Haguile posted...
From: OctilIery | #024
Tag, relevant to my interests
And if you don't mind a minor hijack, I've read Murder on the Orient Express and And Then There Were None, where should I go next?
That depends. Do you want to stay with Christie novels or move on to other writers with similar style?
Either is good, there is plenty of ground to cover :)
I DO like the more suspenseful mysteries, but most of what I've been suggested was a big letdown on the mystery part, either because it was really simple or it was really obtuse(IE, not something the reader is really meant to solve).
I did read and love Falling Angel, though :)
Okay so I'm gonna make a few recommendations assuming you want a good mystery that has a good, suspenseful atmosphere.
The absolute best writer for that is John Dickson Carr. He was referred to by his biographer as "The man who could explain miracles" because he wrote amazing locked room puzzles. He also penned an essay called "The Grandest Game in the World" where he explains that he considers the genre to be a duel between author and reader and thinks that a good mystery novel must be meant to be solved. So you know he's great at both being fair and puzzles.
So here's my Carr recommendations:
He Who Whispers--Very suspenseful, very fair, very clever.
Problem of the Green Capsule--Not very suspenseful, very fair, very clever.
Plague Court Murders--Mildly suspenseful, very fair, clever.
Three Coffins/Hollow Man--Very suspenseful, fair(there's one or two things that wouldn't be classified as fair but it's still very well plotted and mostly fair), very clever.
As for Christie books, I think you could do well with "Death on the Nile" which is very clever but far from suspenseful. Christie just wasn't too good with suspense.