Mystery

Mystery stories are about solving puzzles or figuring out who committed a crime. They are full of clues, suspects, and surprises. Readers get to play detective and try to solve the mystery before the characters do. Mystery books are some of the most exciting stories you can read.

How Mysteries Work

Most mysteries start with a problem, like a missing item or an unexplained event. A detective or main character looks for clues and talks to suspects. Along the way, there are often red herrings, which are fake clues meant to trick you. At the end, the mystery is solved.

Famous Mystery Series

Many popular book series are mysteries. Encyclopedia Brown solves one case per chapter. Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys have been solving mysteries since the 1920s and 1930s. Cam Jansen uses her photographic memory to crack cases. These books show that kids can be great detectives too.

Fun Facts

• Agatha Christie is the best-selling mystery writer of all time, with over two billion books sold.
• The board game Clue is based on the mystery genre.
• The word whodunit is a fun way to describe a mystery story.

Did You Know?

Edgar Allan Poe is often called the father of the detective story because he wrote one of the first mystery stories in 1841.