Why are crimes always the basis for developing the mystery fiction puzzle which the reader and detective must solve. This has always perplexed me. Why not use other things in life as the source of the puzzle, something more ethically and morally sound than crimes, which, by the way, are often violent or deplorable as depicted in mystery fiction. I have not found a single article online that explains this. Is it because detectives in real life primarily investigate crimes, and hence mystery authors feel the need to reflect this in their novels?
Because that's what people want to read about. Who shot JR is much more interesting to people than how to solve world hunger, or who the mysterious philanthropist who donated money to a cancer charity.
Well, crimes aren't always the puzzle which must be solved. Medical mysteries are already their own subgenre. You could probably craft compelling mysteries centered around: Archaeology/History Science Cryptids Religion Accidents/Disasters Disappearances Some of these categories lend themselves to it better than others. An NTSB investigator looking into why an airliner crashed just doesn't have the kind of stakes a search for a child lost in the wilderness does, for example. I think that touches on why crime is the most common form of mystery in the genre. Crime automatically comes with a mystery (who did it?/how did they do it?), an antagonist with a degree of agency (the criminal), and stakes readers care about (will the criminal get caught?).
This post reminds me of the old Encyclopedia Brown books/show. His mysteries were sometimes "crimes," but a lot of times were mundane things like "who dug up the old lady's roses" or "who broke the neighbor's window." What I liked about them was that the author would give EB, and therefore the reader, all the clues necessary to solve the mystery, and would give the reader a chance to solve it before EB did (i.e. "who dunnit? turn the page to find out.") They were actually great books for reading comprehension. They trained the reader to not only read a paragraph, but to actually think about it and understand the context of what it was saying. I hardly ever solved the mystery correctly, but hey, I was 8.
I'm a fan of Arthur Conan Doyle . He wrote hundreds of short stories but most have now been forgotten and unread . It is a fact Sherlock Holmes is what pople like to read . Not as gruesome as modern crime fiction , but still popular. Some readers don't want anything too mundane , but not too removed from every day life . Not too complex , elements of familiarity helps in that respect . So crime fits the bill .
Because of: 1) High stakes - When the limits are up to killing a person, death is the ultimate price to pay. If the detective fucks up or even slips, he might end up dead, or worse have another (a loved) one die. 2) Drama - A dark story revolves usually around extreme situations and emotionally unstable characters. What's there not to like? 3) Thrill - Need I say more? The bang-bang, the karate, the execution of a masterplan, the boobie-trap, the chase, the abduction, the poison, the survival. 4) Unorthodox characters (people that most people don't befriend in their lifetime) - People that carry excessive luggage. Even when they're seemingly common people on the surface. What secrets do they hide? Which is the scummiest of them all? The killer or the one the killer is after? 5) Suspense - Time is of essence. Will they get the killer(s) before he strikes again? Before the innocent man winds up in jail? Before a bloody mob war breaks out? Etc... 6) Retribution - Will justice prevail? 7) Mystery - It's a given... All of the above make up for a fantastic playground for the writer and a promising story for the reader. Some people, like myself, enjoy the cutting edge. The only difference I believe that a crime mystery has that raises the bar is the stakes. People are in danger. Your sleuth is a person that seeks danger to neutralise it. This alone, is an interesting concept.
