Categories:

Link to post for categories 1 through 5 with book suggestions here.

1. Creepy Carnivals: horror/mystery/supernatural set in or concerning a carnival, amusement park, or other party/festival - think Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury, Joyland by Stephen King or Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie;

2. Relics and Curiosities: concerning magical, supernatural or haunted objects, such as spell-books, talismans or swords;

3. Southern Gothic: mystery, supernatural, suspense or horror set in the Southern part of the United States;

4. Modern Noir: mystery with noir elements, including authors like James Ellroy, Ian Rankin, anything that falls generally under the category of Nordic Noir, Tartan Noir, Granite Noir, etc;

5. Baker Street Irregulars: mystery that involves children/teens in crime solving;

Link to post for categories 6 through 10 with book suggestions here.

6. Cryptozoologist: any supernatural creature, from Ammit to Ziz;

7. Grimm Tales: any fairy tale or retelling of fairy tales, folklore, legends, etc.

8. The Drowning Deep: books with sea-related elements: sea creatures, ships, and sharks.

9. Slasher Tales: books that share the tropes of classic slasher movies: teen characters, indestructible killers and/or multiple victims.

10. New release: mystery, suspense, horror or supernatural that was published after 10/31/17.

Link to post for categories 11 through 15 with book suggestions here.

11. 13: any book that relates to bad luck, superstition, or the number 13, either in the title/book/series/page count.

12. Ghost stories: any story involving ghosts or hauntings;

13. Classic horror: horror fiction that was published prior to 1980;

14. Terror in a small town: any mystery, supernatural, horror or suspense that takes place in a small town.;

15. Deadlands: elements of the undead - zombies, wights, vampires and other revenants;

Link to post for categories 16 through 20 with book suggestions here.

16. Terrifying women: mystery, horror, suspense or supernatural written by women.;

17. Diverse voices: written by an author of color;

18. Country house murder: a closed circle murder set during a gathering like a house party.

19. Amateur sleuth: this mystery will have a main character who is not a member of law enforcement.

20. Gothic: any book with significant: a genre or mode of literature and film that combines fiction and horror, death, and at times romance.

Link to post for categories 21 through 25 with book suggestions here.

21. Darkest London: any mystery, suspense, horror or supernatural book set in London.

22: Modern Masters of Horror: horror published in or after 2000.

23. Supernatural: mystery, suspense or horror books which include elements that defy current understanding of the natural world, including magic, witchcraft and/or crypto-zoological aspects.

24. Romantic suspense: any romance which has a significant sub-plot that involves mystery, thriller or suspense.

25. Cozy mystery: a subgenre of crime fiction in which sex and violence are downplayed or treated humorously, and the crime and detection take place in a small, socially intimate community.

Link to post for categories 26 through 31 with book suggestions here.

26. Murder Most Foul: any murder mystery.

27. Spellbound: books containing witches, warlocks, sorcerors and witchcraft;

28. Shifters: werewolves, skin-walkers and all other therianthropes.

29. Genre: Horror: anything that fits into the horror genre.

30: Genre: Suspense: anything that fits into the suspense genre.

31. Doomsday: anything related to the end of the world, doomsday cults, or a post-apocalypse world.

Links to the booklists that Murder By Death has been working so hard to make useful!

Creepy Carnivals
Southern Gothic
Doomesday
New Release (no list)
Genre: Suspense (This list was originally "Romantic Suspense" but as the category is ANY suspense book, I've renamed it.)
Baker Street Irregulars
Shifters
Slasher Stories
Spellbound
Modern Noir
Ghost Stories
13
A Grimm Tale
Relics and Curiosities
Deadlands (see also: Vampires)
Modern Masters of Horror (Combined with Genre: Horror, but marked as 'Modern' in the notes.
Supernatural
Genre: Horror
Cryptozoologist (see also shifters and vampires)
Fear the Drowning Deep
Classic Horror
Romantic Suspense
Gothic
Country House Mystery
Terror in a Small Town
Cozy Mystery
Darkest London
Amateur Sleuth
Terrifying Women
Murder Most Foul (Since this category is any mystery, I've put my own spin on this list)
Diverse Voices

Reserved

Feel free to ask any questions about the categories, the rules, specific books and where they do or do not fit, etc. and OB and I will endeavor to answer them as quickly as possible!

Oooh, I know it's early days yet but I've been pondering about which books on my Mt. TBR might fit into different categories.

For The Drowning Deep, would a ship stuck in ice with all of the crew perishing work as "ship-related" or would it have to properly sink on impact to count as shipwreck?

EDIT: Sorry. Please ignore. The book I was thinking of wouldn't qualify anyway as it isn't horror, mystery, suspense or paranormal...it's not even fiction.

There's always Moby Dick.

Reply to post #8 (show post):
Me, too. ;)

Took forever, but I loved it.

How about Heart of Darkness :)

Reply to post #5 (show post):
@brokentune - that sounds like a possibility. What is the title/author so I can give it a closer look.

Reply to post #11 (show post):
Sorry. Please ignore. The book I was thinking of wouldn't qualify anyway as it isn't horror, mystery, suspense or paranormal...it's not even fiction.

I'll go and find me some Jaws fan-fiction, which offers a more sympathetic portrayal of the shark...

Reply to post #12 (show post):
Some non-fiction would qualify, though, such as true crime, suspenseful situations, etc.

For example, I don't know if you were thinking of In The Kingdom of Ice, but I think that would qualify generally, and could be read for the free square for sure. I think it would also qualify for Fear the Drowning Deep and possibly for Genre: Suspense.

Reply to post #13 (show post):
I was thinking Fatal Passage.

It's a similar topic ... and fate... as The Kingdom of Ice (which I have just had to add to the wishlist because it looks awesome).

Funnily enough, the Ammy description starts of with something I could describe as a tenuous link to "mystery":

"The true story of the remarkable John Rae - Arctic traveller and Hudson's Bay Company doctor - FATAL PASSAGE is a tale of imperial ambition and high adventure. In 1854 Rae solved the two great Arctic mysteries: the fate of the doomed Franklin expedition and the location of the last navigable link in the Northwest Passage."

Would that work?

Reply to post #14 (show post):
@BT - I am going to say yes, based on the mystery connection, and I think it does fit Fear the Drowning Deep.

Reply to post #15 (show post):
Brilliant. Thank you.

For the new release category, the book would need to be published on Nov. 1st, 2017 and later, correct? Or is Oct. 31st, 2017 eligible?