Top ten locked-room thrillers

Will Dean, author of The Last Thing to Burn, which was shortlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, grew up in the East Midlands of the United Kingdom. After studying law at the London School of Economics and working in London, he settled in rural Sweden where he built a wooden house in a vast forest, and it’s from this base that he compulsively reads and writes. His debut novel, Dark Pines, was selected for Zoe Ball’s book club on ITV, shortlisted for the National Book Award (UK), The Guardian’s Not the Booker prize, and was named a Telegraph book of the year. His latest thriller is The Last One.

At CrimeReads Dean tagged ten top locked-room thrillers, including:

THE LOCKED ROOM by Elly Griffiths

A book in the fantastic Ruth Galloway series, the locked room element of this book comes by way of the pandemic lockdowns of 2020. Ruth and Nelson investigate a series of murder-suicides connected to a fascinating archaeological find.

Read about another entry on the list.

Also see: Alice Feeney's seven top locked room mysteries, Tom Mead's ten best locked-room mysteries, Jeff Somers's six best locked-room mysteries and ten best sci-fi locked-room mysteries, and Adrian McKinty's ten top locked-room mysteries.

--Marshal Zeringue