9 great modern locked-room mysteries and thrillers

Modern thriller authors are finding creative ways to reinterpret the locked-room mystery made popular by Agatha Christie. Why are these types of stories getting a reboot? Is it the intrigue of the seemingly impossible crime? Or the specter of the detective and the murderer trapped together with no way out?

Early examples by Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle involved an actual locked room, with the detective having to figure out how the murderer got in and out unnoticed. Christie interpreted the trope more loosely, penning stories in which a group of suspects is stuck together in an isolated setting, such as an island or a snowbound train.

Today, some of our most popular thriller authors are paying homage to Christie’s work and adding their own individual spin. With settings that span the globe, all of these novels are built on the nerve-wracking premise that there’s a killer among us, and no one is getting out.

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Ruth Ware, One by One

Coworkers from a high-tech startup find themselves battling Mother Nature and each other in this taut psychological thriller. What starts out as a posh corporate retreat at a ski chalet in the French Alps turns into a nightmare when the chalet is hit by an avalanche. As the coworkers are trapped together without outside help, relationships fracture. When one of their group turns up dead, the tension hits new heights and paranoia sets in.

Ware deftly ratchets up the suspense one victim at a time and uses shifting points of view to keep the reader guessing until the final reveal.

Iris Yamashita, City Under One Roof

All of this town’s 205 residents live in a single building in this haunting thriller set on the Alaskan coast. When body parts wash up on the beach, Anchorage Detective Cara Kennedy is sent to investigate, but a blizzard seals off the town’s only access point, trapping the detective, along with the town’s entire population, together in a building with no means of escape. Cara pursues the case through a labyrinth of dark tunnels, cramped apartments, and shadowy hideaways before the true motive behind the crime comes to light.

Yamashita’s starkly unique setting will linger in the reader’s mind long after the final page.

Rachel Rhys, Dangerous Crossing

Like Christie’s Death on the Nile, Rhys’s novel takes place aboard a ship, a setting which contributes to the protagonist’s feelings of isolation and claustrophobia. As the world is on the brink of WWII, Lily Shepherd sets out to leave her past behind and make a new life for herself in Australia. On the voyage, she meets a varied cast of characters, all running from something back in Europe.

When a fellow passenger is murdered, Lily realizes she is not the only one aboard harboring dangerous secrets. Cut off from the outside world and mistrustful of everyone, Lily tries to unravel a tangled web of lies and deceits.

Nalini Singh, There Should Have Been Eight

Known for her stunning New Zealand settings, bestselling author Nalini Singh sets this psychological thriller in New Zealand’s Southern Alps. Seven friends gather at spooky old estate and find themselves sharing an uneasy holiday in which long-buried secrets threaten the group dynamic.

When a snowstorm traps everyone together, the truth begins to emerge about Bea, the eighth member of their friend group who died years ago from an apparent suicide. Sealed off from the outside world, the friends must reckon with questions from the past and shocking revelations that spark vicious reactions.

Nevada Barr, Firestorm

Agatha Award winner Nevada Barr, best known for her mystery series set in the national parks, creates her own special take on the locked-room trope, setting her story against the backdrop of a terrifying wildfire. After flames tear through Lassen Volcanic National Park in California, park ranger Anna Pigeon emerges from her shelter to find two victims, one of whom was stabbed. As a snowstorm bears down, further cutting off a group of fire survivors from civilization, it’s up to Anna to figure out who among them is a killer.

Leave it to the master of the wilderness thriller to create a riveting “locked-room” mystery inside a 100,000-acre national park.

Riley Sager, With a Vengeance

With a nod to Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, Sager sets this fast-moving novel on a train bound for Chicago. Seeking justice for the 1942 conspiracy that sent her father to prison and destroyed her family, Anna Matheson brings together a group of people for a carefully orchestrated plot to settle the score.

But her plan is thrown into chaos when one of the passengers turns up murdered and Anna realizes she is not the only one aboard who has a secret vendetta. With her original plan derailed and the body count rising, Anna must figure out who is behind the competing plot before she herself becomes a victim.

Rachel Howzell Hall, They All Fall Down

When Miriam Macy is invited to participate in a reality show on a private island in the Sea of Cortez, she jumps at the chance to get away from her problems. But as Miriam’s travel companions die one after another, she realizes she’ll be lucky to make it off the island alive.

With the jungle closing in around her, Miriam’s reality show becomes a high-stakes game of survival in which her best weapon is her ingenuity and her ability to read people.

Lisa Unger, Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six

An ancestry-test kit sets off a chain of deadly events leading to one of those signature twist endings that Unger is known for. What starts out as a relaxing retreat at a luxury cabin in the woods turns sinister when it becomes clear that one of the guests has a hidden agenda. As a fierce storm hits the cabin, everyone is cut for from communication and confined together with their volatile secrets.

Lucy Foley, The Hunting Party

A lifelong Christie fan, bestselling novelist Lucy Foley pays homage to her British compatriot with her atmospheric thriller set at a hunting lodge in the Scottish Highlands. As a group of friends from Oxford University gathers to ring in the New Year, champagne toasts give way to terror when someone turns up dead. Cut off from help by a blizzard, the friends are trapped with the menacing knowledge that one among them is a killer. With lies, secrets, and decades-old resentments bubbling to the surface, the “friends” don’t know whom to trust.

Foley pays further tribute to Christie with her brand-new locked-room mystery, Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel. Set at an exclusive resort in the Swiss Alps, it’s the first book in the New Miss Marple Mysteries series, in which Foley reprises Christie’s beloved sleuth, Miss Marple. Fans of Dame Agatha, raise a glass!

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