Christ’s College English Department

Ignite 2 Unit 1: It’s A Mystery Knowledge Organiser – Year 8

Key Learning – Exploring the Mystery Genre
What is a mystery story? Key features of a mystery: A mystery needs to keep
The word ‘mystery’ is derived from the Anglo-French misterie, or the old French mistere, ▪ A puzzling problem or crime the reader turning the
meaning secret, mystery, hidden meaning. Additionally the modern French mystère and ▪ A detective or investigator pages by building up
Latin mysterium had meanings of a secret rite, secret worship, a sacrament, a secret ▪ Suspects and a villain tension and suspense.
thing. ▪ A trail of clues There needs to be
▪ A final plot twist jeopardy, memorable
The History of the Mystery
characters and a plot twist.
The roots of the mystery genre can be traced back to the 18th century, when stories of
real-life crime, and the biographies of notorious criminals, were published in The Characters
Newgate Calendar. (Newgate was a famous prison in London, where condemned You will find many different characters in a mystery story: victims,
prisoners were held before being executed at Tyburn gallows.) In the first half of the 19th suspects and villains, but the most important character is often the
century, readers could find sensationalist stories of crime and mystery in ‘penny detective – the person investigating the mystery itself. This could
dreadfuls’ – inexpensive novels printed on cheap paper and published in instalments. be: an amateur sleuth, a private investigator or a police detective.
‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’ (a short story written in 1841 by Edgar Allan Poe) is
viewed by many people as the first classic mystery story. It introduced features that now How you can learn about characters:
define the genre: Physical traits – what the character looks like
• a puzzling crime Dialogue – what the character says
• a masterful detective Actions – what the character does
• an ingenious solution. Point of view – what the character thinks
How other characters react to them
Sub-genres
In 1887, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle introduced the character of Sherlock Holmes in his Narrative voice
novel A Study in Scarlet. The famous detective went on to appear in many more short Mystery stories are often told in the first person (‘I’) so that the
stories and novels published in popular monthly magazines such as The Strand. Today, reader shares the narrator’s viewpoint as they uncover the clues
the mystery genre has many different sub-genres. For example: to solve the mystery. The perspective or opinion the story told
▪ The cosy or manor-house mystery (popularized in the Poirot and Miss Marple novels from, the narrative voice, will create different responses from the
of Agatha Christie) where a murder occurs and people who were in the house come reader depending on who is narrating the story.
under suspicion.
▪ Hard-boiled detective fiction (from American writers like Raymond Chandler) with Pronouns:
tough private detectives investigating grisly crimes. First person = ‘I’
▪ Police procedurals – detective stories written from the perspective of the police First person plural = ‘we’
Second person = ‘you’
Third person = ‘he’/’she’/’they’
Literary Terminology New Vocabulary

argument: a reason or set of reasons given in support of an idea, jeopardy danger

action or theory. Christ’s College English Department sleuth detective
genre: a category of things distinguished by some common amateur person who does things as a
characteristic or quality e.g. mystery, adventure, horror hobby, rather than a job

inference: a conclusion which is based on evidence plot twist an unexpected event such as the
death of a suspect that sends the plot in a new
deduction: the process of drawing a conclusion based on a general direction
principle
pitiable deserving sympathy
subordinate clause: a clause which is dependent upon a main
agitation upset
clause and cannot stand alone as a complete sentence
Digging Deep haggard tired-looking
main clause: a clause which contains a subject and verb and makes
sense on its own all-comprehensive taking in every detail
Why are readers attracted to this
adjectives: a word that describes a noun, e.g. happy, blue, ferocious genre? dog-cart a horse-drawn carriage

third-person narrative: when the narrator is not a character in the forensic using scientific and other
How do writer’s create effective techniques to study evidence in detail, usually to
story and relates the action using third-person pronouns, such as ‘he’ narrative voices? solve a crime
and ‘she’
How do the conventional impending about to happen
tense: past, present or future
techniques of a mystery story blanched turned white
physical traits: The physical characteristics you see when you look create suspense?
at someone. It could be their hair, clothes, nose, or figure fain an old-fashioned word meaning
Is there an archetypal detective ‘readily’
dialogue:. conversation and if so, what are the most red herrings false clues that are planted to
effective characteristics? mislead
point of view: the opinion of who is telling or narrating the story
How has the success of the brogues a type of shoe
climax: the most intense and exciting part of the story
mystery genre been torpor inactivity
quotation: a word or phrase taken from a longer piece of writing demonstrated in popular culture?
alluded hinted
characterisation: the strategies a writer uses to create a character How can you take inspiration
philosophical instruments scientific equipment
from real-life events to create
tension: suspense or threat
your own mystery story?
narrative voice: the voice of the character or narrator telling the story