Welcome to our next installment of Classics Challenge, as we branch into the ever-popular genre of mysteries! These books are known for their suspenseful tone, questionable characters, and page-turning plots. If you already enjoy reading a good mystery and are looking for something new (or in this case, something old) then consider checking out some of these classic mysteries!
The Woman in White (Wilkie Collins)
Don’t let the sheer size of The Woman in White intimidate you. Despite being over 600 pages long, this classic tale is a delicious, ponderous, multi-layered story that is sure to entertain. Walter Hartwright takes a job working as an art teacher for a rich young woman, and soon is hopelessly in love with her. But, she’s engaged to Sir Percival Glyde, a powerful nobleman who is friends with the insidious Count Fosco. But, the central mystery concerns a mysterious young woman who stops Hartwright on his way to his new assignment, and who supposedly is an escaped patient from a mental hospital. Who is this mysterious woman in white? And what is Count Fosco after? You’ll have to read this book to find out!
Murder on the Orient Express (Agatha Christie)
It’s perhaps Agatha Christie’s most famous mystery novel. Just after midnight, the famous train, the Orient Express gets trapped in a snowdrift as it moves through the Balkans. The train is surprisingly full for this time of year, and come morning, one the the passengers is dead. An American tycoon lies on the floor of his compartment, stabbed a dozen times–and the door is locked from the inside. Among the substantial guest list is one Hercule Poirot, the famous detective, who is here on vacation. Isolated and trapped on a train with a killer, Poirot must identity the murderer, in case her (or she) decides to strike again.
The Hound of the Baskervilles (Arthur Conan Doyle)
Sherlock Holmes faces off against a potentially supernatural threat in this classic story. Dr. James Mortimer comes to Holmes to ask his assistance with a most alarming case–his friend, Sir Charles, has died under mysterious circumstances, and the doctor fears that the death was related to an old family legend about a demonic hound. And now that a new Baskerville is coming to claim his inheritence, there is concern that he might be the next to die. Holmes and Watson split up, with the doctor travelling to Baskerville Hall to explore the dreary, lonely moors where the hound is said to be sighted.
Gaudy Night (Dorothy L. Sayers)
When Harriet attends her Oxford reunion, known as the Gaudy, the prim academic setting is haunted by a rash of bizarre pranks, including scrawled obscenities, burnt effigies, and poison-pen letters, including one that disturbingly says “Ask your boyfriend with the title if he likes arsenic in his soup”. Some of the notes threaten murder; all are perfectly ghastly. And Harriet finds herself ensnared in a nightmare of romance and terror, with only the tiniest shreds of clues to challenge her powers of detection, and those of her paramour, the dashing private investigator, Lord Peter Wimsey.
Fer-De-Lance (Rex Stout)
As any herpetologist will tell you, the fer-de-lance is among the most dreaded snakes known to man. When someone makes a present of one to Nero Wolfe, Archie Goodwin knows he’s getting dreadfully close to solving the devilishly clever murders of an immigrant and a college president. As for Wolfe, he’s playing snake charmer in a case with more twists than an anaconda — whistling a seductive tune he hopes will catch a killer who’s still got poison in his heart.
Murders in the Rue Morgue (Edgar Allan Poe)
When the mutilated bodies of Madame L’Espanaye and her daughter are found in the rue Morgue, detective C. Auguste Dupin is faced with the most puzzling case of his career as witness accounts contradict each other and key evidence from the perpetrator does not appear to be human. Will he be able to solve this gruesome crime before the criminal can get away? The Murders in the Rue Morgue is recognized as the first detective story, and Edgar Allan Poe as the founder of the genre. If you enjoyed this story, Dupin appears in two more tales: The Purloined Letter and The Mystery of Marie Roget.
The Abandoned Room (Wadsworth Camp)
Old Silas Blackburn is convinced that his grandson, Bobby, intends to kill him. So, he secretly spends the night in an abandoned room of his sprawling estate, the Cedars. In the morning, he’s found dead. Bobby, meanwhile, has spent the the evening out with friends for a night of drunken revelry. But, he awakens all alone, not far from the Cedars, with no shoes and no idea how he got there. Did Bobby kill Silas without remembering his crime? As he and his cousin Katherine attempt to piece together what happened, the pair are joined by a mysterious detective who has decided that poor Bobby is his number one suspect. But, Bobby can’t prove his innocence if he doesn’t even remember what happened. Is he the killer after all?
The Haunted Lady (Mary Roberts Reinhart)
Eliza Fairbanks is convinced that someone is trying to kill her. The elderly widow has had too many close calls for it to be a coincidence. First, someone releases a cloud of bats into her locked bedroom, in what she believes was an attempt to scare her to death. When that fails, a pack of rats is released, with the same results. And then of course, there was the arsenic in the sugar bowl. Soon, the police dispatch special duty nurse Hilda Adams, aka “Miss Pinkerton” to tend to the rich widow. Hilda’s skill as a nurse allows her to act as an undercover agent for the authorities, and she does her job so well that even her clients don’t know her true mission. But, there’s one thing that Hilda knows– Eliza is not crazy. She’s very, very rich, and someone is trying to get her to croak. With her mansion swarming with eccentric relatives, a potential killer lurks behind ever corner. Will Hilda be able to save her charge and solve the mystery, or will the killer finally be able to dispatch one rich old woman?
Beau Geste (P.C. Wren)
An adventure story about the French Foreign Legion doesn’t necessarily sound like a mystery, but trust me–this juicy adventure is certainly full of mystery! Our story opens with the discovery of an abandoned fort. All the soldiers inside are dead, and they are propped up against the windows, guns in hand, as though they’re all at their battle stations. What are all these dead men doing waiting at attention like this? This book also explores a second mystery, the disappearance of a rare blue gemstone called the Blue Water, which vanished in the few seconds after the lights went out–in a room filled with people.
Mystery of the Yellow Room (Gaston Leroux)
This was my first locked-room mystery, and one that blew my mind as a teen! A young lady has just retired to her room when the sound of a struggle ensues, and cries of “Murder!” ring through the house. A gunshot is heard. The locked door is broken down by the young woman’s father and a servant, and she’s discovered on the floor, badly hurt and bleeding, but no one else is in the room. And the only means of entrance and exit is a the formerly locked door and a barred window. How did her attacker manage to escape? This mystery is the first of a series featuring the young detective Joseph Rouletabille.
More Mysteries!
Are you looking for more mysteries to enjoy? The following titles may or may not be in our collection, but you can find them through SearchOhio or on sites such as Project Gutenberg!
- The Man Who Was Thursday (G.K. Chesterton)
- The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Agatha Christie)
- The Mystery of Cloomber (Arthur Conan Doyle)
- The Case of the Curious Kitten (Erle Stanley Gardner)
- Clutch of Constables (Ngaio Marsh)
- Case for Three Detectives (Leo Bruce)
- The Iron Chariot (Stein Riverton)
- The Hollow Man (John Dickson Carr)
- A Well-Known Face (Josephine Bell)
- Death of a Busybody (George Bellairs)
- The Moonstone (Wilkie Collins)
- Man in a Black Hat (Temple Thurston)
- The Innocence of Father Brown (G.K. Chesterton)
- The Chinese Orange Mystery (Ellery King)
- Your Turn, Mr. Moto (John P. Marquand)
- A Puzzle for Fools (Patrick Quentin)
- The Thirty-Nine Steps (John Buchan)
- The Maze (Maurice Sandoz)
- The Bronze Hand (Anna Katharine Green)
