Why is community shelved

If the protagonist is more of a maverick and works outside the system or uses unorthodox or legally questionable methods to bring about justice, then a book is more likely to be categorized as a thriller. Mysteries and crime fiction tends to be set in a specific city or area. Thrillers and suspense novels may bounce all over the country or even the world, as the characters search for clues or tracks down the villain.

Again, these books are usually shelved in fiction rather than mystery. To add to the confusion, an author may write different types of books, so different that their books end up being cataloged in different places. Group Subscription. Premium Digital access, plus: Convenient access for groups of users Integration with third party platforms and CRM systems Usage based pricing and volume discounts for multiple users Subscription management tools and usage reporting SAML-based single sign-on SSO Dedicated account and customer success teams.

Learn more and compare subscriptions content expands above. Full Terms and Conditions apply to all Subscriptions. Or, if you are already a subscriber Sign in. Other options. Close drawer menu Financial Times International Edition. Search the FT Search. Gradually librarians realized that these new kinds of books were being read by the same people who read traditional mysteries and some of these authors were moved from Fiction to Mystery. Yet, there had to be a stopping point, and a way to differentiate between these sub-genres.

In general, a mystery is told from the viewpoint of the person trying to solve the crime, while suspense fiction is usually told from the viewpoint of the victim or victims, and sometimes the killer, and sometimes both viewpoints.

In fact, any book that is told from multiple viewpoints is more likely to be suspense than fiction. Using multiple viewpoints gives the book a broader focus and puts the emphasis on the story overall rather than narrowing it in on the puzzle of solving the murderer.

So the lines between the two types of books gets blurrier and blurrier.