In some sense, every novel is a mystery, else readers wouldn’t be curious enough to finish them. While we generally think of mystery as a “whodunnit”, there are many layers creating a thematic sense of Mystery. In a post on CrimeReads, Daniel Taylor writes about the various categories of this human experience.
Taylor differentiates between mystery as it relates to physical danger and Mystery as it relates to our relationship with the unknown. At the base level, mystery is about facts: who did what and when. However, that’s just the beginning. “Facts do not even form a story—or a plot—until they have been arranged, interpreted, applied, and acted on—that is, until the facts have been massaged into a conclusion,” Taylor says. In most classic whodunnits, this is enough.
However, other mysteries go further, delving into motivation, the whydunnit. “Which gets us to human nature, the one thing writers and readers find infinitely mysterious—and engaging,” Taylor writes. “Brute facts do not make a story, any more than security camera video creates a film. We are drawn to characters discovering and interacting with the facts, especially the facts about themselves.”
At the next level, stories begin to examine bigger issues, “the mystery of the ultimate nature and meaning of reality and the human experience,” Taylor continues. “What does it mean to be human?, what is important in life?, what is real and what is illusion?, how should I live?” In his own writing, Taylor also examines what many would consider the ultimate question: is there more to life than what we can see and measure?
“Perhaps there is something to be learned from what were called in medieval England the Mystery Plays,” he says. “They were performed on wagons in the public squares for everyone, not just the elites, and exploring the experience of common people seems good advice for any writer attempting to explore Mystery.”
When exploring mystery and Mystery, Taylor suggests that not every puzzle needs to be solved. “Some mysteries should be explored with humility, not a trait of your typical literary detective,” he writes. “Some people say we read stories—especially mysteries—to escape reality. I claim we read stories, including mysteries, to more deeply engage reality and all its levels of Mystery.”
