I got inspired by our recent book club themes to reunite the books that I’ve read the past few years by the tropes and concepts that are relevant to the genre. Hope you find this list useful!
SOMETHING HAPPENED TO ME AND I’M COMPLETELY LOST AKA AMNESIA
I have to be honest with you here, this trope is my least favourite trope in all history of tropes and somehow all the contemporary thrillers overuse it. But there’s one book where I really appreciate that concept : The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. It was done quite creatively. Evelyn Hardcastle attends a party throws for her gets suspiciously murdered. Aiden re-lives this day through the perspectives of the different guests to be able to save Evelyn.
THE LOCKED ROOM MYSTERY
My forever favourite is Le Mystère de La Chambre Jaune (Mystery of The Yellow Room) by Gaston Leroux, published in 1908. It is so intricate and detailed in every single way and still my favourite memory of Murder Mystery genre. But for a more contemporary read, I would suggest The Murder in The Crooked House by Soji Shimada, an author I’ve discovered during our book club moment 😉
LET’S GATHER AROUND THE ROOM
What’s the first book you think about when I say a bunch of people are stuck together somewhere on an island, or a train..? Yes Agatha Christie has definitely perfected this trope haha. From And Then There Were None to Murder on the Orient Express. But if you need a more varied suggestion, look for The Invisible Circle by Paul Halter!
Bookidote 
I love And Then There Were None! Unfortunately none of the Agatha Christie’s i’ve read since compare. This is a cool post! I’m mostly into contemporary and speculative fiction like MR Carey and Oryx And Crake.
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Yayy love And Then There Were None too ! 🙂 And omg I keep hearing about Oryx 😂 I have to give it a go!
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The Decagon House Murders by Soji Shimada? If only. Have you read The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji?
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The Murder in the Crooked House ! Have you read the one by Yukito Ayatsuji?
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Yes, I was just curious if anyone read that one by Ayatsuji because, in my opinion, it was not a book by a videogame script. I was very disappointed and want to know if others felt the same.
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A favorite trope of mine is ‘the un-named’ detective. There were several around the early 20th century. The most famous is Dahiell Hammetts ‘Continental Operative’.
Another trope might be ‘the Armchair Detective’ as in, he or she can solve the crime just by sitting in place and piecing it together in his head, Poirot would be an example, as opposed to a Holmes, who would tirelessly scour the ground to find a hidden clue.
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Such a great list! Agatha Christie sure is amazing!
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‘Mystery of the Yellow Room’ was published in 1908, not 1708. That threw me for a moment! The oldest detective story of this type that I know of is Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘Murder in the Rue Morgue’, published in 1841. I love Sherlock Holmes, but I have to admit, he is a rip-off of Poe’s ‘Dupin’.
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