A murder occurs within a limited social circle and the central account is delivered in first person by a figure close to the investigation; a famous private detective appears and works from clues and interviews to identify the killer.

A San Francisco private detective becomes tangled in a case that hinges on a coveted object and a series of killings. The narrative presents events from an external third-person viewpoint—reporting only actions, dialogue, and appearances—so the mystery and shifting loyalties carry the dramatic weight.

A baffling murder in 1920s London brings together an informal club of six armchair detectives who each propose different solutions to the same facts. The novel turns the detective parlor game into its subject, testing how many plausible—but ultimately flawed—explanations can arise from identical evidence.

A celebrated detective traveling home is detained when a murder is found on the Orient Express after heavy snowfall. Stranded passengers become a finite pool of suspects and the detective must sort through conflicting alibis, motives, and testimony to reconstruct what happened before the train resumes its journey.

A woman linked to an academic community returns to a college where puzzling acts and a climate of fear have erupted; an investigator connected to her seeks to discover who is behind the incidents and why.

A professionally curious narrator pursues the life of a shadowy criminal figure across interwar European settings, following clues from travel and chance encounters to reconstruct motive and method.

Philip Marlowe, a laconic private detective, is hired by an elderly wealthy client to look into a potentially embarrassing or criminal affair involving her family.

Set on Chicago's South Side in the 1930s, the novel follows Bigger Thomas, a young Black man shaped by crushing poverty and social isolation.

Set in ancient Thebes during the 11th dynasty, the novel places a household under scrutiny after a series of deaths.