SPOILER ALERT: This article contains potential plot spoilers for some of the mystery books mentioned.
From books to movies, everyone loves a classic whodunit—trying to pick up little clues and red herrings left by the author and solving the mystery before the end are the best parts. But can this one idea really be used so many times? These stories are simply plot duplicates of each other, notably containing an amateur sleuth as the main character, revisiting an old crime in attempts to solve it.
While this genre in TV shows, movies, novels, and plays has many different plots, the one described above fits many murder mysteries written nowadays, especially young adult ones. The plot repetitiveness of writing by modern writers such as Holly Jackson and Gillian Flyn raise the question of whethermurder mysteries are even interesting anymore. Their surprising twists for the big reveal fail to make sense, a poor attempt to blow everyone’s minds.
To prove this, I will bring up modern examples of books that didn’t quite cut it for me. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, by Holly Jackson featured a reveal at the end that was sloppy at best and was much too complicated, including not one but two “murderers,” each based on misunderstandings. At this point, reading murder mysteries just leads me to point out the places where I feel the author lacked. I don’t even bother figuring out who it is anymore because I know the author will pull some stunt that barely makes sense. For instance, Karen McManus, I have a bone to pick with you. One Of Us is Lying, another popular novel, has just about the most misleading title I have ever heard of. The murderer is not even one of the main characters, so why would the book be named One Of Us is Lying?! Save yourself the time with her other books, some of which do not even bother revealing the murderer—a key aspect to incorporate in a murder mystery.
Additionally, we are seeing a surge of true crime shows, thrillers, and murder mysteries right now. This comes with a morbid but human curiosity towards crime, and as publishers try to keep up with the public’s demands, they are forced to churn out half-baked ideas and scraps from previous novels. The revolutionists of the genre, such as Agatha Christie and Stephen King, were more free and lenient, bringing their own unique style into their novels. While not a classic whodunit, Stephen King’s The Outsider brilliantly ties in murder mystery to the supernatural, featuring a story of a gruesome crime and a main suspect with a completely solid alibi– how could he be in two places at once? It is not impossible to write a solid thriller book in the year 2025, it just requires more creativity than before. Readers do not like purchasing a book and realizing it’s exactly like another one they’ve read before. More variety is needed to keep the murder mystery/ thriller genre alive than just sad budget time traveling slasher movies, notably Time Cut and Totally Killer. These movies are almost duplicates of the other, a try at comedy mixed with horror, something unique to keep readers watching. However, their sloppy writing and sometimes poor acting makes them a hard watch.
Readers must continue to advocate for more variety in the plots of recently released novels. New copies of books cannot just grab our attention and money because they have special edition covers and sprayed edges. We must seek quality in books instead of settling for the mediocre and relying on overused plots that should be left in the decade they were written.
