Mystery novels are synonymous with “whodunit” stories: we know the crime, and we want to know the culprit. Usually, our intrepid detective is trying to sleuth out a murderer. But that’s not the only way to structure a mystery. Some are more like a Clue game, where you might not even know who the victim is at first, never mind the weapon or the perpetrator. Other mystery/thriller books open with a murder scene, often with an unexpected killer, and we backtrack to find out what led them to that point. There are also plenty of locked room mysteries and puzzle mysteries where the murder seems impossible and most of the investigation involves figuring out how the murder could have happened at all. (Spoiler alert: they used an icicle as the murder weapon!)
For task #23 of the 2024 Read Harder Challenge, “Read a ‘howdunit’ or ‘whydunit’ mystery,” we’re shining a spotlight on these other ways of telling a mystery. I’ve included mostly whydunit mysteries here, because howdunits are a little more common and easy to find: just search for locked room mysteries and you’ll get plenty more recommendations. I also want to give you permission to stretch the definition of “mystery” for this one: some might be closer to thrillers or even literary fiction, but the whydunit or howdunit focus keeps them within the bounds of this task.
I have to thank our resident mystery expert, Jamie Canavés, for many of these picks. You can get more mystery recommendations from her by signing up for the Unusual Suspects newsletter. Now, onto the whydunits and howdunits!
The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino, translated by Alexander O. Smith
When looking up whydunits and howdunits, the author’s name that pops up over and over again is Keigo Higashino. Jamie recommends Silent Parade, book four in the Detective Galileo series, as a story that combines elements of whydunit, howdunit, and whodunit, but you can also start with book one. The Devotion of Suspect X begins with Yasuko killing her abusive ex-husband and her neighbor helping her to cover it up. Then we meet Detective Kusanagi, who suspects Yasuko, but is having trouble finding a hole in her alibi. This is a perfect example of a howdunit mystery.
The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani, translated by Sam Taylor
If reading about violence against children is a dealbreaker for you, skip this one. The opening line is “The baby is dead.” Readers know within the first two pages that the nanny has killed the two children she was looking after. But why? We backtrack to see how a wealthy Parisian couple hired the “perfect nanny” for their two children, and how the relationship between employers and employee grew jealous, resentful, and tense before it erupted into violence. An HBO series adaptation starring Nicole Kidman is in the works now.
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