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After

The Firm of Girdlestone

Arthur Conan Doyle1889

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More like it

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  • The mystery of Edwin Drood

    Charles Dickens1870

    A choirmaster is obsessed with his nephew's fiancée. When the nephew disappears, suspicion falls on a rival, but the book ends mid-sentence.

    earnest → elegiac, still love triangle

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    earnest → 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.

    earnest → dreamlike

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

  • Niccolò Rising

    Dorothy Dunnett1986

    A dyer’s apprentice in 15th-century Bruges uses his intellect to navigate the world of international trade. He builds a mercantile empire.

    earnest → wry

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • And One Last Thing...

    Molly Harper2010

    After a public divorce, a woman moves to a small town to start over and finds herself pursued by a local deputy.

    earnest → wry

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

  • Perfection

    R.L. Mathewson2011

    A woman tries to ignore her neighbor, a man with a massive appetite who constantly steals her food. They bicker until a relationship forms.

    earnest → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

  • Plum Lucky

    Janet Evanovich2007

    Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum chases a man who stole a horse and a bag of money. Her grandmother and a mysterious ally join the pursuit.

    earnest → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

Faster

earnest → 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.

    earnest → 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.

    earnest → tense, still love triangle

    pace+2·prose-2·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.

    earnest → 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.

    earnest → playful

    pace-1·prose+1·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.

    earnest → meditative

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • In Cold Blood

    Truman Capote1965

    A reconstruction of the 1959 murder of a Kansas family and the subsequent investigation. It follows both the victims and the killers.

    earnest → clinical

    pace0·prose0·bleak+2

  • Lord of the Flies

    William Golding1954

    Schoolboys are stranded on an island and try to organize a society. Order collapses into tribalism and violence.

    earnest → tense

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+2

  • Shutter Island

    Dennis Lehane2003

    earnest → tense

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+2