Put a Little Mystery Into Your Life
MYSTERY (Noun)
(plural mysteries)
1. Something secret or unexplainable;unknown.
"The truth behind the events remains a mystery".
2. Someone or thing with an obscure or puzzling
nature. "That man is a mystery."
I love mysteries.So I wanted to share some of my favorites and other popular mysteries.
Contents of This Lens
- The Story of the Mystery
- Hardboiled Fiction
- Hardboiled Fiction
- My Favorite Mystery Movies
- Noir Fiction
- British Detectives
- New Text / Write module
- Mystery,Suspense and Thriller Magazines
- Solve a Crime...Play a Game
- Vote for your favorite mystery or add your choice
- Blogs posting about mysteries
- Rent Your Favorite Mystery Movie Here
- Agatha Christie
- Agatha Christie
- Sherlock Holmes
- Sherlock Holmes
- Mystery Links
- Psychological & Suspense
- Cozy Mysteries
- I would enjoy hearing from you
The Story of the Mystery
Mystery fiction' is a loosely-defined term that is often used as a synonym of detective fiction — in other words a novel or short story in which a detective (either professional or amateur) solves a crime. The term "mystery fiction" may sometimes be limited to the subset of detective stories in which the emphasis is on the puzzle element and its logical solution (cf. whodunit), as a contrast to hardboiled detective stories which focus on action and gritty realism. However, in more general usage "mystery" may be used to describe any form of crime fiction, even if there is no mystery to be solved. For example, the Mystery Writers of America describes itself as "the premier organization for mystery writers, professionals allied to the crime writing field, aspiring crime writers, and those who are devoted to the genre".Mystery Writers of America
Although normally associated with the crime genre, the term "mystery fiction" may in certain situations refer to a completely different genre, where the focus is on supernatural mystery (even if no crime is involved). This usage was common in the pulp magazines of the 1930s and 1940s, where titles such as Dime Mystery, Thrilling Mystery and Spicy Mystery offered what at the time were described as "weird menace" stories ? supernatural horror in the vein of Grand Guignol. This contrasted with parallel titles such as Dime Detective, Thrilling Detective and Spicy Detective, which contained conventional hardboiled crime fiction. The first use of "mystery" in this sense was by Dime Mystery'', which started out as an ordinary crime fiction magazine but switched to "weird menace" during the latter part of 1933.
Hardboiled Fiction
Hardboiled Fiction
Hardboiled crime fiction refers to a literary style pioneered by Carroll John Daly in the mid-1920s, popularized by Dashiell Hammett over the course of the decade, and refined by Raymond Chandler beginning in the late 1930s. Hardboiled fiction, most commonly associated with detective stories, is distinguished by an unsentimental portrayal of crime, violence, and sex. From its earliest days, hardboiled fiction was published in and closely associated with so-called pulp magazines, most famously Black Mask; later, many hardboiled novels were published by houses specializing in paperback originals, also colloquially known as "pulps." Consequently, "pulp fiction" is often used as a synonym for hardboiled crime fiction. In the United States, the original hardboiled style has been emulated by innumerable writers, notably including Chester Himes, Mickey Spillane, Ross Macdonald, John D. MacDonald, Robert B. Parker, Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton, and Walter Mosley.The name comes from a colloquial phrase of understatement. For an egg, to be hardboiled is to be comparatively tough. The hardboiled detective-originated by Daly's Terry Mack and Race Williams and epitomized by Hammett's Sam Spade and Chandler's Philip Marlowe-not only solves mysteries, like his "softer" counterparts, he (and often these days, she) confronts danger and engages in violence on a regular basis. The hardboiled detective also has a characteristically tough attitude-in fact, Spade and Marlowe are two of the primary fictional models for the attitude that has come to be known as "attitude": cool, cocky, flippant. For extensive detail on the identifying marks of the style, see the history of American hardboiled fiction.
My Favorite Mystery Movies
The Maltese Falcon
Amazon Price: (as of 12/01/2008) 
The Big Sleep
Amazon Price: $17.99 (as of 12/01/2008)
Touch of Evil (Restored to Orson Welles' Vision)
Amazon Price: $10.49 (as of 12/01/2008)
Kiss Me Deadly
Amazon Price: (as of 12/01/2008)
Murder, My Sweet
Amazon Price: $14.99 (as of 12/01/2008)
Noir Fiction
Noir fiction is the name sometimes given to a mode of crime fiction regarded as a subset of the hardboiled style. According to noir aficionado George Tuttle,In this sub-genre, the protagonist is usually not a detective, but instead either a victim, a suspect, or a perpetrator. He is someone tied directly to the crime, not an outsider called to solve or fix the situation. Other common characteristics...are the emphasis on sexual relationships and the use of sex to advance the plot and the self-destructive qualities of the lead characters. This type of fiction also has the lean, direct writing style and the gritty realism commonly associated with hardboiled fiction.[1]
The seminal American writer in the noir fiction mode was James M. Cain-regarded as the third major figure of the early hardboiled scene, he debuted as a crime novelist in 1934, right between Hammett and Chandler. Other important U.S. writers in the noir tradition are Cornell Woolrich, Dorothy B. Hughes, Jim Thompson, David Goodis, Charles Williams, and Elmore Leonard. The term "noir fiction" may evoke unrelenting gloom; in fact, while the work of all the major authors in the field might be characterized by a fatalistic attitude, it has been expressed in a variety of tones. Woolrich and Goodis indeed often portray what seems to be a sunless world, but Leonard is frequently bright, even when the color's blood red. Hughes and Williams are somewhere in the middle-her work is serious, yet with a lot of hardboiled "attitude," while his forte is the philosophical smile and shrug. As for Cain and Thompson, each wrote some of the blackest of American genre fiction, and some of the funniest.
The popular use of "noir" in the term "noir fiction" derives immediately from "film noir" as it has been used to characterize certain putatively "dark" Hollywood crime dramas and melodramas, many early examples of which were based on works by the original hardboiled writers. In turn, "noir" (French for "black"), first applied to American films in the mid-1940s by observers in France, was used there in similar senses. Most relevantly, the term roman noir ("black novel") was employed to describe a range of books, some that an English speaker might think of as mysteries, others as gothic melodramas. Note that while the meanings of "noir fiction" and roman noir are closely related, the derivation is not direct. Making the connection even tighter, in 1945 the French publisher Gallimard brought out a new series of paperback thrillers, many of them translations of hardboiled American fiction. The line was called Série noire.
British Detectives
Mystery,Suspense and Thriller Magazines
Amazon Error: Could not open remote connection
Sorry, there are no results available from Amazon.Solve a Crime...Play a Game
Vote for your favorite mystery or add your choice
Hold Tight by Harlan Coben
<b>#1 bestselling author Harlan Coben asks t more...0 points
Where Are You Now?: A Novel by Mary Higgins Clark
<b>From America's Queen of Suspense comes a more...0 points
Dead Heat (Political Thrillers Series #5) by Joel C. Rosenberg
For Jon and Erin Bennett, the world seems to be sp more...0 points
Night Freeze by Lee Emory
A chance for a new start...
Phoenix Police Detecti more...0 points
Phoenix Police Detective Niall Malone accepts a job to head up a task force hunting down a serial killer in another state. When at last he reports on the job, after spending some time in a Phoenix hospital, he walks smack into a wall of bigoted feelings toward his outsider status.
The defilement of a proud symbol...
The killer s main target points to Medical Examiner, Dr. Shyla Clifford. She receives gruesome, butchered pieces of the bodies to identify, usually frozen...
0 points
Blogs posting about mysteries
- Mystery Books News: Mysteries on TV: Cannon, Jake and the Fatman ...
- Mysteries on TV, your source for the most complete selection of detective, amateur sleuth, private investigator, and suspense television mystery series now available or coming soon to DVD, is profiling two series that have season DVDs ...
- The Mystery Bookshelf: Dashing Through the Snow - Book Review
- The Mystery Bookshelf. Reviews of popular fiction novels, concentrating on murder mysteries, suspense, psychological thrillers, amateur sleuth and cozies. Monday, December 1, 2008. Dashing Through the Snow - Book Review ...
- InkSpot: Bloody Black Friday
- We write novels ranging from cozy mysteries to suspense thrillers. Our members are international bestsellers and award winners. We love chatting almost as much as writing, so drop by often and see what the Midnight Writers are up to. ...
- Mystery Books News: Lynda La Plante Awarded CBE for Services to ...
- La Plante is probably best known for the television series she developed (Prime Suspect, Trial & Retribution), but she has also written several suspense novels and is the author of the Anna Travis mystery series. ...
Rent Your Favorite Mystery Movie Here
- 001- No Country for Old Men
A hunter (Josh Brolin) stumbles upon a dead body, $2 million and a stash of heroin in a Texas desert...- 002- Déjà Vu
Déjà vu -- that powerful but fleeting sense that you've been here, or met someone, before....- 003- The Da Vinci Code
Based on Dan Brown's best-seller of the same name, Ron Howard's gripping film stars Tom Hanks as Har...- 004- Syriana
George Clooney (who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar and Golden Globe for his role) plays CIA opera...- 005- The Bourne Supremacy
When a CIA sting in Berlin turns murderously wrong, everyone suspects it's the handiwork of Jason Bo...- 006- Michael Clayton
Screenwriter Tony Gilroy makes his directorial debut with this dramatic thriller about burned-out co...- 007- Firewall
As creator of a state-of-the-art security system for a Seattle-area bank, Jack Stanfield (Harrison F...- 008- Shooter
An expert marksman (Mark Wahlberg) is coaxed out of seclusion by colleagues who need his help in pre...- 009- Gone Baby Gone
When a 4-year-old girl goes missing in Dorchester, one of Boston's toughest hoods, private investiga...- 010- The Constant Gardener
This tale of political intrigue centers on Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes), a member of the British Hi...- Try Netflix free for 14 days
Agatha Christie
Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller; 15 September 1890 - 12 January 1976), commonly known as Agatha Christie, was an English crime writer of novels, short stories and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but is best remembered for her 80 detective novels and her successful West End theatre plays. Her works, particularly featuring detectives Hercule Poirot or Miss Jane Marple, have given her the title the 'Queen of Crime' and made her one of the most important and innovative writers in the development of the genre.
Christie has been called?by the Guinness Book of World Records, among others ? the best-selling writer of books of all time and the best-selling writer of any kind, along with William Shakespeare. Only the Bible is known to have outsold her collected sales of roughly four billion copies of novels.Agatha Christie gets a clue for filmmakers - Entertainment News, Michael Fleming, Media - Variety UNESCO states that she is currently the most translated individual author in the world with only the collective corporate works of Walt Disney Productions surpassing her. Christie's books have been translated into (at least) 56 languages.
Her stage play, The Mousetrap, holds the record for the longest initial run in the world, opening at the Ambassadors Theatre in London on 25 November 1952, and as of 2008 is still running after more than 23,000 performances. In 1955, Christie was the first recipient of the Mystery Writers of America's highest honor, the Grand Master Award, and in the same year, Witness for the Prosecution was given an Edgar Award by the MWA, for Best Play. Most of her books and short stories have been filmed, some many times over (Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile and 4.50 From Paddington for instance), and many have been adapted for television, radio, video games and comics.
In 1968, Booker Books, a subsidiary of the agri-industrial conglomerate Booker-McConnell, bought a 51% stake in Agatha Christie Limited, the private company that Christie had set up for tax reasons. Booker later increased its stake to 64%. In 1998, Booker sold its shares to Chorion, a company whose portfolio also includes the literary estates of Enid Blyton and Dennis Wheatley.Chorion
Agatha Christie
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, who first appeared in publication in 1887. He is the creation of Scottish-born author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A brilliant London-based consulting detective, Holmes is famous for his intellectual prowess, and is renowned for his skillful use of "deductive reasoning" while using abductive reasoning (inference to the best explanation) and astute observation to solve difficult cases.
Sherlock Holmes
Mystery Links
- Crime Fiction Dossier
- Commentary on the world of crime fiction, including mystery and thriller novels, authors, reviews and publishing.
- Allan Guthrie's Noir Originals Zine: Noir And Hardboiled Fiction
- Home New Writers Allan Guthrie Links
"You
can't end a story with the cops getting the killer. I don't think the law is a
very interesting nemesis." James M. CainSubmission GuidelinesNote: way back in the introduction to issue #4
(July 2004) I noted that the e-zine format was proving very - Books 'n' Bytes Mystery Index
- Mystery information page
- Over My Dead Body! The Mystery Magazine Online
- Over My Dead Body
- Fantastic Fiction
- Information on over 200,000 books. Bibliographies for over 10,000 authors.
- Stop, You're Killing Me!
- Here's a site to die for...if you love mystery books!
Stop, You're Killing Me! has title lists of your favorite mystery authors and series characters. - Mystery Net.com: Online mysteries, mystery games, mystery books
- Online mysteries, mystery games, mystery books and resources. For everyone who enjoys a mystery...
- Classic Crime Fiction - Detective Fiction - Mystery Books Website
- The ultimate resource site for collectors and readers of crime, mystery and detective fiction.
- Agatha Christie: A Free & Comprehensive Guide To Her Life & Work
- Agatha Christie. Find out all about the queen of crime. Her biography, her writing, her detectives and much more.
- Sherlock Holmes - Detective Stories in Short Story and Book format
- Sherlock Holmes Detective Stories in short story and book/novel form. Here you will find some of the most popular Sherlock Holmes cases, directly adapted from the original text. Includes the famous Hound of the Baskervilles, Sign of Four and more.
Psychological & Suspense
Cozy Mysteries
I would enjoy hearing from you
Sharon wrote
You got to check this book out. Cool psychological/matrix. Has anybody read this book yet? I want to discuss with people who read this book. If you haven't yet, go to amazon.com, publishamerica to buy Parallel Journey. Get in touch with me. My email address is sharonj0023@yahoo.com%u2026Joyce
Posted September 04, 2008
Lee_Emory wrote...
Great lens! You've created a great resource for people who love mysteries. I'd love for you to stop by my lens and say hi when you get the chance.
Posted August 22, 2008
CliveAnderson wrote...
Hi Penny, I really enjoyed your lens, full of great and wonderful things. Thank You. An easy 5 stars.
Kind Regards
Clive Anderson
Traffic Solution Specialist
Posted May 03, 2008
