outlander78

I really like murder mysteries set in a closed environment - in a shut up house, snowbound mansion or on an island. Two well-known examples are "And then there were none" (aka Ten Little Indians) and "Murder on the Orient Express), both written by Agatha Christie.

Could you folks suggest some other good novels (or movies) that have similar settings?

djmont

There are other Agatha Christie books that follow the same basic setup, so you might look for some more of those. John Dickson Carr was also well known for his locked-room mysteries.

Groucho

If you get a chance, you should see The Mousetrap (play) next time somebody puts it on locally.

The films Murder by Death and Clue are parodies of this genre.

outlander78

Thanks for the suggestions - I'll have to look up Murder By Death. Clue is one of my favourite movies.

Tscott

There was a time I tried to read a bunch of "locked room mysteries" and tried a few by John Dickson Carr- they were interesting but usually left me unsatisfied as the solutions tended to be rather far fetched and none of the characters rang true and only served the plot.

The best one of these types of stories I did read, and still one of my favorite mystery books of all time, was "The Locked Room" by Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo,a Swedish, husband and wife writing team. It follows a Swedish detective, Martin Beck, as he returns to duty after an injury and gets stuck with an "impossible" murder to solve, while the rest of the department is busy with a major case of their own. A good procedural with some well developed characters, some good humor and a twist or two.