Here's a curveball for you. While murder is synonomous with the mystery novel, can there be adult mystery books without murder? Are any of them any good?
To be clear, murder can happen in the story, but I'm looking for something where a murder isn't the big mystery trying to be solved. I'm open to ANY suggestions. It can be old, obscure, a graphic novel, whatever, as long as it's entertaining and murder isn't the center of the mystery.
Penny for your thoughts?
by Bulky_Sandwich8493
2 Comments
if you haven’t read the 7 1/2 deaths of evelyn hardcastle by stuart turton yet, it’s exactly this. there is a murder, but the mystery is actually about the time loop and why the protagonist is stuck in different bodies. it’s wild fr.
I think something like 70%+ of the Sherlock Holmes stories contain no murder, many of them end up not even being crimes.
There are lots of classics with no murder, including some of the oldest detective stories, ie, The Purloined Letter.
Adult non-murder mysteries tend to focus on blackmail, kidnapping, disappearances, thefts.
One of the early Marple books centers around anonymous hate mail, but I can’t remember if murder shows up later.