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After

Who killed Robert Prentice?

Dennis Wheatley1937

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More like it

Same clinical register, still traditional mystery

1 more ↓

  • Murder in the Family

    Cara Hunter2023

    A true-crime documentary crew re-examines a twenty-year-old cold case. The story is told through scripts, emails, and news clippings.

    Same clinical register, still epistolary

    pace+1·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.

    clinical → playful

    pace-1·prose+2·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+2·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.

    clinical → sardonic

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+1

To recover

clinical → wry

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    clinical → playful, still traditional mystery

    pace+1·prose0·bleak-1

  • Death on Demand

    Carolyn G. Hart1987

    A mystery bookstore owner becomes the lead suspect when a local author is killed. She must find the real murderer to save her business.

    clinical → playful, still traditional mystery

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Ghost Ship

    Clive Cussler2014

    Kurt Austin survives a yacht sinking but suffers from conflicting memories. He investigates a global cybercrime conspiracy to find the truth.

    clinical → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1

Faster

clinical → propulsive

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.

    pace+2·prose-1·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-1·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

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak+1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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·prose0·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·prose+1·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+2·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.

    Same clinical register

    pace0·prose+1·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·prose+1·bleak+2

  • Shutter Island

    Dennis Lehane2003

    clinical → tense

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak+2