10 Best Locked Room Mystery Books: Locked room mysteries refer to mysteries about apparently impossible crimes. Here, the criminal (usually a murderer) somehow manages to commit the crime in a sealed room or crime scene. Here is a list of the best books that incorporate such mysteries, some of which are classics and some contemporaries.
10 Best Locked Room Mystery Books:
The King is Dead: By Ellery Queen
In this book, a relative of one of the most powerful men in the world invades the Queen’s apartment. This power comes from a capitalist accumulation of wealth and influence in the industrial sector. Now the great detective Ellery must now save the life of this wealthy and powerful man from his own relative.
Murder on the Orient Express: By Agatha Christie
This famous Poirot novel follows detective Hercules Poirot’s attempt to solve a murder on board the Orient Express. The victim is discovered with twelve injuries on the body and Belgian detective must interrogate all the boarders. The best part about this classic is that the ‘locked room’ as a moving train!
The Hunting Party: By Lucy Foley
At an Oxford reunion of friends, one of them ends up dead on New Year’s Eve. This sets into motion a series of events that changes the course of their lives, because only one of them could have done it. Locked in during a historic blizzard and estranged from the world, only one of them can be the culprit.
The Three Coffins: By John Dickson Carr
This classic follows a man who is murdered in a closed room lying within the snow, without even footprints to help solve the mystery. The detective in this book even has a monologue about these kind of impossible mysteries and the possibilities of solving them.
The Decagon House Murders: By Yukito Ayatsuji
A stalwart of the shin honkaku locked mystery movement, this book follows university students who travel to an island where a murder has been committed. But when the students themselves begin to mysteriously die, there is something fishy that detectives must find out.
The Psychology of Time Travel: By Kate Mascrenhas
Part of this book takes place decades ago, when four women decide to invent time travel. When one of them drops out due to unforeseen reasons, the other three continue without her. And years later, Ruby receives a news clipping about a woman locked up in a room in the future who is now dead. Ruby of course, sets out to solve the mystery.
They All Fall Down: By Rachel Howzell Hall
The protagonist of this story, Miriam receives an invitation to a luxurious island and finds it the ultimate getaway. But when she goes there, she realizes many others are also present, the phone network is shady and they are slowly being isolated. When dark and sinister events begin to occur, she must decide what to do in order to escape.
Malice: By Keigo Higashino
A bestselling writer is murdered in his own locked room, and everyone around him has immaculate alibis. Now the detective must break down their walls and find out exactly who did this.
The Moonstones: By Wilkie Collins
This classic follows Rachel, whose moonstone disappears from her locked room after her birthday party. What ensues is mysterious events that spiral out of control.
Room: By Emma Donoghue
This mystery is the story of a mother’s love for her son. Ma gives Jack a relatively good life within the confines of the room she is kidnapped in, but she knows that he must see the world to be able to live in it. So she devises an escape plan. Together, the tenacious mother and brave son navigate the journey to freedom.
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