Musings - Police Procedural, Thriller, and Intrigue

I did a prior post on the differences between Cozy, Traditional, and Amateur Sleuth novels (click here).

Now we will tackle the difference between the detective fiction, police procedurals, thrillers, and intrigue sub-categories of the mystery genre.

Some believe that all mysteries started with detective fiction in mid 1800s and everything from police procedural and thrillers to cozy mysteries has evolved from it.  Whether that is true or not, these categories have developed a lot, particularly in the last few decades.  

This isn't an exhaustive breakdown and analysis but it provides a fair guideline.  These categories are defined differently depending upon who you read/talk to.  I have tried to provide plenty of examples to help illustrate these categories only to aid in understanding what you like and how to find similar novels.  

Detective Fiction to include the Private Detective and CSI,
 

Detective Fiction: For our purposes to define a slice of the bigger mystery genre: The detective (private detective or other professional that is adjacent) investigates a crime, often murder.  Includes the hard-boiled and noir fiction as well as historical detectives.  These range from not much graphic details to gore, depending upon the author.

Many of the historic detective fiction may have a titled or influential/wealthy person investigating even though they don't get paid.  That is a detail of the time period because the titled nobility weren't to "work" for a living, but they still classify as detectives sought out to investigate and use their influence. These can vary from cozy to very gritty. Examples follow:

CS Harris's Sebastion St Cyr

Charles Finch's Charles Lennox series

Andrea Penrose's Wrexford and Sloane series

Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone series

Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series

Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot series

Dorothy Sayer's Lord Peter Wimsey series

Dashiel Hammet's Sam Spade series

Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe

Jeffrey Dever's Colter Shaw series

CJ Box's Joe Picket (Game Warden) series

Police Procedural

The police procedural is focused on the official law enforcement and its procedures, including police-related topics such as forensic science, autopsies, gathering evidence, search warrants, interrogation, and adherence to legal restrictions and procedures.  They may have more graphic descriptions, swearing, and the harsher side of life shown.

While many police procedurals conceal the criminal's identity until the crime is solved in the climatic killer reveal or confrontation (the so-called whodunit), others reveal the perpetrator's identity to the audience early in the narrative for a twist and more suspense.  Examples follow:

J.D. Robb's In Death series

James Patterson's Detective Alex Cross series

Tony Hillerman's Leaphorn and Chee series

James D Doss's Charlie Moon series (early books)

Ian Rankin's Detective Inspector John Rebus series

Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series

Louise Penny's Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series

Robert Galbraith Cormoran Strike series

Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series

P.D. James' Adam Dalgliesh series

Jeffrey Dever's Lincoln Rhymes series

Thriller: Suspense, Political, Action, Psychological, Women-
in-jeopardy, Legal etc.

The thriller genre has taken off and contains many subcategories including Suspense thriller, political thriller, legal thriller, medical thriller, psychological thriller, conspiracy thriller, military thriller, and even the serial killer thriller.  Thus, it makes it difficult to provide general description that adequately includes each of these sub-genres.

The thriller umbrella often includes a race against a ticking clock--a sense of urgency, bigger stakes, and higher tension and suspense.  A "thriller" doesn't have to be non-stop action and thrills, although they can.  Thrillers are more about stopping something from happening with little time rather than finding out who already committed a murder or crime.  They can range anywhere from cozy to gritty to violent with sex.  Examples follow:

Dan Brown's novels including Robert Langdon series

Mary Higgins Clark's (Queen of Suspense) body of work. 

David Baldacci's The Camel Club series

Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan series (some could be intrigue as well)

Steve Berry's Cotton Malone series

James Patterson's Shadow Thrillers

Andrew Mayne's Jessica Blackwood Thrillers

Catherine Coulter's FBI Thrillers

John Grisham Legal Thrillers: The Firm etc.

Lisa Scottoline's Mistaken Identity etc.

C.G. Abbot's The Society (click here)

David Baldacci's First Family (Maxwell and King series)

Espionage and Intrigue

This is spy fiction: as in spy vs spy, discovering a spy in your midst, the world of assasins for national security, or domestic terrorist threats.  Typically this involves nations but with real world corporate espionage occuring, that has become furtile ground for novelists, too.  They can vary on violence, language and sex depending upon the author.  Examples follow:

Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne series

Stella Rimington's (real life former Director General of MI5) Liz Carlyle series

Gayle Lynds' The Assassins and The Last Spymaster

Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon series

David Baldacci's Will Robie series

John le Carré books

Mark Greaney's Gray Man series

Mick Herron's Slough House series

Ian Fleming's James Bond series

There you have the differences between these sub-categories of the Mystery genre.  I hope these give you clarity and aid you in finding what you enjoy so you can find more of that type.  Or, perhaps you have some new books to look into and widen your reading horizons.  That to-be-read pile is getting bigger :-)