He comes across as a fumbling mass of anxieties, but he’s a genius at solving puzzles and because of that, he’s more than able to solve mysteries. In a mystery, the protagonist wants to uncover the murderer. In mysteries, the protagonist spends the bulk of the novel uncovering secrets, and one of them is usually a motive for murder. But you don’t need for a killer to be on the loose to have a high stakes novel. One of the most important things I learned as a mystery writer is that people love reading mysteries.