Mystery Finder
Refine the catalog by subject, category, or length. See how many books match your interests and get a list of suggestions based on your preferences.
Do more with this book catalog
The EDAOY Classic Mystery Library brings together 96 public-domain mysteries across four categories: Mystery Collections, Crime Investigation, Suspense, and Classic Detectives. Whether you are new to vintage detective fiction or a longtime reader, these pages offer practical ways to explore the catalog.
Each tool is built around the actual contents of the library. You can find books by subject or length, compare titles side by side, or estimate reading time before you start. The goal is to help you locate a mystery that fits your mood and available time.
96
books in this catalog
4
catalog categories
96
books with reading-time data
Made for this collection
Ways the catalog data becomes useful
Title Comparison
Place two or three titles side by side. Compare word count, reading time, sentence complexity, and subject tags to decide which to read next.
Reading Time Estimator
Estimate how long a book will take to read using median reading speeds. Filter by length or time category to find a quick read or a marathon.
Book Finder, Compare Books, and Reading Tracker: A Working Trio
The EDAOY Classic Mystery Library holds ninety-six books, and the way they are organized can make browsing feel like a puzzle in itself. Four categories describe the collection, but many titles could sit comfortably in more than one, and the books range from short dime novels to sprawling investigations. The Book Finder, Compare Books, and Reading Tracker are designed to be used together, each answering a different question as you move from choosing a title to planning how to read it.
Consider a book like The Somnambulist and the Detective; The Murderer and the Fortune Teller — Themes and Context. Its word count of 66,667 places it near the catalog median, and its estimated reading time of 290 minutes suggests a steady commitment. But knowing that number does not tell you whether the book's longer sentences will slow you down or whether its six text sections will make natural stopping points. That is where the tools come in.
Start with the Finder, Then Refine with Compare
The Book Finder is the natural starting point because it lets you filter by the facts that matter most to you: category, word-count length, estimated reading time, chapter rhythm, sentence flow, subjects, and even whether you want a popular title or a hidden gem. For instance, if you know you want a Crime Investigation story set in Washington, D.C., the Finder can narrow the list to a handful of candidates. If you leave a criterion on no preference, the tool simply does not penalize books for it, so you can keep your search broad when you are still exploring.
Once the Finder has given you a shortlist, Compare Books is the second step. It lets you line up two or three titles side by side, showing their word counts, estimated reading times, text sections, sentence flow, chapter rhythm, subjects, and page information when available. This is where you can see that a book with a lower word count might still feel longer because it has many more text sections, or that a book with a high average sentence length might demand more careful reading. The comparison is descriptive, not a quality judgment, but it helps you anticipate the texture of the reading experience.
For example, if you are torn between two mysteries with similar word counts, Compare Books might reveal that one has half the number of text sections, suggesting longer, more continuous chapters. That difference could affect whether you can read in short bursts or need longer stretches of time. The tool does not tell you which is better; it simply makes the trade-offs visible.
Plan Your Progress with the Tracker
After you have chosen a book, the Reading Tracker helps you turn that choice into a realistic plan. It records your progress in pages, not sections or minutes, so you set a daily page goal and see how many days it will take to finish. The default goal is 20 pages per day, but you can adjust it to match your actual reading habits.
The tracker's page count is initially estimated from the word count, assuming 250 words per page. For a book like The Somnambulist and the Detective; The Murderer and the Fortune Teller — Themes and Context, that would give an estimated total of about 267 pages. If your ebook reader shows a different total, you can override it, and the tracker will recalculate the remaining time proportionally. This flexibility is useful because page counts vary between editions.
Using the three tools in sequence makes the catalog more manageable. The Finder narrows the field, Compare Books refines the choice, and the Tracker sets up a workable reading schedule. They do not rate quality, but they give you the facts to make your own decisions.