What is Mystery?

Walking through the rows of books at the small bookstore/coffee shop in which I now sit, I still wrestle with the same question:  What is mystery?

I have asked myself this question countless times since finishing the first draft of my novel, Out of Arms Reach.  As I sit here now, peering at the shelves that contain hundreds of volumes of fiction, I still have my doubts about labeling my novel as mystery, or labeling it in general.  When I look over the top of my laptop screen, the titles of Clive Cussler's work stare back at me, novels which I can only classify as 'adventure'.  And yet, when you search sites that boast a large number of literary agents such as http://www.agentquery.com, the term 'adventure' isn't seen all that much.  It makes for a very difficult search, if your novel is on the border of two genres.

Out of Arms Reach is a mystery at its core, of that much I am certain.  However, there are elements of it that strike me when reading it as a thriller.  My frustration shows most nowadays, when I am assembling my list of possible agents.  Before I send my query letters out, I want to be sure that the people receiving my work are looking for my type of novel, because if they are not, it is a waste of my time and theirs.  The vagueness surrounding the genre; however, makes it difficult to get a sense of what they are looking for.  For example, a literary agent who specializes in mystery could be speaking of a 'who done it' novel, such as Raymond Chandler's work, or more modern mystery that incorporates adventure into it, such as Robert B. Parker novels.

I recently stumbled across the work of Marcus Sakey, who writes ridiculously good crime novels, after watching an episode of Hidden City on the Travel Channel.  I loved the show so I decided to check out his books.  They are fantastic!  Apparently some other people thought so, too, because several are being made into movies.  On his website, he says the best way to find an agent is to go to a book store and start looking at the acknowledgments in your favorite novels.  This is the best advice I have ever received from a stranger.  Now, I can approach my agent search as I please, because I then know what type of novel those particular agents are interested in.  Thanks to Marcus!

I have actually written this post over several days, with the goal of having a better understanding of where my novel sits upon finishing the post.  It isn't so much about classifying your novel as a whole to determine what genre it belongs in, as it is reading your work and then saying to yourself, "Where would this sit on a bookstore shelf?  In the mystery section, or elsewhere?"