Lit2Go

Mystery

Fiction that involves an investigation or solves a crime.

Books

The Mystery of Cloomber

by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Narrated by John Fothergill West, a Scottish man, who moves from Edinburgh to Wigtownshire to care for the family estate when his father's half brother dies. Near the estate is The Cloomber Hall, for years uninhabited, but now the residence of John Berthier Heatherstone, a general of the Indian Army. General Heatherstone is an anxious man, apprehensive about someone he offended in India. The Mystery of Cloomber unfolds, revealing Heathstone's war crime against a Buddhist priest.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

by Charles Dickens

The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Dickens's final novel was left unfinished before his death in 1871. Edwin Drood’s uncle, John Jasper, a choirmaster, is in love with his pupil and Drood’s fiancee Rosa Bud. She has also caught the eye of high-spirited and ill-tempered Neville Landless (who came from Ceylon with his twin sister Helena). When Drood is murdered, the killer must be found...that is if Drood is really dead.

The Return of Sherlock Holmes

by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The book was first published in 1905 and was the first Holmes collection since 1893, when Holmes had "died" in "The Final Problem". Having published The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1901–1902, which was set before Holmes' "death", Doyle came under intense pressure to revive his famous character. The first story is set in 1894 and has Holmes returning in London and explaining the period from 1891–1894, a period called "The Great Hiatus" by Sherlockian enthusiasts. Also of note is Watson's statement in the last story of the cycle that Holmes has retired, and forbids him to publish any more stories.

The Woman in White

by Wilkie Collins

The Woman in White is an epistolary novel written by Wilkie Collins in 1859, serialized in 1859-1860, and first published in book form in 1860. It is considered to be to the first mystery novel, and is widely regarded as one of the first (and finest) in the genre of “sensation novels”.

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