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After

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Agatha Christie1926

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More like it

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  • Deal Breaker

    Harlan Coben1995

    A sports agent investigates the disappearance of his star client's former girlfriend. He navigates the professional sports world to find the truth.

    Same wry register

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

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.

    wry → playful

    pace-2·prose+3·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, still unreliable narrator

    pace-1·prose+3·bleak+1

  • American Psycho

    Bret Easton Ellis1991

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

    wry → cold, still unreliable narrator

    pace-1·prose+3·bleak+2

To recover

3 more ↓

  • The Red House Mystery

    A. A. Milne1922

    An amateur sleuth investigates a shooting at an English country house. The victim's brother vanishes from a locked room during the incident.

    wry → playful, still closed circle

    pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

  • The case of the fiery fingers

    Erle Stanley Gardner1951

    Perry Mason defends a nurse accused of theft and poison. The case hinges on forensic evidence involving ultraviolet light and aspirin tablets.

    Same wry register

    pace0·prose0·bleak-1

  • Behind the Crimson Blind

    John Dickson Carr1952

    Sir Henry Merrivale travels to Tangier to catch an elusive thief and solve a mystery involving a locked room.

    wry → playful

    pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

Faster

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.

    wry → propulsive

    pace+1·prose0·bleak0

  • Dark Matter

    Blake Crouch2016

    A physics professor is kidnapped and wakes up in an alternate reality where he chose career over family. He must navigate the multiverse to return.

    wry → propulsive

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak0

  • You

    Caroline Kepnes2014

    A bookstore manager becomes obsessed with a customer and uses social media to orchestrate a relationship. He removes obstacles through murder.

    wry → sardonic, still unreliable narrator

    pace+1·prose+1·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, still unreliable narrator

    pace-2·prose+3·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-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.

    wry → playful

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak0

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.

    wry → clinical

    pace-1·prose+2·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.

    wry → tense

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+2

  • Shutter Island

    Dennis Lehane2003

    wry → tense, still unreliable narrator

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+2