LitQueuelitqueue

After

One Shot

Lee Child2005

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

Same propulsive register, still thriller

1 more ↓

  • The Watchman

    Robert Crais2007

    A bodyguard takes a witness into the Los Angeles underworld to hide from assassins. He enlists a private investigator to help them survive.

    pace0·prose+1·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.

    propulsive → cold

    pace-1·prose+3·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.

    propulsive → playful

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak0

  • American Psycho

    Bret Easton Ellis1991

    A wealthy investment banker details his daily routines, consumer habits, and graphic murders. The narrative is cold and repetitive.

    propulsive → cold

    pace-1·prose+3·bleak+2

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Thraxas

    Martin Millar

    An overweight, beer-drinking private investigator with minor magical abilities solves crimes in a corrupt fantasy city.

    propulsive → wry

    pace0·prose0·bleak-1

  • The Lucky Stiff

    Craig Rice1945

    A woman fakes her death to find the people who framed her for murder. She enlists a Chicago lawyer to help her haunt and expose the real killers.

    propulsive → playful

    pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

  • First Lensman

    Edward E. Smith1950

    A man receives a telepathic lens from aliens and must form a galactic police force to defend the universe against a hidden conspiracy.

    propulsive → earnest, still conspiracy

    pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

Faster

Same propulsive register, still thriller

3 more ↓

  • Dark Tide

    Elizabeth Haynes2013

    A woman living on a boat in London discovers a body in the water. The narrative follows the police investigation and her own history of debt.

    propulsive → tense, still thriller

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • Pursuit

    Thomas Perry2001

    A specialist who tracks down killers is hired to find a man who committed a mass shooting at a restaurant.

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak0

  • Baptism

    Max Kinnings2012

    A blind hostage negotiator manages a crisis involving a hijacked London Underground train and a series of related murders.

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    propulsive → playful

    pace-2·prose+3·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.

    propulsive → playful

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak0

  • A maça no escuro

    Clarice Lispector1961

    A man flees into the Brazilian interior believing he killed his wife. He works on a remote farm while navigating his own internal monologue.

    propulsive → meditative

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1

Heavier

propulsive → bleak, still crime

3 more ↓

  • Páradais

    Fernanda Melchor2020

    Two teenagers in a luxury housing complex plot a crime to escape their lives. The prose consists of long, rhythmic, and breathless sentences.

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+2

  • Full Dark, No Stars

    Stephen King2010

    Four novellas explore the themes of retribution and the capacity for violence. Characters commit and suffer from crimes in isolated settings.

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

  • The Virgin Suicides

    Jeffrey Eugenides

    A group of neighborhood boys obsessively observes five sisters in 1970s Michigan. They document the girls' lives leading up to their suicides.

    propulsive → tense, still crime

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+2