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Mysteries are a great form of escapism.
I love the way that books in this genre virtually always end with justice being served and criminals being held accountable for their actions, especially since neither of those things are at all guaranteed to happen in real life.
Figuring out how clues fit together amuses me, too. I’ve previously mentioned not being a big fan of red herrings, but I do like when a clue can be interpreted in more than one way. This leaves plenty of space for readers – and protagonists – to change our mind about who the culprit is depending on which explanation of what is going on we decide to accept as the most accurate one. It can also be a nice way to practice skills like critical thinking, observation, and developing a stronger memory.
While I don’t read a lot of romances, paranormal romantic mysteries can be appealing to me. This is especially true if they’re set in the past, involve ghosts, and/or are about a cold case. It makes me smile to think of a ghost helping to solve his or her own murder case before finally being able to rest for good.
My favourite niche in this genre are cozy mysteries. Not only do they often have delightful puns in their titles, many of them seem to be set in or near cozy places like bakeries, libraries, or coffee shops. This softens the edges of the murders in them and makes it more likely that I’ll keep reading.
Historical mysteries can be interesting, too, as they generally feature characters who lived many years before the development of modern investigation protocols like dusting for fingerprints or testing blood or hair left at the scene that might have belonged to the culprit. This can leave a lot of room for other types of evidence like eyewitness testimony, letters or diary entries that talk about the crime, or, if the investigator is lucky, maybe even a straightforward confession!
In short, I think this genre is cool to visit on occasion and am open to any suggestions you all may have from the cozy, paranormal, historical, and/or romantic mystery subgenres.
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Here are my answers for this week’s prompt.
Here’s a fun fact about me: I love foggy days so long as I don’t have to travel anywhere during them. (Driving in fog is too dangerous for me to ever look forward to it!)
(I received my annual covid and flu vaccines yesterday, so I may be a little late responding to other people’s posts depending on how I’m feeling today.)
The Halloween freebie post is one of my favourite recurring Top Ten Tuesday topics because Halloween is my favourite holiday of the year and I love seeing what everyone does with this theme.
If I’m bored but cannot leave my surroundings because I’m sitting in a waiting room or the weather outside is frightful, I’ll probably people watch, read a book, or play Royal Match (a tile matching game) on my phone.
These days I am generally not interested in:
One of the biggest improvements I’ve seen since I was a kid has to do with how much easier it is now to find people who share the same hobby, interest, identity, or diagnosis.
Therefore, I’m going to be making a list of books I was not assigned to read in school but wish had been on the syllabus. I ended up borrowing some of them from the library and reading them on weekends on over the summer. It would have been helpful to have a teacher around to explain certain cultural norms that have since changed or references to other works I didn’t quite get, for example.