Some time ago, I wrote a column in which I attempted to define the various subgenres of mystery fiction. It appears to have had the largest response of any of my columns, with the exception of my diatribe against badly written cozy mysteries, after which a large number of people who clearly need to get lives went on a concerted campaign to have me hung in effigy (though one nice lady suggested that they actually wanted to do away with the effigy).

I tend to include a wide range of fiction in the mystery genre, defining it as any story in which a crime or the threat of a crime is central to the theme or plot. Among these is the form that most readers regard as a mystery, which is the traditional, or cozy, mystery. But it also includes the police procedural, the hard-boiled novel, the tale of psychological suspense, the crime novel, and the thriller. These subgenres frequently overlap, and it is often difficult to categorize some books.

It is my plan – indeed, my mission – to define these categories, describe their strengths and weaknesses, and provide numerous examples from both the past and the present to help guide readers to the type of book they are most likely to enjoy. Over the next few weeks, I hope to do just that. Since the mystery as a recognized type of literature began with what is now regarded (not surprisingly) as the traditional mystery, that is where I’ll begin, too.

STRUCTURE This very conservative story features a comfortable social structure, such as an English village or an academic institution, which is shockingly disrupted by a murder. A policeman or an amateur (seldom a private investigator) attempts to find the killer by investigative techniques: questioning suspects, observing clues, making deductions from them. When the murderer is discovered and hauled away to stand trial, the social fabric is restored.

No one appears to have been affected by the crime, no dramatic change occurs in the relations of the remaining members of the society in which the crime occurred, and there is generally opportunity for humor and romance to flourish. Characters are usually created as mechanical figures needed to move the plot along and have no depth, no inner lives.

Cozy mysteries tend to be written mainly by women, and they contain little in the way of offensive language, dramatic violence, perversion, or sex, which may be implied but never described.

HOW TO TELL If any of the following are mentioned on the dust jacket or cover of the book, you are probably holding a cozy: gardening, cooking, cats (or occasionally dogs), a university or prep school, a nun, minister, pastor, vicar, or rabbi (priests are a little dicier these days), tea, poison, humor, or historical setting.

THE BEGINNING The American Edgar Allan Poe invented the detective-story template, which has changed little in more than 160 years. His first tale, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” published in 1841, defined the genre for all time. An apparently impossible crime, a vicious murder in a locked room, baffles the police, who call in the brilliant C. Auguste Dupin and his less-than-brilliant associate, who asks Dupin to explain various clues and deductions to him.

THE GREATS Poe invented it, but detective fiction did not become popular until Arthur Conan Doyle created Sherlock Holmes. Although officially a private investigator (consulting detective, in the parlance of the time), Holmes served in the same capacity as Dupin, observing everything and deducing with clarity and inspiration.

Agatha Christie, who I would argue was the greatest plotter of crime fiction who ever lived, was the 800-pound gorilla in the field of traditional, most notably with Miss Jane Marple in her little village and Hercule Poirot, the diminutive Belgian with his “little gray cells.” In England, Dorothy L. Sayers produced Lord Peter Wimsey novels, and was joined by Margery Allingham (creator of Albert Campion), Anthony Berkeley (with Roger Sheringham), and G.K. Chesterton (with Father Brown). Arthur Upfield contributed the Australian Napoleon Bonaparte, Nicholas Blake (the poet laureate C. Day Lewis) created Nigel Strangeways, Josephine Tey wrote the perfect detective novel, “The Daughter of Time,” Michael Innes created John Appleby, Christianna Brand wrote “Green for Danger” and other Inspector Cockrill novels. Other greats were Edmund Crispin (with Gervase Fen) and the New Zealander Ngaio Marsh (with Inspector Roderick Alleyn).

American writers who epitomized this form include Ellery Queen (written by two cousins smart enough to give their detective the same name as their pseudonym, helping readers remember it) and Earl Derr Biggers, the creator of Charlie Chan. S.S. Van Dine’s insufferably pedantic detective, Philo Vance, needed, as Ogden Nash poetically stated it, “a kick in the pance.” Mary Roberts Rinehart was among the first best-selling mystery writers, as well as the unwitting creator of the “Had-I-But-Known” school of mystery writing. John Dickson Carr was the master of the impossible crime puzzle, and Mignon Eberhart mixed romance with her murders.

TODAY’S BEST British writers in the subgenre you will enjoy include P.D. James – though she’s far from cozy, creating real characters with varied inner lives. Indeed, Ms. James may be the best British crime writer alive, and there’s no other category into which she would fit.

Other contemporary practitioners include Peter Lovesey, Robert Barnard, Simon Brett, H.R.F. Keating (especially the Ganesh Ghote novels, set in India), and the utterly delightful Alexander McCall Smith. Some others that you might, possibly, enjoy are Marian Babson, June Thomson, M.C. Beaton, Ann Granger, Jill McGown, and Janet Laurence.

The best American authors of traditional mystery fiction are Elizabeth George (who is much darker than most, and also a creator of fleshed-out characters – and what a writer!), Donald E. Westlake (if you like to laugh), Elizabeth Peters, Aaron Elkins, Parnell Hall, Charles Todd, Nevada Barr, Laurie R. King, Margaret Maron, and Deborah Crombie. Some you might, conceivably, enjoy include Lillian Jackson Braun, Carolyn Hart, Diane Mott Davidson, Carole Nelson Douglas, Susan Conant, and Jill Churchill.

Next week: Police novels.

Mr. Penzler is the proprietor of the Mysterious Bookshop in Manhattan and the series editor of the annual “Best American Mystery Stories.” He can be reached at openzler@nysun.com.