Since I was a child I’ve been drawn to mystery plots, because I love the sense of there being an agreement between author and reader, which leads to an ability to play with expectations. My most recent books have been Sherlock Holmes novels in the style of the classic Arthur Conan Doyle tales, though I’ve also written mysteries set on an isolated island and even on Mars! With each new story, I’ve found the act of plotting deeply satisfying. Of course, the next best thing to writing my own stories is reading another author’s novel that has a satisfying mystery, with a solution that in retrospect seems totally fair, but that I didn’t see coming.
I wrote
The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - The Defaced Men
My favorite modern mysteries bring new elements to the genre, and Stuart Turton’s debut, The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, was an eye-opener, mixing a time-loop SF concept with a classic murder mystery. The Devil and the Dark Waterappears less startling at first, but, as they say, still waters run deep... In 1634, the ‘world’s greatest detective’ is being transported by boat to Amsterdam to be executed. Given that he’s under lock and key, how can he solve the terrifying and impossible series of crimes that occur during the voyage? Finding out is a hell of a journey for the reader.
'If you read one book this year, make sure it's this one' Daily Mail
CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE GUARDIAN, SUNDAY TIMES, DAILY MAIL, FINANCIAL TIMES, DAILY EXPRESS AND i PAPER
WINNER OF THE BOOKS ARE MY BAG READERS AWARD FOR FICTION
SELECTED FOR THE BBC TWO BOOK CLUB BETWEEN THE COVERS AND THE RADIO 2 JO WHILEY BOOK CLUB
An impossible murder
A remarkable detective duo
A demon who may or may not exist
It's 1634 and Samuel Pipps, the world's greatest detective, is being transported from the Dutch East Indies to Amsterdam, where he…
A classic murder mystery from an unlikely author. Until recently I knew nothing about Winnie the Pooh author A. A. Milne’s single mystery novel—and now I feel it’s a great shame he didn’t write more. The Red House Mysteryis an archetypal murder mystery set in a country house and featuring a large cast, and there’s a wonderful locked-room puzzle at its center. Like many great mystery stories, it’s as much concerned with the rules of the genre as its characters, and it managed to wrongfoot me again and again, to my delight.
The Red House Mystery (1922) is a detective novel by A.A. Milne. Known more for his series of Winnie-the-Pooh stories and poems for children, Milne also wrote novels and plays for adults, including this successful whodunnit. The Red House Mystery, Milne's only detective novel, was highly successful upon publication and is noted for its use of an amateur sleuth as well as its intricate, puzzle-like plot. Despite earning the ire of Raymond Chandler, Milne's novel was reprinted in the U.S. and in Britain numerous times.
At his house in the English countryside, Mark Ablett hosts a small party of diverse…
Some mysteries are related more to character than plot, and sometimes figuring out ‘whodunnit’ is only half of the solution. Emily St. John Mandel’s terrific novel begins with a clear mystery setup: somebody has graffitied the words ‘Why don't you swallow broken glass’ onto the window of a hotel, triggering a series of events that have profound effects on a disparate group of people. The joy of reading this book is seeing how far away from this initial incident we can stray, whilst still retaining a desire to unravel the cause and effect.
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the bestselling author of Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility, an exhilarating novel set at the glittering intersection of two seemingly disparate events—the exposure of a massive criminal enterprise and the mysterious disappearance of a woman from a ship at sea.
“The perfect novel ... Freshly mysterious.” —The Washington Post
Vincent is a bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a five-star lodging on the northernmost tip of Vancouver Island. On the night she meets Jonathan Alkaitis, a hooded figure scrawls a message on the lobby's glass wall: Why don’t you swallow broken glass. High above Manhattan, a…
This 1946 Japanese novel is a classic locked-room mystery concerned with fair play within the rules of the genre. The rural setting and flurry of elaborate clues are what sets it apart, and the detective Kosuke Kindaichi is truly memorable, as is the devious solution. The work of author Seishi Yokomizo has only recently begun to be translated for English-speaking readers, but I hope more will appear soon.
In the winter of 1937, the village of Okamura is abuzz with excitement over the forthcoming wedding of a son of the grand Ichiyanagi family. But amid the gossip over the approaching festivities, there is also a worrying rumour - it seems a sinister masked man has been asking questions about the Ichiyanagis around the village.
Then, on the night of the wedding, the Ichiyanagi family are woken by a terrible scream, followed by the sound of eerie music - death has come to Okamura, leaving no trace but a bloody samurai sword, thrust into the pristine snow outside the…
Susanna Clarke’s 2021 novel is unlike any other book on my list—actually, it’s unlike any other book, period. Piranesi’s life consists of his wanderings around the vast House, a desolate series of interconnecting chambers filled with colossal statues. In his journal entries we learn that he’s convinced that somebody else shares this alien space, but he knows nothing about why either of them are there. The novel mixes Robinson Crusoe-esque exploration with a complex and surprisingly tangible mystery, and by the time readers reach the conclusion they may well be tempted to reread the entire novel to appreciate events with fresh understanding.
Winner of the 2021 Women's Prize for Fiction A SUNDAY TIMES & NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
The spectacular new novel from the bestselling author of JONATHAN STRANGE & MR NORRELL, 'one of our greatest living authors' NEW YORK MAGAZINE __________________________________ Piranesi lives in the House. Perhaps he always has.
In his notebooks, day after day, he makes a clear and careful record of its wonders: the labyrinth of halls, the thousands upon thousands of statues, the tides that thunder up staircases, the clouds that move in slow procession through the upper halls. On Tuesdays and Fridays Piranesi sees his friend,…
A white-haired, bearded client arrives at Baker Street and is recognized immediately by Sherlock Holmes. This client is being threatened by someone unknown to him through curious means: doctored lecture slides. This is Eadweard Muybridge, pioneer of animal and human locomotion photographs, who presents his motion-study animations to interested parties through his zoopraxiscope device.
When Holmes and Watson attend one of Muybridge’s lectures they find disturbing alterations to his slides. As they investigate further, they discover murder and conspiracy with the fledgling arts of photography and cinema at its heart…
In the first century, Rome’s celebrated love poet Ovid finds himself in exile, courtesy of an irate Emperor, in the far-flung town of Tomis. Appalled at being banished to a barbarous region at the very edge of the Empire, Ovid soon discovers that he has a far more urgent - and potentially perilous - issue to address. A killer is at large in Tomis.
Somebody is slaughtering animals in a parody of ritual, and the Governor’s advisor Marcus Avitius is under pressure to apprehend the perpetrator. When the killer progresses from animal to human victims, Avitius reluctantly allies himself to…
Rome’s celebrated love poet Ovid finds himself in exile, courtesy of an irate Emperor, in the far-flung town of Tomis.
Appalled at being banished to a barbarous region at the very edge of the Empire, Ovid soon discovers that he has a far more urgent - and potentially perilous - issue to address. A killer is at large in Tomis.
Somebody is slaughtering animals in a parody of ritual, and the Governor’s advisor Marcus Avitius is under pressure to apprehend the perpetrator.
