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After

The case of the half-wakened wife

Erle Stanley Gardner1945

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More like it

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  • The Woods

    Harlan Coben1849

    A prosecutor finds evidence that his sister, missing for twenty years, might be alive. He re-examines a cold case involving a summer camp murder.

    Same propulsive register, still legal thriller

    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.

    propulsive → 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.

    propulsive → dreamlike

    pace-1·prose+3·bleak+1

  • Confidence-Man

    Herman Melville1949

    A series of masquerading figures board a Mississippi steamboat on April Fool's Day to test the faith and finances of their fellow passengers.

    propulsive → sardonic

    pace-1·prose+3·bleak+1

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.

    propulsive → playful

    pace0·prose+1·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.

    propulsive → playful

    pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

  • The Greek coffin mystery

    Ellery Queen1932

    When an art dealer's coffin is opened to find a missing will, the detectives find a second, murdered body inside instead.

    propulsive → clinical

    pace0·prose+1·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • The people vs. Alex Cross

    James Patterson2017

    Detective Alex Cross stands trial for murder while his partner investigates a series of kidnappings. The story moves between the court and the hunt.

    Same propulsive register, still legal thriller

    pace+1·prose0·bleak0

  • Something from the Nightside

    Simon R. Green2003

    A private eye with the ability to find anything returns to a hidden, magical London underworld. He takes a case to find a missing daughter.

    propulsive → sardonic, still detective

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak0

  • The Da Vinci Code

    Dan Brown2003

    A symbologist and a cryptologist flee the police while solving puzzles hidden in art. They search for a secret regarding the Holy Grail.

    Same propulsive register

    pace+1·prose0·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

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.

    propulsive → 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.

    propulsive → tense

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+2

  • Shutter Island

    Dennis Lehane2003

    propulsive → tense

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+2