Books like The house without a key
The house without a key by Earl Derr Biggers reads as intriguing, exotic. These 12 books share its genome — matched by how they actually read, not just their shelf label.
The Moonstone
Wilkie Collins · 1868
The Moonstone unfolds through multiple narrators—servants, guardians, a detective—each unreliable in their own fashion, gradually revealing how a stolen diamond draws together thef
Murder in Three Acts
Agatha Christie · 1934
A classic drawing-room puzzle: a poisoned cocktail with no poison, thirteen dinner guests, and Poirot circling a crime with no discernible motive.
The Crime at Black Dudley (Albert Campion #1)
Margery Allingham · 1929
A weekend house party in a gloomy remote mansion curdles into a locked-house murder puzzle, with a ritual dagger, a trapped ensemble, and escalating danger driving the plot.
The Case of the Curious Bride
Erle Stanley Gardner · 1934
Both explore justice & secrets
The Nursing Home Murder
Ngaio Marsh · 1935
A tidy Golden Age puzzle-mystery: a closed suspect pool, a procedural investigation led by the urbane Inspector Alleyn, and a satisfying unraveling of motive rather than visceral thrills.
The Westing Game
Ellen Raskin · 2003
A puzzle-box mystery with a large quirky ensemble, red-herring clues, and a genuinely surprising but fair solution.
Duplicate Death
Georgette Heyer · 1951
A classic drawing-room whodunit: a bridge party interrupted by strangulation, a compromised fiancée, and an inspector picking apart alibis in polite London society.
The Cornish Coast Murder
John Bude · 2014
Both explore investigation & secrets
The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes
Arthur Conan Doyle · 1954
A comfortable, puzzle-driven pastiche collection that recreates the fog-and-gaslight mood of the originals, story by story, with Holmes deducing his way through twelve fresh cases.
Champagne for One
Rex Stout · 1958
A classic Golden-Age-style whodunit narrated by wisecracking Archie Goodwin, working the case with Wolfe's cerebral method offstage as it unfolds through interview and deduction.
Lady Molly of Scotland Yard
Emma Orczy · 1910
A pioneering female detective applies sharp intellect and unconventional insight to solve mysteries within the institutional constraints of Scotland Yard, grounded in wit and analytical precision rather than spectacle.
The Red House Mystery
A. A. Milne · 1922
A light, chummy country-house whodunnit played with Milne's Punch-style wit — an amateur sleuth and his eager Watson bantering their way through a locked-room puzzle.
Find your next read by its genome
Tell Novelome one book you love — get recommendations tuned to your taste, including the ones other sites never surface.
Start free →More readalikes: Books like THE LET THEM THEORY · Books like EXTREME OWNERSHIP · Books like WINGS OF STARLIGHT · Books like DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU THINK, EXPANDED EDITION · Books like I WILL TEACH YOU TO BE RICH, SECOND EDITION · Books like FAKE SKATING · Books like THE CREATIVE ACT · Books like IF ONLY I HAD TOLD HER