No-this happens to me all the time-or used to! I have no idea how the books are classified-maybe someone here knows?
I no longer go into the library perusing the shelves, I do all my searches and requests on line and get an email when the book that I have requested is in.
I live in a smallish town but we have the ability of the Inter library search and loans, so I don't even need to know which branch has the book, I just hit on the request button and let them know which branch I will pick up the books.

Pat

This is a good question. I go to the library for my dad who reads mostly mysteries and often if what I am looking for is not in mysteries it is in fiction. No rhyme or reason for it, sometimes even the different titles from the same author and same type of book will be separated.
Here's another thing, actually two. The No.1 Ladies Detective Series is found in mysteries yet I find that these are more like novels that happen to have a detective in them. Also in my library they are found under "M" for McCall, I don't believe his name is hyphenated.

okay I will stop whining now.

gbg

The Dewey Decimal System is the culprit or maybe the way it is interpreted. Books are categorized and given a number that represents that category but sometimes librarians and bookshop people take just go by the title. I was in WH Smug's (as Private eye used to call it) one day looking for 'The Imitation of Christ' by Thomas A Kempis but I couldn't find it in religion, classics or literature so I asked an assistant. She offered me a look of total disdain and said "Well, if it is an IMITATION of Christ it wouldn't be in religion now would it?" and walked off with a superior flick of hair. Sure enough, I found it in the humour section, which I guess was pretty funny.

Same thing in Louisville's public libraries--if you don't find what you are looking for in the mystery section, it very well may be in fiction. The alphabetizing is haphazard, too, but I think that is to do with the young volunteers. Nitpicky me, I pull out the wrong filings and leave them in an empty space.

Carolyn, I used to do that too at a little branch near where I worked. One day, I complained about the poor shelving. That's when I found out that in THAT branch, the books were shelved "the correct way" with all the author's books together, even when some were written under a very different pen name.

Soooooo, since I never know who has a pen name or what the "true" name may be, I found out the hard way why I was having trouble finding certain Authors.

Also note that the publishers categorize their product. Mystery imprints are often classified as mysteries even if they really aren't. (This happens in other genres too. Why is HANDMAID'S TALE not shelved with SF?)

The discerning eye can spot mysteries, and even the type of mystery, by the cover and the typeface alone. Does the illustration depict an interior scene, with a couple of interesting artifacts in the foreground? Probably a cozy. A black with red color scheme? Violet crime.

Brenda

Is violet crime written in purple prose?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Agnes, I found out the hard way (looking for certain books) years ago that authors write under numerous pen names, so I did quit meddling with most books. However, sometimes there are such obvious mis-shelvings that I just can't stand it!

At one time I found a list of the year's best mysteries (in one of those famous lists) from 1900 to 1950 and from 1950 forward to whenever it was. Our library system evidently had at one time bought them as sets, because the bindings were all alike. BUT, I couldn't find some of them, only to discover that the lists used the pen names and the library shelved them with the actual names. I was so annoyed when I discovered them lurking on the shelves, in their distinctive bindings, under some other name. I never did find quite all of them and still have a small list of those in my bookbag.

Okay, so what't the difference between a Mystery and a Thriller? Is it the level of violets (ooops, I mean violence)? LOL

It seems a thriller is almost always a mystery but a mystery is not always violent, at least in descriptive terms.

Jodi-

Thanks to this thread, I was able to find Mary Higgins Clark's books in fiction instead of mystery, where they belong, in my opinion.

Also, the librarian once told me that Alexander McCall Smith insists that his books be placed under "M" instead of "S", even tho his name is not hyphenated. I had wasted a lot of time searching the shelves for his books. How annoying is that. Reminds me of the old Monty Python skit, spoofing British pronunciation, "Well, it's spelled SMITH but it's pronounced "THROAT-WARBLER-MANGROVE".

Sorry. Memory going. Skit said "it's spelled Raymond Luxury Yacht but it's pronounced etc etc". Before you Python fans chastise me!

Ginny, thanks for that info re Alexander McCall Smith's shelving mysteries. I too searched and couldn't believe my library didn't have any of his books when he first started writing.

gbg

There can be double last names without a hyphen, and the English do it a lot. The Spanish do it even more.

I do it myself, but I'm thinking about going to the hyphen to clear up confusion. I never know how may name will be recorded, and some American databases make no provision for a double word last name. I've put it off for years in dread of the long process of changing it everywhere.