Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve always been a fan of dark stories and unsolved mysteries. As I grew older, this led me to read true crime, historical mysteries, horror stories, and mystery detective fiction. I also have a preference for classic stories from decades gone by, as I have a strong interest in how genre-defining stories that appear at a certain time can have great influence over a generation of writers. So, it’s fitting to say that all my recommendations tend to be great stories from long ago. Much like the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, people still read these stories today and probably will in the future since great stories are timeless.


I wrote

The Dreaming Volume 1

By Queenie Chan,

Book cover of The Dreaming Volume 1

What is my book about?

My book is a 3-volume manga series, a YA supernatural mystery-suspense series about vanishing schoolgirls at a boarding school in…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Tokyo Zodiac Murders

Queenie Chan Why did I love this book?

I like macabre mysteries with compelling hooks and clever resolutions that blow my mind, and this book does exactly that. Japan has a long tradition of writing “fair play” mysteries, which they call honkaku novels. These borrow from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction in the vein of Agatha Christie but certainly are their own category. 

These novels are like puzzles, focusing on the rules of fair play by giving readers all they need to figure out the mystery. This story was my first honkaku story and is only the length of a novella (like many honkaku novels), and it’s also rather dark, which I enjoy since I like horror as much as mystery.

By Soji Shimada, Ross Mackenzie (translator), Shika Mackenzie (translator)

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Tokyo Zodiac Murders as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'If you like your crime stories to be bloody and bizarre, then this one may be for you. The winner of several major awards... the solution is one of the most original that I've ever read' Anthony Horowitz

A bestselling and internationally-acclaimed masterpiece of the locked-room mystery genre

Japan, 1936. An old eccentric artist living with seven women has been found dead - in a room locked from the inside. His diaries reveal alchemy, astrology and a complicated plan to kill all seven women. Shortly afterwards, the plan is carried out: the women are found dismembered and buried across rural…


Book cover of The Opera House Murders

Queenie Chan Why did I love this book?

This 90s manga series is one of the first proper murder mystery manga. While it’s aged a bit and not a honkaku that readers can solve, it borrows a bit from some famous Japanese honkaku novels and might be a good introduction to Japanese murder mystery fiction. Despite the homages, this is distinctively its own story.

As is commonly done in Japanese mysteries, most involve a seemingly impossible murder in a remote location with a long list of shady suspects. While teenage detective Kindaichi Hajime tries to solve the case, more murders happen. The stories are creative, and the solutions are, too—this series often has more macabre moments but is often sympathetic to the killers.

By Yozaburo Kanari, Fumiya Sato (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Opera House Murders as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 13, 14, 15, and 16.

What is this book about?

When Miyuki invites her friend, underachiever Hajime Kindaichi, to join her at the Drama Club's weekend rehearsal of "Phantom of the Opera," she does not expect the weekend to end in murder, nor for Kindaichi to investigate.


Book cover of Death Among the Undead

Queenie Chan Why did I love this book?

This is a fair-play honkaku novel that involves a twist with the supernatural—in this case, zombies. In Japan or otherwise, most detective fiction tends to avoid the supernatural. Still, zombies actually do behave predictably, so they can be used in the way a murder weapon can. 

Again, you can also solve this mystery before the “detective reveal,” which I didn’t manage to do, but the solution also involves some clever tricks. My reason for recommending this is the use of zombies (to besiege a manor where the characters are holed up), giving this detective story a fresh and unique flavor I haven’t seen before.

By Masahiro Imamura, Ho-Ling Wong (translator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Death Among the Undead as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

“... a work of great importance.”

Soji Shimada, author of “The Toko Zodiac Murders”

“Death Among the Undead” is the only novel ever to have achieved first place in all four major annual mystery fiction rankings in Japan. It was an overnight sensation and was turned into a film and a manga.

Its success was due to the novel twist of adding zombies to a shin honkaku country house setting, but fans of locked room mysteries and closed circle plots need not worry. The iron-clad rules regarding the zombies’ behaviour and existence are rigorously observed, and are used to create…


Book cover of Case Closed, Vol. 1

Queenie Chan Why did I love this book?

The Case Closed manga series, which is called Detective Conan in Japan, is possibly the longest-running murder mystery series in the world. It has over 1,000 chapters, all short murder mysteries lasting 2-5 chapters. While they’re not honkaku mysteries with fair play that the reader can solve, they are interesting and creative. 

The art style can appear quite “kiddie,” but don’t be fooled—murder mystery fans can find plenty to enjoy here, as it’s clear that the creator is very widely read in detective fiction. It also involves a teenage sleuth shrunk to the size of a small child by a mysterious drug, so while the characters remain static, it has some background intrigue, too.

By Gosho Aoyama,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Case Closed, Vol. 1 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Can Detective Conan crack the case...while trapped in a kid's body?

Jimmy Kudo, the son of a world-renowned mystery writer, is a high school detective who has cracked the most baffling of cases. One day while on a date with his childhood friend Rachel Moore, Jimmy observes a pair of men in black involved in some shady business. The men capture Jimmy and give him a poisonous substance to rub out their witness. But instead of killing him, it turns him into a little kid! Jimmy takes on the pseudonym Conan Edogawa and continues to solve all the difficult cases…


Book cover of Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination

Queenie Chan Why did I love this book?

Edogawa Rampo is the father of Japanese detective fiction, and this macabre short story collection is a perfect introduction to his work. While not detective stories per se (he’s written some that are), these stories showcase a series of works that are fascinating, varied, dark, and very fun to read. 

Borrowing from elements from Western Silver Age detective fiction but adding elements of the grotesque and twisted, he is very distinct from all the Western mystery fiction I’ve read from a similar era. Since detective fiction formally started with Edgar Allen Poe and his C. Auguste Dupin in macabre stories, this seems a throwback to that storied history for me.

By Edogawa Rampo, James B. Harris (translator),

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This collection of mystery and horror stories is regarded as Japan's answer to Edgar Allan Poe.

Japanese Tales of Mystery & Imagination, the first volume of its kind translated into English, is written with the quick tempo of the West but rich with the fantasy of the East. These nine bloodcurdling, chilling tales present a genre of literature largely unknown to readers outside Japan, including the strange story of a quadruple amputee and his perverse wife; the record of a man who creates a mysterious chamber of mirrors and discovers hidden pleasures within; the morbid confession of a maniac who…


Explore my book 😀

The Dreaming Volume 1

By Queenie Chan,

Book cover of The Dreaming Volume 1

What is my book about?

My book is a 3-volume manga series, a YA supernatural mystery-suspense series about vanishing schoolgirls at a boarding school in the Australian bush. When twin sisters Jeanie and Amber Lim arrive at the remote Greenwich Private College, a school with the aforementioned dark history, they start having strange dreams that may be linked to the school's history.

Can they solve the mystery behind the school’s disappearances, or will they come face-to-face with the dark entity that haunts the school’s past? This dark Lovecraftian-themed story is strong on atmosphere and light on gore.

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Girl of Light

By Elana Gomel,

Book cover of Girl of Light

Elana Gomel Author Of Nine Levels

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author

Elana's 3 favorite reads in 2024

What is my book about?

A girl of Light in a world of darkness.

In Svetlana's country, it’s a felony to break a mirror. Mirrors are conduits of the Voice, the deity worshiped by all who follow Light. The Voice protects humans of MotherLand from the dangers that beset them on all sides: an invading army of wolf-headed men on their borders and the infectious, ever-evolving, zombie-like Enemy that plagues them at home. When Svetlana meets Andrei, a traumatized and amnesiac soldier from another war, she embarks on a harrowing journey of adventure and self-discovery that leads her to question everything she was taught to…

Girl of Light

By Elana Gomel,

What is this book about?

A voice through Svetlana's mirror guides her beloved MotherLand from behind its' electric tower. The war with Wulfstan is not going as well as Sveta and her parents hope, but Sveta trusts the Voice. When her best friend Tattie goes missing, and Sveta saves Andrei, a soldier in summer uniform in the dead of winter, it takes Sveta through a crucible of Light, doubt, and back to the altar of true belief. Girl of Light unravels Sveta's beloved MotherLand in a war-torn adventure through monsters, missing eyes and broken mirrors.

Girl of Light is a dark fantasy with a Slavic…


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