LitQueuelitqueue

After

The case of the runaway corpse

Erle Stanley Gardner1954

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • The Last Days of Night

    Graham Moore2016

    A young lawyer represents George Westinghouse in a high-stakes legal battle against Thomas Edison over the patent for the lightbulb.

    Same propulsive register, still legal thriller

    pace0·prose+1·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

Same propulsive register, still legal thriller

3 more ↓

  • Taken

    Robert Crais2012

    A private investigator and his partner search for two kidnapped teenagers. One investigator goes undercover and is captured by the human traffickers.

    propulsive → tense, still hardboiled

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • 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

  • 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.

    Same propulsive register

    pace+1·prose0·bleak0

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 ↓

  • A diet of treacle

    Lawrence Block1961

    A young man and woman drift into the 1960s Greenwich Village underworld. They encounter drug use and a predatory criminal element.

    propulsive → bleak, still hardboiled

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

  • No Orchids for Miss Blandish

    James Hadley Chase1939

    A gang kidnaps an heiress, but a more violent criminal family seizes her for themselves. A private investigator searches for her months later.

    propulsive → cold, still hardboiled

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

  • 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