Cracking the Mystery of Why We Love Mysteries
Amateur sleuths, hardboiled cops, private eyes, spooks and spies. We love them all. Mysteries and thrillers make up the second most popular genre of books after romance. Why are we as readers so drawn to these stories that plumb the dark recesses of human nature?
I’ve often pondered that question as I browse through mystery sections at the local bookshop or at the library, looking for something that grabs me. Genre fiction, after all, tends toward the formulaic. When we pick up a mystery or thriller, we know what it’s going to be about. A major crime, generally a murder or series of them, is committed, and the crime-solving protagonist nabs the killer. So why do we bother reading on when we know the basic outcome before we even crack open the cover? I’ve come up with a couple thoughts. See if you agree.
For one, we know that mysteries and thrillers promise us action and adventure — hot pursuits and drawn guns — that other books don’t deliver. It’s an adventure that few of us will get to experience in real life, but we can vicariously live through our protagonists. We can see ourselves in these hero figures, who are inevitably stronger, braver and more quick-thinking than the average person/reader. At some subconscious level, they represent who we’d like to be. We can participate in all this without fear or risk to ourselves. The price of…
