Have you ever thought of mysteries as Christian fairy tales?
Neither did I. But Lauren Winner in Divine Mysteries gives me pause.
.....the moral, even theological, shape of mystery novels. Christian apologist J.I. Packer once observed that mysteries "would never have existed without the Christian gospel. Culturally, they are Christian fairy tales, with savior heroes and plots that end in what Tolkien called a eucatastrophe -- whereby things come right after seeming to go irrevocably wrong....The gospel of Christ is the archetype of all such stories."
Indeed, there is something both comforting and hopeful about the morality that governs the mystery genre. Good and evil are clearly delineated. Evil is laid bare -- it is undeniably real and active. And yet mystery novels don't often leave crimes unpunished, let alone unsolved. Evil is always found out, and overcome, by goodness. In a world often beset by violence, such stories are enough to restore one's faith.