I was with my girlfriend looking for Clive Cussler books yesterday in a local Border's and I could not find them under fiction. So I had to ask the helpdesk and they told me they were classified as mysteries. Does anyone else think this is wierd, I mean yes, there is a level of investigative reasoning on behalf of Pitt, but I don't put them in the same category as Agatha Christie mysters and Sherlock Holmes. I just thought that was a little wierd, what do you guys think?

I agree with you. for me it's adventure and action. But you can't put the CC books on same level as Agatha Christi. I think there is no reason for that. In our country (Switzerland) you will find the books in adventure novels and belletrist.

At my local book store they are classified as adventure. it's a mystry to my why they wouldn't be. w:

Clive Cussler's books are found in the fiction section in bookstores in my area (Southern California). And I consider them to be adventure fiction!

In my local bookstore his books are in the fiction section. I would also have to agree that they are more action than mystery, since Dr. C is inclined to let us know fairly early in the book who the bad guys are. det:

My bookstore has them by alphabetical Authors ;)

Fiction section here in western canada

Fiction section here in Hurricaneland.

Fiction section here in Ohio. And yes Dr. C's books are in sub-category of Adventure. :P

Fiction, sub category Action/Adventure in Nebraska

Everywhere I've been, Cussler is always in the mainstream ficiton section. Even Powells, which is one of the world's largest used booksellers (and even has a Nautical Fiction section) puts Cussler in the Fiction group.

But the question I think you're asking is: Are these books mysteries?

Like many, I always thought a "mystery" followed the standard slow moving plot centered around a crime (usually a murder) with a big reveal at the end. And since I didn't have much interest in that, I avoided the genre. But I have since discovered that the line between the thriller and the mystery is pretty blurry. There's a lot of action in your average mystery novel, especially the 'hard boiled' variety, usually featuring a private detective as the protagonist; and a fair amount of mystery in some of the better thrillers.
As to Clive Cussler...there are indeed elements of mystery in these stories, especially some of the earlier ones. Consider the big surprise at the end of Iceberg, or the mystery of what happened to Loren Smith's father in Vixen 03. The fate of the Manhattan Express in Night Probe seems like a mystery solved, as does the real meaning of Raymond LeBaron's mysterious clue regarding the main sight in Cyclops.
Many of the later Pitt books don't have the same complexity, everything is pretty much laid out in the open, so I wouldn't classify them as mysteries, but you can see why some might.

Thanks guys, just wanted to make sure I wasn't the only one out there who didn't think that Clive was mystery.

I bet sales of cussler books at this borders are low cause nobody can find them!

In Tulsa, Border's has Cussler in Mystery/Suspense and Barnes & Noble has him in Literature/Fiction.

Fiction here in Nova Scotia. And I was pleasantly surprised to see a Cussler mini-display, with all his recent works and a few reprints, centered on Black Wind set up in the local Coles Bookstore.

Here in Maine, in most book stores he's under Fiction, even in the used bookstores I frequent. Funny thing though, I went to a used bookstore in Freeport yesterday and the guy had Cussler and Clancy all bunched together in the Fiction section including Sea Hunters, then there was another copy of Sea Hunters in the Nautical section while I was looking for Titanic books. :blink: I bought out most of his Cussler stock. :lol:

Mystery Section here at the Borders in BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

They're in the fiction section of Borders here in the Memphis area.

They have some really good deals in those Freeport clothes stores. I think I have been in the same bookstore you're talking about too.