LitQueuelitqueue

After

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

John Berendt

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

1 more ↓

  • [The Flanders Panel] [by: Arturo Perez-Reverte]

    Arturo Pérez-Reverte

    An art restorer discovers a hidden message in a 15th-century painting of a chess game and tries to solve a centuries-old murder.

    Same wry register

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Amberes

    Roberto Bolaño2002

    A fragmented series of fifty-six short sections follows a police officer, a redhead, and a hunchback through a series of loosely linked crimes.

    wry → cold

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

  • Blood on the dining-room floor

    Gertrude Stein1948

    A repetitive, circular narrative about a death in a country house. It uses experimental prose to obscure the facts of a traditional mystery.

    wry → playful

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

  • The Doves Necklace

    Raja Alem2014

    A detective investigates an unidentified woman's body found in a Mecca alleyway. The city itself narrates parts of the story.

    wry → dreamlike

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

To recover

wry → playful

3 more ↓

  • My Beloved World

    Sonia Sotomayor2013

    Sonia Sotomayor recounts her journey from a housing project in the Bronx to the United States Supreme Court.

    wry → earnest

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • 50 Ways to Hex Your Lover

    Linda Wisdom2008

    A witch and a vampire police officer must work together to catch a serial killer while navigating their 300-year-old relationship.

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

  • Size 14 Is Not Fat Either

    Meg Cabot

    A former pop star working at a college dormitory investigates the murder of a cheerleader. She balances the case with her own personal life.

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

Faster

wry → propulsive

3 more ↓

  • Behind Closed Doors

    B.A. Paris2016

    A woman is held captive by her husband in a high-security home. She must find a way to escape before her sister moves in with them.

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak0

  • Kiss the Girls

    James Patterson1995

    Detective Alex Cross tracks two serial killers operating on opposite coasts who are communicating and competing with one another.

    wry → tense

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak+1

  • Verity

    Colleen Hoover2018

    A ghostwriter moves into a secluded estate to finish a series for an injured author and finds a hidden, disturbing autobiography.

    wry → tense

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak+1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • Dhalgren

    Samuel R. Delany1975

    An amnesiac wanderer enters Bellona, a city cut off from the world where time and geography shift. He joins a gang and writes poetry.

    wry → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • Gödel, Escher, Bach

    Douglas R. Hofstadter1979

    An exploration of how cognition emerges from hidden neurological patterns. It uses math, art, and music to explain self-referential systems.

    wry → playful

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • Ulysses

    James Joyce1914

    Three characters wander through Dublin on a single day in 1904. Each chapter uses a different literary style to mimic thoughts and sensations.

    wry → playful

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • Columbine

    Jeff Kass2009

    A journalist provides a detailed account of the 1999 Colorado school shooting based on a decade of research and police files.

    wry → clinical, still true crime

    pace0·prose-1·bleak+2

  • The Devil All the Time

    Donald Ray Pollock2011

    Interconnected stories of a veteran, serial killers, and a corrupt preacher in post-WWII Appalachia. It is a series of violent encounters.

    wry → bleak, still southern gothic

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+2

  • Galveston

    Nic Pizzolatto2010

    A dying hitman flees to a Texas beach town with a young woman and a child. He attempts to hide from his former boss while his health fails.

    wry → bleak, still southern gothic

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+2