The documents in the case

Executive Orders

Tom Clancy1996

Jack Ryan becomes President after a terrorist attack kills the government. He manages domestic crises and foreign threats through policy and detail.

Same clinical register

pace0·prose0·bleak0

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.

clinical → 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.

clinical → dreamlike

pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

Nouvelles histoires extraordinaires (Berenice / Black Cat / Cask of Amontillado / Colloquy of Monos and Una / Conversation of Eiros and Charmi / Devil in the Belfry / Fall of the House of Usher / Four Beasts in One / Hop-Frog / Imp of the Perverse / Island of the Fay / King Pest / Lionizing / Man of the Crowd / Masque of the Red Death / Oval Portrait / Pit and the Pendulum / Power of Words / Shadow / Silence / Some Words with a Mummy / Tell-Tale Heart / William Wilson)

Edgar Allan Poe1857

A collection of gothic tales focusing on obsession, guilt, and the macabre. Many stories feature unreliable narrators and doppelgängers.

clinical → dreamlike

pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

Thoughtful

S.C. Stephens2015

Kellan Kyle falls for his best friend's girlfriend, Anna. The story retells the events of Thoughtless from Kellan's perspective.

clinical → earnest, still love triangle

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

Death of a Cad

M.C. Beaton

A village policeman investigates the death of a wealthy guest during a weekend party at a Scottish highland estate.

clinical → wry, still traditional mystery

pace0·prose-2·bleak-1

The case of the musical cow

Erle Stanley Gardner1950

A dog trainer is framed for smuggling after returning from Europe. He must find the real criminals to clear his name.

clinical → propulsive, still traditional mystery

pace+1·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.

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.

clinical → 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.

clinical → tense, still love triangle

pace+2·prose-2·bleak+1

The miracle at Speedy Motors

Alexander McCall Smith2008

Mma Ramotswe helps a woman find her long-lost family in Botswana. The story follows small domestic complications and slow-paced investigations.

clinical → warm

pace-1·prose-1·bleak-1

From A to X

John Berger2008

A woman writes letters to her lover, a political prisoner in an unnamed country. She describes her daily life while he writes notes in the margins.

clinical → meditative, still epistolary

pace-1·prose0·bleak+1

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.

clinical → dreamlike

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

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.

Same clinical register

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.

clinical → tense

pace+1·prose0·bleak+2

Shutter Island

Dennis Lehane2003

clinical → tense

pace+1·prose0·bleak+2