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If you are mostly interested in knowing that a book is part of a series but are not fussed about keeping the position (the index) of the book in the series, then there is a way forward.
One of the problems with using multiple columns to keep the "same" information is searching. If you search for the series "horror" you want to find books with that value in one of the multiple columns, but not in comments or title. To solve this problem, calibre can combine columns together for searching purposes. Using this feature, you could assign a book to a "major" series, one with an index, and any number of "minor" series, those without indices. The major series would go into the "series" column and the minor series would be entries in a tags-like custom column. In your case, given that you haven't mentioned series numbers, the series field might be empty and the minor series column would contain "mystery, horror, fantasy".
To accomplish this you would do two things:
1. Create a "text, like tags" custom column. For this example I assume that the lookup name is #other_series. You create custom columns by going to preferences -> add your own columns.
2. Create a special 'search column' that merges series and #other_series. To do this, go to preferences -> searching. In the "Grouped Search Terms" section, enter the lookup name you want (e.g., all_series) in the "Names" box, then enter the real columns that are to be merged (e.g., series and #other_series) into the box next to the "Names" box.
Once you have done this you can search for series using search expressions like "@all_series:horror". This will find books with "horror" in either the series or the #other_series column.
If you use the tag browser (the pane on the left) to search, then you can tell calibre to put the merged series information there by entering "all_series" into the "Make user categories from" box in the searches preferences dialog.
Yes, this is a rather complicated and advanced calibre feature, but it could help you solve your problem.
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