Writer-director Rian Johnson explores literature to construct the locked room enigma of *Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery*, much like the Spring Book Club at the film’s church. If you’re attentive, you’ll notice a whodunnit reading list displayed on screen to boost your TBR collection.

A crucial moment for detective Benoit Blanc’s (Daniel Craig) inquiry into the murder at Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude features the suspected priest Jud Duplenticy (Josh O’Connor) aiding him in scouring the parish office for evidence. They stumble upon a plain piece of paper.

On this paper, the priest and detective find a compilation of the church’s book club selections, unveiling a classic whodunnit mystery binge. The list encompasses the vital “syllabus of how to commit the perfect crime,” John Dickson Carr’s *The Hollow Man*, alongside a sufficient amount of Agatha Christie and Edgar Allan Poe to render an impossible crime conceivable.

Here’s the full lineup from the Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude book club — closely linked to the murder pivotal to *Wake Up Dead Man* (but no spoilers).

**The Hollow Man** by John Dickson Carr

American novelist John Dickson Carr’s 1935 mystery novel, *The Hollow Man*, featuring investigator Gideon Fell, is synonymous with resolving impossible crimes. In Chapter 17, the detective presents his renowned “locked room lecture,” elucidating “the general mechanics” of how a murder — similar to that of Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin) — could transpire under seemingly insurmountable conditions. Blanc employs this book to unravel the case in *Wake Up Dead Man*, referring to it as “a syllabus of how to commit the perfect crime.”

**Whose Body?** by Dorothy L. Sayers

Released in 1923, *Whose Body?* is the inaugural entry in Dorothy L. Sayers’ 14-book detective series featuring Lord Peter Wimsey, an aristocratic amateur sleuth. His debut case centers on a London financier discovered dead in a bathtub, unclothed except for a golden pince-nez. *Wake Up Dead Man* viewers, take note: a bathtub.

**The Murders In The Rue Morgue** by Edgar Allan Poe

Netflix titles frequently highlight Edgar Allan Poe, from *Wednesday* to *The Fall of the House of Usher*. Within *Wake Up Dead Man*, Poe’s 1841 short story *The Murders in the Rue Morgue* is included on the list. It introduces C. Auguste Dupin, considered the first fictional detective, who inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. Dupin confronts a locked-door mystery, a gruesome double homicide with an unforeseen perpetrator.

**The Murder of Roger Ackroyd** by Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie’s renowned detectives, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, are featured on the Our Lady of Perpetual Fortitude book club list. Released in 1926, *The Murder of Roger Ackroyd* is a brilliant crime novel in which Poirot unravels the murder of a wealthy widower. It encompasses blackmail, clandestine meetings, enigmatic footprints, and a locked room crime scene.

**The Murder at the Vicarage** by Agatha Christie

Miss Marple’s debut occurred in Christie’s 1930 novel *The Murder at the Vicarage*, a murder mystery set in the quaint English parish of St Mary Mead — reminiscent of *Wake Up Dead Man*. The town’s magistrate and churchwarden is broadly detested and is found deceased in his study. Everyone possesses a motive, and none evade Miss Marple’s vigilance.

*Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery* is available for streaming on Netflix starting Dec. 12.