Loved Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery? 6 locked-room mysteries to enjoy next

With Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery now streaming on Netflix, here's a list of some of the seminal locked-room mysteries from literature.

Some of the titles may even be familiar to viewers of the new movie, with a certain reading list playing a key part in Benoit Blanc's investigations...

1. The Hollow Man by John Dickson Carr

A key influence on Wake Up Dead Man came from this 1935 novel by American author John Dickson Carr. Today, it’s renowned for both the ingenuity of its central locked-room mystery – whereby a murderous visitor seemingly disappears into thin air – and a fourth-wall-stretching speech by sleuth Dr Gideon Fell, who lays out the various methods often used by writers to explain such “impossible crimes”.

Can I watch it?

Unlike others on the list below, there are no major adaptations of this work outside of a few radio dramas – perhaps re-creating Carr’s solution is an impossible task in and of itself.

2. The Adventure of the Speckled Band by Arthur Conan Doyle

Holmes and Watson tackle a fiendish criminal in this eerie 1892 short story, about a young woman who dies alone in her locked room a few days after hearing a low whistle. Soon, her surviving sister hears the same noise and understandably believes her time is up. But what could a house full of animals, an unconnected bell cord and a saucer of milk have to do with either murder attempt?

Can I watch it?

The Speckled Band features as an episode of the classic adaptation Sherlock Holmes, starring Jeremy Brett as Holmes, and is available to stream on ITVX.

3. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

The Queen of Crime didn’t often go in for “classic” locked-room murder mysteries of the sort laid out by Dickson Carr. Still, this influential 1926 novel does provide what could be considered the Christie take on the idea, when the titular wealthy landowner apparently perishes just moments after being left alone in his study.

Can I watch it? The obligatory ITV adaptation starring David Suchet’s Poirot perhaps doesn’t quite do the story justice, due to a missing key ingredient from the written version – but for a better onscreen locked-room Poirot, try Hercule Poirot’s Christmas, broadcast in 1994. Both are episodes of Agatha Christie’s Poirot, available on ITVX.

4 Have His Carcase by Dorothy L Sayers

Dorothy L Sayers’ 1932 work stars her regular sleuths Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane, the latter of whom stumbles on a body while out hiking. With the victim found dead on a sandy beach with no footsteps nearby, his blood still warm, it appears a clear suicide – but there’s more to this crime than meets the eye.

Can I watch it?

The 1980s TV adaptation of this mystery – a three-part episode of the A Dorothy L Sayers Mystery series starring Harriet Walter and Edward Petherbridge – is available now on YouTube. A 1981 radio adaptation starring Ian Carmichael and Maria Aitken also returned to BBC Radio 4 (and BBC Sounds) this month.

5. The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe

Poe’s short story was published in 1841 and has been described as the “first modern detective story”. Certainly, it’s one of the earliest locked-room mysteries, exploring a baffling double murder in a fourth-floor room that was locked from the inside. The only clues as to how a mother and daughter were brutally killed are a bloody razor, some tufts of grey hair and two bags of gold coins...

Can I watch it?

Several adaptations of the story have been attempted. A 1971 version by director Gordon Hessler – which takes a number of liberties with the story – is available on Amazon Prime Video, where you can also rent a 1932 adaptation starring Bela Lugosi. Most recently, a very loose version of the story was included in episode three of Netflix’s The Fall of the House of Usher.

6. The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston Leroux

The prototypical locked-room/impossible crime story comes from French author Leroux, published in his 1908 novel (serialised a year earlier). Providing the reader with precise diagrams and floorplans, Leroux invites us to also try and solve the mystery of how a criminal disappeared from a sealed yellow room — and how he then repeated the trick twice more.

Can I watch it?

Despite adaptations in 1913, 1919, 1930, 1947, 1949, 1965 and 2003, it’s hard to track down a version of it. However, a BBC radio adaptation is available online for free on the Internet Archive, and the story also inspired an episode of Jonathan Creek in 2014 — The Letters of Septimus Noone (available on iPlayer).

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