10 Mystery Book Masterpieces So Great They Became the Blueprint

There are countless mystery books out there that are generally considered great. After all, as long as the plot is intriguing, its twists and payoffs are satisfying, and the characters remain compelling throughout the whole thing, a mystery novel can earn the right to be considered among the genre's greats. It's a whole other thing, however, for a mystery book to be so exceptional and so immensely influential that it pretty much becomes the blueprint for certain subgenres, if not for the mystery genre as a whole.