Free writing tip: "My literary fiction is morphing into a thriller."
A reader's quandary.
My novel starts off literary then morphs into an action thriller about halfway through the book. Is this a thing?
Should I follow my outline—literary fiction—or should I pursue the story that is somehow emerging?
Alle sez:
Your first question: what’s happening in your WIP, I call “writing.” Congratulations!
Secondly: no need to carve out a dichotomy where there isn't one. There is a whole category of books called "psychological thrillers."
Where a more genre-voiced novel on the literary/commercial continuum keeps its sights on rolling out the events, psychological thrillers make much of why good and bad guys do bad and good things. The main character’s psychological journey drives the plot.
My WIP is a psychological thriller about a young woman from a fading-aristocrat Southern family who decides her best course in life is to deal drugs in Thailand and Cambodia. Bad things ensue.
When I come to a moment like you've reached, my go-to is to do a story structure summary of what the rest of the story will be. In your case, how will the mystery develop and resolve. There's no reason why a mystery can't be a fine piece of iterature. Look at "Rebecca," or Patricia Highsmith's "The Talented Mystery Ripley." Good luck.