12 Current Locked Room Mysteries For Followers Of Escape Rooms

After a protracted absence, traditional locked room mysteries are making their suspenseful comeback. The style that first grew to become in style with works like Agatha Christie’s And Then There Have been None and once more in 2016 with Ruth Ware’s women’ weekend gone awry In A Darkish, Darkish Wooden, books about teams trapped in small areas with a assassin have been slowly filling up bookstore and library cabinets. Maybe owing to the recognition of escape room video games, the set-up for these books are all satisfyingly simple…even because the plot strains change into extremely twisted.

Even when you haven’t learn a traditional of this style, you should still know the set-up from enjoying Clue: a bunch of individuals—generally strangers, generally buddies—finds themselves minimize off from the surface world. A physique is found, and the others should work out whodunit earlier than they themselves change into the following sufferer.

Listed here are 12 current takes on the traditional set-up, positive to thrill each die-hard followers and newcomers to locked room mysteries:

The Searching Get together by Lucy Foley

Through the languid days of the Christmas break, a bunch of 30-something buddies from Oxford meets to welcome within the New Yr collectively, a convention they started as college students ten years in the past. For this trip, they’ve chosen an idyllic and remoted property within the Scottish Highlands—the right place to get away and unwind by themselves. They arrive on December 30th, simply earlier than a historic blizzard seals the lodge off from the surface world.

Two days later, on New Yr’s Day, one in every of them is lifeless…and one other of them did it.

They All Fall Down by Rachel Howzell Corridor

Delighted by a shock invitation, Miriam Macy sails off to an expensive personal island off the coast of Mexico, with six strangers: an ex-cop, a chef, a monetary advisor, a nurse, a lawyer, and a younger widow. Surrounded by miles of open water within the gloriously inexperienced Sea of Cortez, Miriam is shocked to find that she and the remainder of her companions have been dropped at the distant island underneath false pretenses—and all seven strangers harbor a secret.

Hazard lurks within the lush forest and within the halls and bedrooms of the lonely mansion. Sporadic cell-phone protection and miles of ocean retains the group trapped in paradise. And unusual accidents preserve them suspicious of one another, as one after the other all of them fall down.

The Final by Hanna Jameson

For followers of high-concept thrillers, this breathtaking dystopian psychological thriller follows an American tutorial stranded at a Swiss resort—together with 20 different survivors—because the world descends into nuclear battle, who turns into obsessive about figuring out a assassin of their midst after the physique of a younger lady is found in one of many resort’s water tanks.

Homicide on the Grand Raj Palace by Vaseem Khan

When American billionaire Hollis Burbank is discovered lifeless at Mumbai’s grandest resort, the authorities are eager to label it a suicide. However the man in control of the investigation is just not so positive. Inspector Chopra known as in and discovers a resort full of individuals with a motive to need Burbank lifeless. Accompanied by his sidekick, child elephant Ganesha, Chopra navigates his approach by the palatial Grand Raj Palace, a journey that leads him steadily to a killer.

Malice: A Thriller by Keigo Higashino

Acclaimed bestselling novelist Kunihiko Hidaka is discovered brutally murdered in his residence on the night time earlier than he’s planning to go away Japan. His physique is present in his workplace, a locked room, inside his locked home, by his spouse and his greatest pal, each of whom have rock stable alibis. Or so it appears. Police Detective Kyoichiro Kaga investigates and finds himself caught in a story of cat and mouse.

Merciless is the Night time by by Karo Hämäläinen, translated by Owen Witesman

Three cell telephones ring in an opulent London condominium. The calls go unanswered as a result of their recipients are all lifeless. Earlier that night time, 4 Finnish buddies meet for dinner. However not solely does each diner have a bone to select with one other, however there’s an arsenal of lethal weapons hiding in plain sight. And by the tip of the night time, there can be just one survivor.

9 Excellent Strangers by Liane Moriarty

9 individuals collect at a distant well being resort. Some are right here to drop some weight, some are right here to get a reboot on life, some are right here for causes they’ll’t even admit to themselves. Amidst all the luxurious and pampering, the mindfulness and meditation, they know these ten days may contain some actual work. However none of them might think about simply how difficult the following ten days are going to be.

Ought to they put apart their doubts and immerse themselves in every part Tranquillum Home has to supply—or ought to they run whereas they nonetheless can?

An Undesirable Visitor by Shari Lapena

It’s winter within the Catskills and the climate outdoors is frightful. However Mitchell’s Inn is so pleasant! When the climate takes a flip for the more serious, and a blizzard cuts off the electrical energy—and all contact with the surface world—the friends settle in for the lengthy haul. Quickly, although, a physique turns up—absolutely an accident. When a second physique seems, they begin to panic. Then they discover a third physique.

Throughout the snowed-in paradise, one thing—or somebody—is selecting off the friends one after the other. They’ll’t go away, and with no cell service, there’s no prospect of getting the police in till the climate loosens its icy grip.

The Dying Recreation by Åsa Avdic, translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles

The 12 months is 2037, and on the tiny island of Isola, seven individuals have been chosen to take part in a 48-hour competitors for a top-secret intelligence place with the totalitarian Union of Friendship. Who will take management? Who will crack underneath strain? However then a storm rolls in, the facility goes out, and the actual sport begins…

A Very Pukka Homicide by Arjun Raj Gaind

Deep within the hinterland of the Punjab, within the state of Rajpore, the British Resident, Main William Russell, is discovered lifeless. The Maharaja of Rajpore, Sikander Singh, who fancies himself considerably of a detective, rushes to the Residency to analyze the scene of the crime, and concludes that the Main was poisoned. Now, Sikander should race towards the clock to reveal the assassin earlier than the British shut him down and canopy up the details of the case.

No Exit by Taylor Adams

On her technique to Utah to see her dying mom, faculty pupil Darby Thorne will get caught in a fierce blizzard within the mountains of Colorado. With the roads impassable, she’s pressured to attend out the storm at a distant freeway relaxation cease. Inside are some merchandising machines, a espresso maker, and 4 full strangers. She makes a surprising discovery that exhibits one in every of her fellow vacationers is a kidnapper. However which one?

Trapped in an more and more harmful state of affairs, with a baby’s life and her personal on the road, Darby should discover a technique to break the lady out of the van and escape.

The Final Time I Lied by Riley Sager

Fifteen years in the past, Emma’s three bunkmates at Camp Nightingale snuck out at night time and had been by no means seen once more. Now, Emma returns to the camp to resolve the thriller…and finds herself caught up in a brand new thriller. As she digs deeper, Emma finds herself sorting by lies from the previous whereas dealing with threats from each man and nature within the current.

And the nearer she will get to the reality about Camp Nightingale, the extra she realizes it could come at a lethal value.

Searching for extra locked room mysteries? Attempt our quiz: what locked room thriller do you have to learn? And for puzzling mysteries with a Japanese slant, why not attempt one in every of these Japanese thriller novels.

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