If Nick and Nora’s martini-dry quips and cocktail-fueled sleuthing hooked you in The Thin Man—trading barbs while Asta circles suspects and Clyde Wynant’s disappearance spirals—then you’ll love how Eight Faces at Three keeps the laughs fizzing while bodies drop. Jake Justus and heiress Helene Brand careen through swanky parties and late-night lockups, with rumpled lawyer John J. Malone in tow, solving a clock-struck murder through audacious stunts and punchline-perfect dialogue.

If you liked Nick Charles’s cool, slightly jaded glide through Manhattan speakeasies while untangling the Wynant mess in The Thin Man, Philip Marlowe’s dive into the Sternwood family’s blackmail and murder will feel like a darker mirror. The Big Sleep pairs razor-sharp wisecracks with a morally murky case involving pornographers, gambling debts, and the enigmatic Vivian Sternwood—perfect if you enjoy a sharp tongue paired with a conscience that isn’t spotless.

If Nick’s I-was-there voice—cool, observant, and sly—as he trailed leads from hotel bars to holiday apartments made The Thin Man sing for you, Easy Rawlins’s narration will grip you the same way. In Devil in a Blue Dress, Easy is hired to find Daphne Monet and ends up navigating postwar Los Angeles’s clubs and backrooms, his voice as vivid and unflinching as Nick’s as the bodies and lies stack up.

If Nora Charles’s equal-footing repartee with Nick—teasing him through hangovers and hunches while gamely joining the hunt for Clyde Wynant—was your favorite part of The Thin Man, Gaudy Night gives you Harriet Vane at full power. Harriet leads the inquiry into a wave of poison-pen threats at Oxford, with Lord Peter Wimsey as her intellectual partner and foil, their partnership sparkling with respect, wit, and romantic tension.

If the shifting suspects and late-breaking revelations in The Thin Man—where every new visit to a Park Avenue apartment changes what Nick thinks about Wynant—kept you guessing, Laura is a perfect next step. Detective Mark McPherson investigates the apparent murder of ad executive Laura Hunt, falls for her portrait, and then the case takes a jaw-dropping turn that forces you to rethink every alibi and motive.