The mystery genre is HUGE



Name: _________________________ ELA 8

Mystery Madness

Web Quest

The Task: Welcome to our Mystery Madness Unit! Begin by investigating the Mystery Genre. Complete the answers to the web quest on this sheet. You can access the links directly on my website under the Mystery Web Quest Tab.

Topic 1: Real Life Mysteries:

Why are people so enticed by real life mysteries?

Use the websites below to research one real life mystery. If you don’t like the real life mysteries from the sites, feel free to research information on a real life mystery of interest.







• Real Life mystery:

• Facts about this mystery:

• Why do you think people are so interested in this real life mystery?

Topic 2: Mystery Vocabulary: See how much you know about mystery vocabulary by taking the quiz at:



How did you do on the quiz? Note your score here: _______________

• Define Red Herring:

Topic 3: The Mystery Genre

Go to and complete the following tasks:

• Name two classic mystery short stories.

Include the titles and authors of the stories.

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• List a few Mystery television shows:



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• List a few Mystery Movies:



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• Research some of the “mystery greats” (MYSTERY AUTHORS). List 5 of them below.

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Topic 4: Types of Mystery Novels

“Mystery fiction has had many labels attached to it over the course of the genre's history and there have been many attempts to classify it. Thrillers, whodunits, mysteries, crime fiction, detective fiction: all of these, and more, have been used, separately or interchangeably, to describe basically the same thing. They are all essentially referring to the same overall genre of literary fiction, the mystery or crime story…” Read more at:



• Using the link, research the different types of Mysteries and then fill in the chart.

|Characteristics of a Locked Room Mystery |Famous authors and/or titles of the Locked Room Mysteries |

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|Characteristics of a Cozy/Soft-Boiled mystery |Famous authors and/or titles of Cozy/Soft- Boiled Mysteries |

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|Characteristics of a Hard-Boiled mystery |Famous authors and/or titles of Hard-Boiled Mysteries |

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|Characteristics of Police Procedurals |Famous authors/titles/Television Police Procedurals |

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Topic 5: Testing out your deduction skills!

Try to solve some mini mysteries under the ONLINE Mysteries Tab at

Have fun with the mystery games at the FBI website for kids:



Reflection: What was the most interesting thing that you learned about the mystery genre? What was something new you learned today?

Pick one of the authors from the above list that you starred or from the mystery book you are MOST interested in reading. Here are the authors of the books you may read during the mystery unit: Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (author of the Sherlock Holmes novels), Robert Cormier, and Alane Ferguson.

Mystery Author of choice: ___________________________

• Birth date:

• Birth Place:

• Summary of writing career:

• Accomplishments and/or Awards:

• Personal Life (marriage, children, etc)

• Most interesting facts you learned about the author:

What would you ask this person if you met him or her?

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