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Crime and Punishment

Fyodor Dostoevsky1941

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More like it

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  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

    Ken Kesey1962

    A criminal fakes insanity to serve his sentence in a mental ward. He leads the patients in a rebellion against the oppressive head nurse.

    tense → sardonic, still psychological fiction

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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.

    tense → playful

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • 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.

    tense → dreamlike

    pace0·prose+1·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.

    tense → cold

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

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.

    tense → wry

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • 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.

    tense → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • On a Pale Horse

    Piers Anthony1983

    After accidentally killing the personification of Death, a man must take over the office. He navigates the bureaucracy of the afterlife.

    tense → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • The Housemaid's Secret

    Freida McFadden2023

    A housemaid with a criminal record takes a job for a wealthy couple. She becomes obsessed with the wife she is forbidden from seeing.

    tense → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

  • 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.

    tense → propulsive

    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.

    Same tense register

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak0

Slower

3 more ↓

  • Tinkers

    Paul Harding2009

    An elderly clock repairman lies dying while his thoughts drift through his father's life as a peddler. The prose focuses on nature and mechanics.

    tense → meditative, still psychological fiction

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • February

    Lisa Moore2009

    A widow in Newfoundland moves between her quiet daily routines and the memory of her husband's death on a sunken oil rig decades earlier.

    tense → elegiac, still psychological fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak0

  • The Wilderness

    Samantha Harvey2009

    An architect with Alzheimer's attempts to reconstruct his life story. The narrative fragments as his memory and sense of time dissolve.

    tense → elegiac, still psychological fiction

    pace-1·prose0·bleak0

Heavier

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  • In the Miso Soup

    Ryū Murakami2003

    A nightlife guide leads an American tourist through Tokyo's red-light district. He begins to suspect his client is a violent serial killer.

    Same tense register, still crime fiction

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1

  • What Came Before He Shot Her

    Elizabeth George2006

    A twelve-year-old boy shoots an inspector's wife. The story follows the boy's life in North Kensington leading up to the event.

    tense → bleak, still psychological fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • Native Son

    Richard Wright1940

    A young Black man in 1930s Chicago accidentally kills a white woman. The story follows his flight and the systemic forces that shape his fate.

    tense → bleak, still crime fiction

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1