El mystery genre it is the most intrinsic to literature that we can imagine. Since the novel is a novel, the enigmatic as a plot base is prolonged in almost every narrative. Even more so considering that one of the most illustrious early novels is the brilliant tale in the key of mysterious adventures of a knight in filthy armor, of a certain Cervantes.
We read to find out the end of a plot, to find in the ending a fulfilled answer to the knot through which the story progresses. Another thing is that the open endings invite each reader to propose their best ending; or at least to meditate on everything that was and that to some extent does not appear developed in the epilogue that undoes all the mystery.
Making a point, I take the opportunity to tell you about my own forays into the genre, through two novels that make up a duology about a very special mystery. You can take a look at them here. And if that, you can start with «El sueño del santo»For 2 euritos in ebook:
But of course, at present the diversity is so much in the novel that it is necessary to order, limit, label and rethink. And so the mystery is that genre in which organizational synecdoche is made to establish the part (the mystery sought by the characters) by the whole (a genre named in parallel with the plot).
The thing is not bad either. As the most unfortunate in an orgy would say: order!
Although the truth is that almost every genre focused on best-sellers draws on the resource and tension of the mystery made suspense, reconverted into a dilemma of any kind or posed as a diffuse horizon that supports a reading until the end.
We all know Dan Brown and Jk rowling. Each of them represents the quintessential author of mystery in his adult or youth version. In them, and in others like them, it is where the mystery as a genre is already completely linked to the enigma to be solved. But as I say, many other genres such as black, police or even romantic also require that mystery that raises the narrative tension.
After which, we are going to see what is cooking in each country regarding the magnetic frames capable of keeping you awake. Picks from the best mystery writers so you know where to move.
Best Spanish Mystery Novels
Having so much good choice in Spain, I dare to start my review here to expand to other countries where this mystery genre also has that roots that ends up becoming a quarry of writers and a vein of readers.
All the authors referenced here are completely dedicated to mystery, either from its purest aspect between the deductive and the enigmatic always present or at least as a common thread of a large part of their literary career.
The veterans among my chosen ones participate in that generation of authors worldwide who, entering the 21st century, knew how to draw on a pool of readers eager for approaches between the esoteric, the historical and the apparently transcendental. Imagination for adult intellects that somehow long to be children again.
Best English Mystery Novels
Talking about mystery denomination of origin Britannia are major words. Because in that of the literary arcana to reveal, the most recognized and admired teachers worldwide have an Anglo-Saxon accent.
There are those who link it with geographical peculiarities, with the famous fog hovering over London, in charge of presenting reality with its unreal haze. Or perhaps it is because of the most hermetic idiosyncrasy of these particular northern islanders. The point is that the mimicry with the most intriguing genres seems innate to them.
Especially in London as the essential capital of the genre, the mysteries were practically linked to the police thanks to immortal authors such as Conan Doyle o Agatha Christie.
But from end to end of the British Isles, the feathers of mystery assail us with a multitude of proposals between adventures and even bordering on the noir genre. But always with the clear horizon of that explosive end that overcomes our need to reveal the great enigma that moves everything.
Best American Mystery Novels
In the United States there is a main name who turned to mystery to delve into his own most existential intrigues, always shaken by ghosts, fears and delusions. I mean, of course, Edgar Allan Poe.
With the lurid sensation of a very near terror, Poe's disparate narratives served to abound in a vast imaginary that would bear fruit in many new interpretations and currents in his country.
Because just as Lovecraft, comparable to Poe in the darkness of his proposals, he threw himself more towards new worlds, Poe stood firm at the foot of the street, with recognizable characters and locations, from which to transmit that chill of the first darker enigmas.
Today, Americans are the ones who best focus on a genre from which to offer us factory-paced bestsellers, with immaculate finishes and plots that are tempting in their rhythm and plot. From Dan Brown to Donna Leon and many others. The current mystery bestseller is largely Yankee.
Best French Mystery Novels
France cultivates literature for all tastes and genres. But in the case of mystery as a genre, the references are rather from the last century. More than anything because French noir tends more to that inheritance of the neopolar awakened precisely in the Gallic country and where criminal fiction is more that, black chronicles than great mysteries, savage introductions into the world of the underworld more than enigmatic deaths with some meaning transcendent…
Even so, you can always rescue current authors from any country who use mystery as the most powerful tool to raise tension.
Best German Mystery Novels
Mystery and German seem antonyms. Because in the German imaginary, or at least in the way the rest of us look at the Teutons, there is no place for the hidden or hidden. Everything should be crystal clear for a pro German ...
But then come guys like Ende or SĂĽskind, composers of some of the most beautiful mystery novels and we have no choice but to sheathe it to assume that creativity always goes in other directions, without being subjected to preconceived ideas.
In addition to those already mentioned, many other German authors and authors stand out for their novels loaded with mysteries, enigmas from here and there that frighten with the noir genre or that plunge into adventure or even romance. As it should be, mix to enjoy the best of everything.
Best Italian Mystery Novels
On the other side of the Mediterranean, our mirror looks at us and ends up replicating similar creative images. It is not a question of some copying others but of the inertias of the closest communication.
From the country of the boot, the most prominent creators of great mysteries is a Umberto Eco authentic world genius in awakening all kinds of transcendent concerns.
And then we find cases in which the mystery becomes a meta-mystery because it transcends the work and reaches the authorship. The case of Elena Ferrante (as happened in Spain recently with carmen mola), is already an international phenomenon. Because the quality of the author, initially anonymous, is brutal and not only pointing to the intrinsic mystery of her plots.
Later, as always, an interesting plethora of writers accompany us to make the national mystery genre a good space where each imaginary turns to exorcise, fantasize or ramble about our enigmatic passage through this world.
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