Thriller, mystery, and suspense genres are tricky, and they are usually combined as book genres that you just can’t tell them apart. As a reader, you see that often, and you seem to take it for granted when you look for a specific book. Yet when you write your novel, you stop. How do you know exactly what each term means? Believe it or not, thriller, mystery, and suspense differ greatly from each other.
Thriller
In a thriller, the protagonist knows who the bad guy is, and he’s on a mission to bring that person into justice. Events in thrillers keep you at the edge of your seat and include a lot of action scenes. Think of it as a cat-and-mouse chase, and what a better example can there be than The War of Worlds by H. G. Wells.
Ultimately, a great thriller is a roller coaster ride. I like to think that’s a promise I have never failed to keep, and one that I’d say has served my books well.
James Patterson
Mystery
Mystery is all about a major incident that has already happened, such as a robbery or a murder. Here the protagonist already knows about that unfortunate event, and he/she is on a quest to uncover truths and discover who caused it. The first thing that comes into my mind is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson as an example.
Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They
Mickey Spillane
read it to get to the end. If it’s a letdown, they won’t
buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last
page sells your next book
Suspense
Suspense genres are usually in both thrillers and mysteries. They are often found in any genre and are rarely on their own. It’s more about the anticipation of what might happen later in the story where the reader keeps guessing and asking questions that are not directly answered.
The key in suspense is delaying the truth as much as possible. The reader is given a reason to keep turning the pages until the mind-blowing end. I think as an example, I must include Beige and Blue, it as a romance-suspense novel that keeps the readers in oblivion until the unexpected twists shock them.
I’ve said in many interviews that I like my fiction to be unpredictable. I like there to be considerable suspense.
George R. R. Martin
What if We Use All Three?
Mystery, suspense, and thrillers are sometimes treated as the same thing by specific authors. And often, people have various ways of categorizing them because they seem to complete each other.
There is always that air of suspense that makes the protagonist uncover a particular drastic event that forces him to run after the villain and put things into justice. Now you know the difference between mystery, thriller, and suspense; you can write your novel whichever way you like.