Mystery v. Thriller

Is The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo a mystery, or a thriller? And what's the difference?


The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction points out that every mystery is a puzzle, in which the author must hide certain key elements. "[T]he author provides clues to the solution but attempts to obscure some information so that the puzzle cannot be solved too easily."


But for a thriller to function, the reader must be more aware of what is going on behind the scenes. "The role of the readers of thrillers is to watch, to follow the action step-by-step," Joyce G. Saricks writes in the Guide.


The Web site mysterynet.com has an interesting essay on the subject from novelist Janet L. Smith. She notes that according to master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock, suspense is created when the audience is "holding its collective breath," waiting for an event that it expects will happen -- like a bomb under the table that the audience knows is set to explode at a certain time. If the bomb goes off without prior warning, then it is simply a surprise, but not suspenseful, Smith writes.


Readers of thrillers may know about the bomb under the table, but mystery authors often must keep the reader in the dark. "The dilemma created for the writer of traditional mysteries," Smith writes, "is the fact that the villain and the details of the crime must remain unidentified, breaking Hitchcock's rule of keeping the audience informed."


When does The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo act like a thriller and when is it a mystery? Does it go off track and become more about vengeance than solving the crime?  Bring your thoughts to the discussion.