Bleiler, Richard J. Reference and Research Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction. 2d. ed. Ref PN3448 D4 B59 2004. A guide to novels by specific settings and sub-genres, from African American mysteries to locked room mysteries to suspense novels.
Charles, John, et al. The Readers' Advisory Guide to Mystery. 2d ed. Z711.5 C48 2012. Guide to major authors by sub-genre (amateur detectives, police procedurals, etc.).
Gifford, Justin. Pimping Fictions: African American Crime Literature and the Untold Story of Black Pulp Publishing. PS374 N4 G485 2013. Pulp paperbacks by Black writers.
MysteryNet.com. Click on Books & Resources at the top to see a list of subgenres with examples of authors for each.
Niebuhr, Gary Warren. Make Mine a Mystery: A Reader's Guide to Mystery and Dective Fiction. PN3448 D4 N537 2003. Discusses types of detectives (amateur, public, private) and their sub-genres.
Rollyson, Carl, ed. Critical Survey of Mystery and Detective Fiction. rev. ed. 5 vols. Ref PN3448 D4 C75 2008. Guide to subgenres in volume 5.
The Cambridge Companion to Crime Fiction. ed. by Martin Priestman. PR830 D4 C36 2003. Chapters on various subgenres (private eye, women detectives, Black crime fiction, etc.).
Genres of Mystery and Crime Fiction
There are a number of sub-genres within the broad category of mystery/detective/crime fiction. They overlap and are open to subjective interpretation. Some of the widely recognized categories are:
Standard Private Eye. Writers include Ross Macdonald, Walter Mosley, Sara Paretsky, and Robert B. Parker. Some of these are hard -boiled (see below), some are "soft-boiled," featuring more psychology and less action. The PI typically has a license to practice and collects a fee.
Cozy Mysteries. This style features minimal violence, sex, and social relevance; a solution achieved by intellect or intuition rather than police procedure, with order restored in the end; honorable and well bred characters; and a setting in a closed community. Overlaps with the Classic Detective category, below. Check out Helen Androski's "Cozies: A Selective List." Writers include Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Elizabeth Daly.
Classic Detective. Sometimes called the old-fashioned detective story, this sub-genre was at its height in the 1930s. It generally features a mysterious death, a closed circle of suspects who all have motives and reasonable opportunity to commit the crime. The central character is the detective who, by logical deduction from the facts in evidence, solves the mystery. Overlaps with the Cozy Mysteries category, above. Writers include Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Patricia Wentworth, and John Dickson Carr.
Police Procedurals. In the 1940s the police procedural evolved as a new style of dectective fiction. Unlike the heroes of Christie, Chandler, and Spillane, the police detective was subject to error and was constrained by rules and regulations. As Gary Huasladen says in Places for Dead Bodies, "not all the clients were insatiable bombshells, and invariably there was life outside the job." The detective in the police procedural does the things police officers do to catch a criminal. Writers include Ed McBain, P. D. James, and Bartholomew Gill.
Hard-Boiled. In his biography Ross Macdonald, Matthew J. Bruccoli describes hard-boiled literature as "realistic fiction with som eor all of the following characteristics--objective viewpoint, impersonal tone, violent action, colloquial speech, tough characters, and understated style; usually, but not limited to, detective or crime fiction." Writers include Raymond Chandler, John D. MacDonald, Sue Grafton, and Bill Pronzini.
Thrillers. Thrillers have a basic set of structural compoenents, such as threats to the social order, heroes and villains, and deduction and resolution. Many thrillers are also mystery or detective stories. Examples are Patricia Highsmith's Ripley novels and novels by Robert Ludlum.
For discussions of these and other sub-genres (female sleuth, GLBT sleuth, historical mysteries, locked door mysteries, etc.), see the resources in the left column for more information.