4 Awesome Locked Room #WickedGoodReads

What are some phenomenal locked-room mystery books you’ve read? The books where a crime (usually a murder) is committed in a seemingly impenetrable area, or more loosely interpreted – we know a murder has taken place, but we can’t figure out how the murder could have done it because it seems impossible. Here are 4 of our faves locked room #WickedGoodReads.

Kim …

And Then There Were None, Agatha Christie

A classic and a great place to start in this genre! Ten people are trapped on a closed island and all ten end up dead- but who killed the last one standing? I love this book although it’s not my favorite Christie- I’m a die hard Poirot fan. If you’re looking for another locked room mystery try, Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case.

The house guests at Styles seemed perfectly pleasant to Captain Hastings. So Hastings was shocked to learn from Hercule Poirot’s declaration that one of them was a five-times murderer. True, the ageing detective was crippled with arthritis, but had his deductive instincts finally deserted him?

The Strings of Murder, Oscar de Muriel

Violins, Scotland, and Black Magic. Add a touch of the paranormal to my murder mystery book and I’m sold! This one was fast and a great read.

Edinburgh, 1888. A virtuoso violinist is brutally killed in his home. Black magic symbols cover the walls. The dead man’s maid swears she heard three musicians playing before the murder.

Tanya …

The Woman in Cabin 10, Ruth Ware

Lo Blacklock, a journalist, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. As the week on the ship wears on, Lo witnesses what she can only describe as a nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for—and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo’s desperate attempts to convey that something (or someone) has gone terribly, terribly wrong.

The Womna in Cabin 10 not only has a locked room type mystery, but we’re also dealing an unreliable narrator as Lo drinks too much, mixes her drink with medications, questions her own memories and is dealing with trauma from a burglary at her home prior to leaving for the trip.This made for some tense moments and the search for not just the killer, but what actually happened – and how – held me in thrall. I must confess that there are some moments that were a bit incredulous, but overall, this is a good read.

Malice, Keigo Higashino

Bestselling novelist Kunihiko Hidaka is found brutally murdered in his home on the night before he’s planning to leave Japan and relocate to Vancouver. His body is found in his office, a locked room, within his locked house, by his wife and his best friend, both of whom have rock solid alibis. Or so it seems.

The book takes a different approach to most crime novels, where the focus is on the WHO in a murder investigation and exploring the complexities behind the WHY. The plot is interesting, and the HOW of the locked room mystery had me guessing write down until it started to be revealed. It’s divided into individual parts between two characters, each part brought a new perspective and further evidence.

Have you read any of those books? What did you think? Are there any that you would recommend?

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