Category:British mystery fiction

Mystery fiction from the United Kingdom, a genre of fiction that usually involves revealing the identity of a murderer or of the perpetrator of some other type of crime. Often within a closed circle of suspects, each suspect is usually provided with a credible motive and a reasonable opportunity for committing the crime. The central character is often a detective (like Sherlock Holmes, with his assistant, Dr. Watson), who eventually solves the mystery by logical deduction from facts presented to the reader.

Some mystery books are non-fiction. Mystery fiction can be detective stories in which the emphasis is on the puzzle or suspense element and its logical solution such as a whodunit. Mystery fiction can be contrasted with hardboiled detective stories, which focus on action and gritty realism.

Mystery fiction can involve a supernatural mystery in which the solution does not have to be logical and even in which there is no crime involved. This usage was common in the pulp magazines of the 1930s and 1940s.