The third instalment of the Bare Knives detective franchise was recently released on Netflix. BBC Culture takes a look at ten of the best and most convoluted detective stories of all time.
When Ryan Johnson’s Knives was released in 2019, many believed it had significantly expanded the audience for the crime novel genre.
Six years later, Knives has become an acclaimed franchise, and the third film, Wake Up Dead, definitely contains references to great detective authors like Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie.
In case you feel like diving into yet another murder mystery, here are 10 brilliant detectives in the history of literature and film.
1. The Mackerel (1892) – Arthur Conan Doyle
Obviously, the list of any detective novels is topped by Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories.
All the stories featuring the famous Baker Street sleuth have become literary classics, but The Fish Tape deserves special attention.
Conan Doyle rarely had Holmes investigate the classic “locked room mystery” – when a seemingly “impossible” murder takes place in a confined space.
Photo provided by: Alamy
The Trout Strip was first published in the Strand Magazine in 1892. The plot centres on a murder that is difficult to unravel. After all, a woman’s previous murder threatens to endanger her surviving sister.
Somewhat surreal but highly entertaining, Conan Doyle’s story is one of his strongest detective stories with a decidedly sinister atmosphere.
2. The Invisible Man (1911) – H.
К. Chesterton
Writer H.
К. Chesterton wrote equally well about politics and philosophy, as well as writing detectives.
He is best known, however, for his vast number of stories centred on the humble priest detective Father Brown.
Brown’s natural intuition and theological insight make these stories both witty and intellectual.
“The Invisible Man” is undoubtedly one of Chesterton’s most interesting and intricate works. Its protagonist, the young inventor Conrad, claims to have been attacked by the Invisible Man.
When Conrad is eventually found murdered in a house under 24-hour security, it seems that the killer was indeed invisible – no one saw how he managed to get in and out of the crime scene.
Fortunately, Father Brown may find the answer.
3. Murder at the Vicarage House (1930) – Agatha Christie
Given Agatha Christie’s immense oeuvre, this list could take up all of her works, from stories about the most famous detective of the last century, Hercule Poirot, to the brilliant Miss Marple.
British actress Joan Hickson rose to fame in the 1980s thanks to this role, in “Murder at the Vicarage” was her debut.
Photo by Alamy
As for the murder of Colonel Prothero, who was found murdered in the office of the local vicar, this detective story is one of Christie’s most convoluted. The plot is complicated by tampering with evidence and an endless stream of witness confessions.
The result is one of the most enigmatic stories ever written, as well as a masterful character study.
4. “The Disembodied Man” (1935) – John Dickson Carr
When it comes to a locked room mystery, few stories can compare to John Carr’s “The Disembodied Man”.
It is this novel that detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) mentions in the third instalment of Knives, Wake Up Dead.
Gideon Fell, a detective who appears in many of Carr’s novels, is investigating the mysterious murder of Professor Charles Grimaud. He is found shot dead in his office minutes after receiving a mysterious visitor who has disappeared without a trace.
The intricate plot received rave reviews from crime buffs and the general public alike, not least because of Fell’s lecture on how to solve locked room mysteries.
This passage of the novel became so famous that it has been reprinted many times as a separate essay, despite the fact that its author is a fictional character in the story.
5. Green is the Colour of Danger (1946) – Sidney Gilliat
British director Sidney Gilliat was the best choice to adapt the tangled detective story of lesser-known writer Christiane Brand.
After all, it was Gilliat who co-wrote the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock’s famous thriller The Lady Vanishes (1938).
Photo courtesy of Alamy
The plot of the novel and its adaptation centres on Inspector Cockrill, who unravels what turns out to be a double murder. One is masterfully done in an operating theatre during an operation, while the other takes out a key witness to the first crime during a World War II blackout.
Cockrill unravels a web of connections and tensions among a small group of suspicious hospital staff as they relive the chaos of war.
6. From the Realm of the Dead (1954) – Bouillot-Narcejac
The French tandem of detective authors Pierre Bouillot and Tom Narcejac monopolised the market in the 1950s with mystery crime dramas.
The most famous of these, the novel The One Who Was No More, was adapted by director Henri-Georges Clouzot in The Devils.
The duo’s other detective novel, From the Dead (1954), is best known for inspiring Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958). It also demonstrates the authors’ skill in depicting emotional trauma and ruthless plot twists.
When Parisian lawyer Roger undertakes to investigate his wife’s strange behaviour at the request of his friend Gavigny, he inevitably falls in love with her.
What follows is an eerie mix of hints of the supernatural and convoluted criminal intrigue, as a simple investigation inevitably hides a much more complex murder.
7. The Bird with the Crystal Feather (1970) – Dario Argento
The Italian genre of giallo is a must for all lovers of detectives who aren’t deterred by naturalistic scenes of brutality.
It takes its name from the yellow covers of tabloid detective novels, which centre on the detective’s plot of “who did it”, that is, the uncovering of the mysterious identity of the killer.
Perhaps the greatest mastery of the genre was achieved by the brilliant Dario Argento, and his debut film The Bird with the Crystal Feather (1970) demonstrates the director’s visual talent and psychological insight.
Photo provided by Alamy
When late-night American writer Sam (Tony Musante) witnesses an assassination attempt on Monica (Eva R. Enzi) in a Roman art gallery, he becomes embroiled in a tense story involving a killer wearing a black hat and leather gloves.
As in many of Argento’s jallo films, the dramatic plot twists are combined with outright brutality.
8. The Black Tower (1975) – P.
Д. James
British writer P.
Д. James inherited Agatha Christie’s mantle as the queen of the classic detective story.
Her real achievement was the detective series starring police inspector Adam Dalgliesh, and The Black Tower (1975) is one of the best examples of this series.
This novel has a darker atmosphere than Dalgliesh’s other stories, as the hero is recovering from leukaemia when, in his spare time, he undertakes to investigate a series of suspicious deaths in a rural nursing home.
Critics have found the plot of The Black Tower “slow” and “complicated.” But this particular novel perfectly demonstrates James’s particular style of detectives – love of detail, accurate characterisation and melancholy atmosphere.
9. The Detective (1972) – Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Joseph Mankiewicz’s adaptation of Anthony Sheffer’s play of the same name, The Detective (1972), is perhaps the highlight of this list.
After all, its characters brilliantly master the strains of the detective genre.
Pitting crime writer Andrew (Laurence Olivier) against his wife’s lover Milo (Michael Caine), the plot plunges into a brutal power play in which the two characters stage crimes to manipulate each other.
Photo provided by Alamy
The film received even more positive reviews than the theatrical release, with four Oscar nominations, including one each for Olivier and Caine.
While the film largely hinges on the brilliant acting of these two actors, “The Detective” also shows that Schaeffer did his best work – the witty plot twists and ruthless finale remain absolutely unforgettable.
10. Escape and Never Return (2001) – Fred Vargas
One of the best of modern French detective authors Vargas (real name – Frederic Audouin-Rousseau) continues the tradition of Georges Simenon and the duo Bouillot-Narcejac.
The author combines classic detectives with Gothic elements. In her series of novels about the chaotic Commissaire Adamsberg, Paris is more often portrayed in the spirit of Victor Hugo (“The Cathedral of Our Lady of Paris”) and Gaston Leroux (“The Phantom of the Opera”) than as the city of the modern crime novel. He is hired by a mysterious man to shout ominous predictions about the return of the plague to the town.
When symbols of plague and then death appear on the doorsteps of the locals, seemingly the result of plague flea bites, Adamsberg embarks on a macabre investigation that is, however, impossible to look away from.