9 Locked-Room Mysteries That’ll Keep You in Suspense

July 6 2022
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Figuring out who the antagonist is, whether they’re a cold-blooded killer or the perpetrator of a terrible scheme, and unraveling their motive is often the best part of a mystery. But if you’re like me, then regular whodunnits sometimes just don’t cut it—there needs to be something more to make the mystery more enticing. Enter locked room mysteries, where characters are forced into a confined space after a crime, knowing full well one of them must be the killer, and have no means of escape. So come inside, if you dare, and check out these suspenseful locked-room mysteries.

Dangerous Crossing
by Rachel Rhys

With cellphones, GPS, the Internet, and any number of other technological innovations, it takes a lot to not be able to contact the outside world now. That’s why historical murder mysteries can get so intense—there may be no hope that people will be able to call for help. In DANGEROUS CROSSING, Lily Shepherd is set to make the journey from England to Australia on the brink of war in 1939. At first, the ocean liner she has boarded is a luxurious, wondrous experience, full of new faces, with multiple stops along the way to explore new ports, and plenty of music and dancing. That is, until two people are found dead. Could any of the dazzling new friends Lily has made really be a killer? All she can do is pray she’s not the next victim before they reach Australia.

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Dangerous Crossing
Rachel Rhys

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The Woman in the Library
by Sulari Gentill

One of the newest additions to the subgenre, THE WOMAN IN THE LIBRARY takes the locked-room formula and ups the suspense ante. The Boston Public Library has a beautiful reading room that attracts people from all walks of life. When security asks all visitors to stay exactly where they are after hearing a woman’s terrified scream, four strangers find themselves stuck together. What starts off as a pleasant, if inconvenient, meeting turns sinister as it becomes clear that one of them is not as innocent as they seem. Trapped together within a locked room, will the other three patrons be able to make it out of the reading room alive? You’ll just have to grab a seat at the table and find out for yourself.

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The Woman in the Library
Sulari Gentill

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The Turn of the Key
by Ruth Ware

Sometimes, the locked-room mystery forces characters into uncomfortable situations. But in others, like Ruth Ware’s THE TURN OF THE KEY, the victim is drawn into isolated quarters by an offer they can’t refuse. When Rowan finds a live-in nanny job with a massive salary and scenic views, she can hardly say no, feeling like she’s in a dream. However, her stay at the remote, Gothic Scottish estate of Heatherbrae quickly turns into a nightmare, complete with a dead child. Rowan is locked up for murder, so her story is told in flashbacks via her letters to her lawyer, explaining all that occurred in order to uncover the truth about what went on in the closed quarters of the sinister house. An homage to the classic Gothic tale, THE TURN OF SCREW, this book will have you furiously reading to find out what really happened.

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The Turn of the Key
Ruth Ware

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“A superb suspense writer…Brava, Ruth Ware. I daresay even Henry James would be impressed.” —Maureen Corrigan, author of So We Read On

“This appropriately twisty Turn of the Screw update finds the Woman in Cabin 10 author in her most menacing mode, unfurling a shocking saga of murder and deception.” —Entertainment Weekly

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Lying Game and The Death of Mrs. Westaway comes this thrilling novel that explores the dark side of technology.

When she stumbles across the ad, she’s looking for something else completely. But it seems like too good an opportunity to miss—a live-in nannying post, with a staggeringly generous salary. And when Rowan Caine arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten—by the luxurious “smart” home fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family.

What she doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a nightmare—one that will end with a child dead and herself in prison awaiting trial for murder.

Writing to her lawyer from prison, she struggles to explain the events that led to her incarceration. It wasn’t just the constant surveillance from the home’s cameras, or the malfunctioning technology that woke the household with booming music, or turned the lights off at the worst possible time. It wasn’t just the girls, who turned out to be a far cry from the immaculately behaved model children she met at her interview. It wasn’t even the way she was left alone for weeks at a time, with no adults around apart from the enigmatic handyman.

It was everything.

She knows she’s made mistakes. She admits that she lied to obtain the post, and that her behavior toward the children wasn’t always ideal. She’s not innocent, by any means. But, she maintains, she’s not guilty—at least not of murder—but somebody is.

Full of spellbinding menace and told in Ruth Ware’s signature suspenseful style, The Turn of the Key is an unputdownable thriller from the Agatha Christie of our time.

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The Last
by Hanna Jameson

When tragedy strikes, you want to be near loved ones, people you can count on and trust when shit hits the fan. However, that’s not always possible, and that can make circumstances even more terrifying. In THE LAST, Jon is stuck at an academic conference in Switzerland when the unthinkable happens: nuclear weapons strike cities across the world. Trapped in a hotel with his fellow academics, he does his best to survive until he can go home, but soon finds the body of a young, murdered girl on the roof. Could one of his fellow survivors be a killer? Part apocalypse drama, part murder mystery, the sense of dread and despair that comes over reading about Jon’s impossible situation only makes you root for him more.

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The Last
Hanna Jameson

This propulsive post-apocalyptic thriller “in which Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None collides with Stephen King’s The Shining” (NPR) follows a group of survivors stranded at a hotel as the world descends into nuclear war and the body of a young girl is discovered in one of the hotel’s water tanks.

Jon thought he had all the time in the world to respond to his wife’s text message: I miss you so much. I feel bad about how we left it. Love you. But as he’s waiting in the lobby of the L’Hotel Sixieme in Switzerland after an academic conference, still mulling over how to respond to his wife, he receives a string of horrifying push notifications. Washington, DC, has been hit with a nuclear bomb, then New York, then London, and finally Berlin. That’s all he knows before news outlets and social media goes black—and before the clouds on the horizon turn orange.

Two months later, there are twenty survivors holed up at the hotel, a place already tainted by its strange history of suicides and murders. Jon and the rest try to maintain some semblance of civilization. But when he goes up to the roof to investigate the hotel’s worsening water quality, he is shocked to discover the body of a young girl floating in one of the tanks, and is faced with the terrifying possibility that there might be a killer among the group.

As supplies dwindle and tensions rise, Jon becomes obsessed with discovering the truth behind the girl’s death. In this “brilliantly executed...chilling and extraordinary” post-apocalyptic mystery, “the questions Jameson poses—who will be with you at the end of the world, and what kind of person will you be?—are as haunting as the plot itself.” (Emily St. John Mandel, nationally bestselling author of Station Eleven).

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Last One Alive
by Amber Cowie

Who doesn’t love a good research trip? When author Penelope is looking for some inspiration for her new book, she decides to investigate a witch on Stone Point, a small outpost on the coast of the Pacific Northwest. The legends are too juicy to ignore—the cabin at Stone Point was the site of a gruesome murder and disappearance, left abandoned until a young couple tried to renovate it, only for them to disappear as well. Penelope drags along her boyfriend and a thoroughly motley crew to see what they can find, but she’s going to get a lot more murder and mystery than she bargained for. LAST ONE ALIVE is a gripping tale of legends come to life, and how the small sparks of animosity and bitterness can set off a full-blown fire.

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Last One Alive
Amber Cowie

A team of researchers exploring the myth of a witch find their numbers mysteriously dwindling in this irresistible psychological thriller for fans of Ruth Ware, Shari Lapena, and Lucy Foley.

Bestselling debut novelist Penelope Berkowitz is desperate for inspiration for a second book. With the help of her new boyfriend, she embarks on a research trip with a Clue-like team of professionals, ex-lovers, and estranged family members to investigate the myth of a witch on Stone Point, a remote coastal outcropping in the Pacific Northwest.

For over a century, the cabin on the point stood vacant after the violent death of the original owner and the disappearance of his wife—until a young couple decided to turn it into an eco-lodge. Shortly after starting renovations, however, they suddenly ceased all contact with others and were never heard from again.

Given the area’s mysterious history, Penelope is certain there’s a story to be found in the isolated region. But soon after arriving on the point’s wind-whipped shores, things begin to go awry for the team. Storms blow in. Tempers flare. The satellite phones stop working and no boats are due for days. Then people begin to disappear. When bodies turn up, it’s up to Penelope and the remaining members of the team to solve the mystery of the Stone Witch before the killer is the only one left alive.

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The Hunting Party
by Lucy Foley

Sometimes a locked-room mystery can happen in a wide, open expanse—what makes it harrowing is that no one can get in or out of the space before danger strikes. Case in point, THE HUNTING PARTY follows a group of friends celebrating New Years at an exclusive retreat in the Scottish Highlands. Unfortunately, a massive blizzard blows through, trapping them in their luxury digs for an unknown amount of time. And even more unfortunately, one of the revelers is murdered. This is a chilling mystery, both literally and figuratively, where friends and foes become one in the same as they race against the clock to solve the mystery before the killer strikes again.

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The Hunting Party
Lucy Foley

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They All Fall Down
by Rachel Howzell Hall

Not every locked-room mystery is about poor, undeserving victims who ended up in a bad situation. For example, Miriam, is tricked into heading to a remote Mexican island under the cover story that she will be competing for a lot of money. But she and the other “contestants” find that they’re really attending the memorial service for their lawyer, Phillip Omeke. And each of them has a dark past, and will be called to answer for the terrible things they’ve done. A play on the classic Agatha Christie tale, THEY ALL FALL DOWN takes some dark twists and turns that will have you rooting for someone to win in this deadly cat-and-mouse game—but they just might not be who you think they are.

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They All Fall Down
Rachel Howzell Hall

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The Writing Retreat
by Julia Bartz

If you've ever had dreams of being a writer, then you know the dream is to get invited to a writing retreat with housing and meals taken care of, a scenic location, and nothing to distract you from your work. Except, you know, all the weird and creepy things happening in the potentially haunted mansion you're staying in. That's what happens when Alex gets invited to an exclusive month-long retreat, where she must write an entire novel and compete with the other attendees for the massive cash prize. But as Alex tries to dive into her work, she is pulled more and more into the strange and dark behaviors of those around her, including her host, celebrated feminist horror writer Roza Vallo. THE WRITING RETREAT is a study in dedication and obsession, asking us just how far we'd go to make our dreams come true.

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The Writing Retreat
Julia Bartz

The Plot meets Please Join Us in this psychological suspense debut about a young author at an exclusive writer’s retreat that descends into a nightmare.

Alex has all but given up on her dreams of becoming a published author when she receives a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: attend an exclusive, month-long writing retreat at the estate of feminist horror writer Roza Vallo. Even the knowledge that Wren, her former best friend and current rival, is attending doesn’t dampen her excitement.

But when the attendees arrive, Roza drops a bombshell—they must all complete an entire novel from scratch during the next month, and the author of the best one will receive a life-changing seven-figure publishing deal. Determined to win this seemingly impossible contest, Alex buckles down and tries to ignore the strange happenings at the estate, including Roza’s erratic behavior, Wren’s cruel mind games, and the alleged haunting of the mansion itself. But when one of the writers vanishes during a snowstorm, Alex realizes that something very sinister is afoot. With the clock running out, she’s desperate to discover the truth and save herself.

A claustrophobic and propulsive thriller exploring the dark side of female friendships and fame, The Writing Retreat is the unputdownable debut novel from a compelling new talent.

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The Golden Spoon
by Jessa Maxwell

If you're going to get trapped anywhere while a murder investigation is taking place, it might as well be at a baking competition in a beautiful Vermont estate. Cookies and tea in rural New England? Sounds like Heaven, but for the contestants of "Bake Week", it quickly becomes a nightmare as one of their own is found murdered. But was the victim killed to thin out the competition, or is there an even more sinister motive at play? And what secrets does the "wholesome" host of the show have to hide from the rest of the world? THE GOLDEN SPOON is one part Great British Bake Off and one part cozy murder mystery gone awry, but no matter how you slice it, it's a deliciously devious and dark read.

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The Golden Spoon
Jessa Maxwell

“This delicious combination of Clue and The Great British Bakeoff kept me turning the pages all night!” —Janet Evanovich, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Only Murders in the Building meets The Maid in this darkly beguiling locked-room mystery where someone turns up dead on the set of TV’s hottest baking competition—perfect for fans of Nita Prose, Richard Osman, and Anthony Horowitz.

Every summer for the past ten years, six awe-struck bakers have descended on the grounds of Grafton, the leafy and imposing Vermont estate that is not only the filming site for “Bake Week” but also the childhood home of the show’s famous host, celebrated baker Betsy Martin.

The author of numerous bestselling cookbooks and hailed as “America’s Grandmother,” Betsy Martin isn’t as warm off-screen as on, though no one needs to know that but her. She has always demanded perfection, and gotten it with a smile, but this year something is off. As the baking competition commences, things begin to go awry. At first, it’s merely sabotage—sugar replaced with salt, a burner turned to high—but when a body is discovered, everyone is a suspect.

A sharp and suspenseful thriller for mystery buffs and avid bakers alike, The Golden Spoon is a brilliant puzzle filled with shocking twists and turns that will keep you reading late into the night until you turn the very last page of this incredible debut.

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Photo credit: iStock / Premyuda Yospim

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