because thrillers are what they want at the moment, and it does have some elements of a thriller.

Have you read any books that are similar to yours? Do you have a line in your query letter that says "This work is similar in style and genre to ..." Then figure out what those books are classified as, if you can.

I should add that I've not been successful as of yet in getting an agent, so my advice might not be the best. I do have three agents looking at fulls and three looking at partials at the moment, so the query letter can't be that bad.

RJK said:

Does anyone have any suggestions on a better search method?

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The only method for the agent hunt that made sense to me is to compile a list of potential agents (I'm trying to get at least 50 potential agents in the genre I'm writing that are AAR members who are accepting new clients) and then send off queries in batches of 5 or so. If after 15 to 20 queries there are no hits, then it might be the query. In which case, I'll rewrite the query and keep after the list.

I read somewhere that Nathan Bransford (agent for Curtis Brown) eventually agrees to rep 1% of queries that he receives. If you work that percentage in reverse, then if you query 100 agents, you might find just one.

However, that said, I'm in process too, so I don't know if it'll work. I wish you luck though.

Allie

How would you define Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson? That's the closest thing I can find to my novel.
(Not that I'm comparing myself to David Guterson. I'm talking about genre.)