Mabel Seeley's "What's in a Mystery?" (1940).

Mabel [Hodnefield]
Seeley. From the 1926
Univ of Minnesota
Gopher

Minnesota-born author Mabel Seeley (1903–91; The Listening House, The Chuckling Fingers, The Beckoning Door, The Whistling Shadow, etc.) gave the talk "What's in a Mystery?" at the Minnesota Library Association annual conference in October 1940. A transcript of the meeting's proceedings, including Seeley's often wry presentation that featured excerpts from The Whispering Cup, is in the Minnesota Reflections digital archive (another speaker was Jan Struther, the author of Mrs. Miniver). Seeley noted:

The other night I met a very nice man who had just finished [The] Listening House. He looked me over rather cautiously, first from a distance and then a little closer and finally said, "Well, I wish I had seen you before I read that book—I wouldn't have been half so scared" (5).

She summed up the theme of her talk as "a Mystery Story—what is in it, what you demand of it, and what you may get thrown in on the side as a type of appetizer" (5). She placed mysteries firmly in the category of "escape fiction":

The appeal of romantic suspense.

The unknown editor on the Mysterious Matters blog discusses the appeals of the Gothic, mentioning Mary Stewart, Victoria Holt, and Phyllis A. Whitney along the way. I think this sort of book makes for

Hayley Mills in
The Moon-Spinners
(dir. James Neilson, 1964)

excellent relaxing beach reading. My particular Stewart favorites are The Ivy Tree (with one of the greatest reader fakeouts of all time) and The Gabriel Hounds, although you can't go wrong with The Moonspinners; Madam, Will You Talk?; This Rough Magic; and My Brother Michael. Those looking for the books that started it all can consult Valancourt Books' many selections; others who want a more modern take might enjoy Susanna Kearsley and Lillian Stewart Carl. Another invaluable resource is Dean James's Mystery Scene appreciation.