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.

An autobiographical account by Zora Neale Hurston that traces episodes from her life, mixing personal memory with material drawn from folklore and the social customs of Black communities.

A first-person memoir of growing up and working in colonial East Africa, told through episodic accounts of life on farms, training racehorses, and learning to fly.

Set in an early 20th-century Brooklyn neighborhood, the novel follows a young girl growing up amid economic hardship and complex family dynamics. It traces the pressures of poverty, education, and personal ambition as the child negotiates loyalty to family and the desire for a different future.

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

Richard Wright's Black Boy is a memoir of his childhood and early adulthood, following life in the segregated American South and his later move to Chicago where he begins a writing career and political engagement.

Set around a criminal investigation, the novel focuses on a case that raises questions about identity and culpability when the accused exhibits signs of multiple personality or severe mental disturbance.

An English academic with a penchant for puzzles becomes involved in a London mystery centered on a strange toyshop and a missing person. The setup puts a cerebral, amateur detective into a circle of eccentric characters and cryptic clues that require deduction and local knowledge to sort out.