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Mysterious Buildings
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An isolated cabin, and old manor house, a creepy apartment building. These make for great settings for mysteries and in this episode, Brook and Sarah discuss some of the most mysterious buildings.
Discussed and mentioned
"The Fall of the House of Usher" (1839) Edgar Allan Poe
The Paris Apartment (2022) Lucy Foley
Jane Eyre (1847) Charlotte Brontë
The Wife Upstairs (2021) Rachel Hawkins
The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) Agatha Christie
The Decagon House Murders (1987 in Japanese; 2015 in English) Yukito Ayatsuji
Rebecca (1938) Daphne du Maurier
The Sanatorium (2021) Sarah Pearse
The Retreat (2022) Sarah Pearse
And Then There Were None (1939) Agatha Christie
Devil in the White City (2003) Erik Larson
The Death of Mrs. Westaway (2018) Ruth Ware
Daisy Darker (2022) Alice Feeney
The Christmas Murder Game (2021) Alexandra Benedict
Only Murders in the Building (2021-present) Disney+
The New Couple in 5B (2024) Lisa Unger
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For a full episode transcript, visit https://cluedinmystery.com/9-5-mysterious-buildings/
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Transcript
Introduction and Love for Mysteries
00:00:10
Speaker
Welcome to Clued in Mystery. I'm Sarah. And I'm Brooke, and we both love mystery. Hi Brooke. Hi Sarah. Well, you have a little bit of a cold today, but I'm super excited that you're still willing to record with me. Well, it would take a lot, I think Brooke, for me to miss the opportunity to talk about mystery with you.
00:00:35
Speaker
Well, that is fantastic.
The Role of Buildings in Mysteries
00:00:37
Speaker
um And I'm wondering, Sarah, do you have any experience with mysterious buildings? You know, I don't think so. One of the things about living in Canada and Vancouver particularly is that most of the buildings are very young and so they don't have much of a history. So unfortunately, no, I don't have much experience with mysterious buildings. What about you?
00:01:04
Speaker
Not a lot. My family were friends with a couple who owned a very large historic home in the town I grew up in. And there were stories that things had happened there, but I didn't ever experience any any happenings when I was there. But I do think that it would have been a great setting for a mystery story because it had you know the high ceilings and ornate woodwork, lots of cubby holes and cupboards.
00:01:30
Speaker
And today we're going to explore some of the genre's most iconic settings, those mysterious buildings that loom large in a narrative becoming almost like characters themselves.
00:01:43
Speaker
From abandoned mansions with creaky floorboards to modern high rises shrouded in secrets, mysterious buildings have long been a staple of mystery fiction. Many times these structures aren't just backdrops either. They play an important part in the mystery. They give readers a sense of place and define the culture within which the story unfolds.
00:02:06
Speaker
These buildings may conceal clues, contain hiding places, include dark histories, and sometimes seem to serve as villainous forces themselves. We'll mention in a selection of memorable, mysterious buildings from mysteries and thrillers and discuss how they impact the stories. So dim the lights, lock the doors, and let's uncover the secrets hidden within some mysterious walls.
00:02:34
Speaker
Oh Brooke, thank you for such a great introduction. And I'm so excited to talk about books and ah films and shows that feature mysterious buildings because there are a lot of them.
00:02:48
Speaker
Exactly. When we talked about this idea for a show, we realized that the list is rather never ending. So you know, we're just going to kind of hit some high points. And maybe this is a topic that we'll return to someday.
Iconic Mysterious Buildings in Literature
00:03:01
Speaker
So the first example that came to me when I was thinking of this idea of the ah mysterious house is the House of Usher. Not necessarily a mystery, but I think with Edgar Allan Poe we can definitely include this. And this is like the quintessential gothic structure. It's decaying and it symbolizes in the story both that physical and mental disintegration that is happening with the characters.
00:03:34
Speaker
It's described as ancient and crumbling. It has this big fissure that is just getting worse and worse as the story progresses and um really, I think gives that sense of dread and spookiness to the story. it It's not a subtle metaphor, is it? It is like this overt thing that's like this family is falling apart as is their house.
00:03:58
Speaker
Absolutely and that's that's a fantastic example and you know I think that these like big gothic buildings really lend themselves to that set up, right? Another example that draws on that Gothic building is the Paris apartment by Lucy Foley. And so that was published in 2022. And this woman arrives at this apartment building where her brother ah has been living. And from almost the first page, you just get this sense of foreboding around this this building.
00:04:38
Speaker
h Right. I think that, you know, what you said at the top about Vancouver being a fairly young city and I live in ah in a location as well, like the West of the US is fairly young. But when you think about those buildings that have been around for centuries, I just think that they enrich a story so much. So either like East Coast US, some of them have really, you know, old buildings or of course in Europe. So I think that's a great example too, Sarah.
00:05:09
Speaker
One that popped in my mind when we were initially talking about this was Jane Eyre, which features a building with ah a very disturbing history. And last year, I read The Wife Upstairs, which is a retelling of Jane Eyre. It was published in 2021 and written by Rachel Hawkins. And so it's modern day. You recognize a lot of the character names. And there's a not the same setup, but a similar setup.
00:05:40
Speaker
And i I enjoyed that. um You kind of wonder, okay, what's what's going on here? And in the retelling, was the house still like that kind of key feature? Did you get that that theme? There was, yeah, there was definitely some mystery mystery around the house.
00:05:59
Speaker
Yeah, that's great. Well, my next example is Stiles Court. This is from Agatha Christie's first published novel, The Mysterious Affair at Stiles, and it's the classic setting for a locked room mystery. ah It's rather than, you know, my other example, which was this decaying old house. This is a very stately English traditional home and but you've got the grandeur of it like the Cavendish family kind of wants to show off their wealth but you do have the domestic aspect it's definitely like their home and I think that that's something interesting that happens in um stories sometimes too is like from the outside things look just like picture perfect but once you get behind the closed doors and um again that idea of
00:06:47
Speaker
the family might look great too, but then there's all these secrets that are contained inside. So I think that Stiles is a really good representation of then what we see over and over with the you know the country manor house mystery.
00:07:03
Speaker
you You mentioned locked room, and um of course the building is going to feature if if that's what the the mystery is, right? And so an example that I thought of was ah the Decagon House Murders, which was originally written in Japanese and published in 1987.
00:07:22
Speaker
It was translated and released in English more recently, written by Yukido Ietsuji. And this is a locked room mystery about this iconic house ah because of the way that it has been built. And there were mysterious deaths in it. A group of kids decides to spend the night there because web what better thing to do with this you know, supposedly haunted house. And of course there are additional murders that result. It's an excellent example of a locked room mystery and I highly recommend it.
00:08:00
Speaker
Oh, that sounds so good. Yes, I love that these houses, like and we see it a lot in Agatha Christie's work, where they're designed to have you know multiple entrances and exits from a room, ah you know like hidden corners or a complex layout. and um So that that enables, like you said, it it is part and parcel of being a locked room mystery.
00:08:27
Speaker
Another one I thought of was Manderlay from ah Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. She starts the entire book, the the first line of the book. Last night I dreamt I went to Manderlay again. i mean the That's how important the house and the grounds are to that story. um and you know We have an unnamed main character who ah is she's going to be the second wife of Maxim de Winter and Mrs. Danvers in the house. Mrs. Danvers being the housekeeper and the house just seemed like, you know, one unit to me. And the house is cold, it's dark, there's doors she's forbidden to open. So there's that, um you know, again, that the house represents so much of what's going on in the story and in that main character's mind.
00:09:21
Speaker
That's such a great example, Brooke. And yeah, when that when when the book opens with reference to the house, you know that the house is going to play an important part in the story. I read a couple of books by Sarah Pierce, and ah I read the first one because you had talked about it, The Sanatorium.
00:09:43
Speaker
And the second one is called The Retreat, and both of those books feature buildings that have histories associated with them, and they are remote buildings, so you know you're going to have that set up of, you know, a closed circle, right, people who are isolated, and something is happening to to everybody in the in the house.
00:10:09
Speaker
hu Yeah, I really liked the sanatorium and and an interesting feature I don't know about the retreat but in the sanatorium it was as I remember an older building but had been refurbished to be you know new and sleek and like this you know spa-like atmosphere. And I like the idea of that like you can only cover up the secrets for so for so long. you know You can only put so much facade over and then things are going to start coming out again. It was it was a really great read. Yeah, it's a similar setup in in in the retreat as well. and And that had me thinking of another Agatha Christie book um and then there were none.
00:10:51
Speaker
And then there were none almost made my list as well, Sarah. That house, um and even in some of the film representations that I've watched, plays such a key part in the way that story unfolds. Well, you've got all of these people who have been invited to this remote house. They don't know why. And yeah, it's it's a great setup.
Real-life Mystery Buildings
00:11:20
Speaker
h So I thought of a non-fiction example, and that is The Devil and the White City, ah which was published in 2003 and written by Eric Larson. And this is, I mean, it's it's a horrifying story.
00:11:39
Speaker
um and it's about the World's Fair in 1896 in Chicago and H.H. Holmes who constructed this house with the very evil intention of killing people in it. ah But Larson does a really fantastic job of
00:12:05
Speaker
conveying the mysteriousness of the house and handling the murders that occurred there very delicately. hu Yeah, Eric Larson, I love his um nonfiction work. He always like juxtaposes two things that are happening simultaneously. So like you said, the World's Fair is taking place and then also H.H. Holmes is becoming one of America's first serial killers in the same city. And actually, I think that the World's Fair helped him do this because there were all these strangers coming into town.
00:12:40
Speaker
Yeah, excellent book and such a fantastic example of a mysterious building. As you said, he constructed it just for the sole purpose of doing these terrible things and um definitely a mysterious building.
00:12:59
Speaker
Another example I thought of ah was the Westaway House in The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware. And the reason I chose this is because I think even though the Westaway House is entering into that more old and dilapidated state because it's hasn't been taken care of for some decades. I feel like it's an example of a later Stiles court because we have this like big family estate, but now it has like gone by the wayside. But we also have in this story
00:13:35
Speaker
the idea of doors that can be locked in from one side, but not from the other. And, you know, that plays such a key part in the mysterious affair at Stiles that I remember when I read this the first time I thought, Oh, this is sort of like what happens when they realized that that door could be locked from the other side.
00:13:56
Speaker
So that's ah one of the Ruth Bair books that i haven't i I haven't read yet, but I think I'm going to have to add that to my list, Brooke. So we talked about, and then there were none, another book that kind of draws on that setup is Daisy Darker by Alice And in this one, the house, you know, a family reconvenes at the grandmother's house and there's all sorts of things that happen in this book and it's, it's you know, very mysterious and the house is a very important place for this family.
00:14:38
Speaker
Oh, that's great. It reminds me a lot of one of my Christmas reads, at least in the like general description, which was the Christmas murder game by Alexandra Benedict. Same, like we've got this big family home and it plays such a part. And in that story, they're actually, you know, vying for the home itself, like who's going to inherit it.
00:15:01
Speaker
So that always makes a really fun layer if like the people are family or have their own history in the place. ah ah hu Continuing with that theme is um Death at Mourning House by Maureen Johnson. So this was a 2024 release and it's a YA novel and it features a ah ah dual timeline story. So the house was built in the 1920s and there's a mystery that
00:15:36
Speaker
takes place around then and then a mystery in present day. The present day character is trying to unravel what happened in the past. ah The house has been turned into a summer resort and ah she's working there for the summer.
00:15:52
Speaker
Oh, that sounds very interesting. I wanted to mention something that we see on screen. And I think that the creators of Only Murders in the Building have done a fantastic job in forming the Arconia as the setting for their series. um And it was modeled after real life New York apartment buildings, even though the Arconia is fictional.
00:16:18
Speaker
um But it's got that pre-war architecture, the sprawling center courtyard where people can come together. and it's just It's actually huge. right It's several different buildings. so That kind of gives it this maze-like feeling. It's really easy for people to listen in. There's even hidden passageways. and I just think that they've done a great job creating that and making it a perfect setting for a series of whodunnits.
00:16:48
Speaker
There's how many, so how many um seasons have there been for now? That's a lot of murders in that building. It really worked out for those podcasters when they decided to stick to that theme, didn't it?
00:17:02
Speaker
It sure did, but I agree. It's it's a great show, and um the building is such an important part of that of that story. ah And that reminds me of our most recent What Would You Do? book, The New Couple in 5B by Lisa Unger, which is set in a building that is, the the way it's described, it sounds very similar to the Archonia.
00:17:31
Speaker
I agree. I, when I was reading that, I, you know, was thinking of it. I would say the couple in five B is less upbeat and perky, you know, because it's a very different kind of story, but it really helped me formulate a, um, image of what that building might be like.
00:17:50
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And you know in Vancouver, we don't have any buildings like that. So it's nice to have that visual reference that we get from um ah only murders in the building.
00:18:03
Speaker
Well, like you, Sarah, I wanted to include a nonfiction ah example. And so my last example of a mysterious building is the Winchester Mystery House. And this is an architectural wonder and historic landmark in San Jose, California.
00:18:22
Speaker
And it was originally the personal residence of Sarah Winchester, who was the widow of William. And she became the heiress to most of the Winchester Repeating Arms fortune. And in 1886, she lost both her husband and their infant daughter in very so short succession. And she needed to get away from Connecticut. So she decided to move out west to California. And she bought a fairly modest eight-room farmhouse.
00:18:51
Speaker
and immediately began this continual remodel and construction until the day she died in 1922. So in that time, the farmhouse grew from that eight room um modest structure to 24,000 square feet, 160 rooms, 47 stairways and fireplaces, 13 bathrooms, and six kitchens.
00:19:17
Speaker
The answer to why Sarah Winchester spent a literal fortune ah to continually expand her house remains a mystery. It's said that it may be due to the advice of psychics. She regularly held seances in her home and she may have been trying to atone for the violence that she felt the Winchester rifle uh, was responsible for in the American West. And she wanted to allegedly keep evil spirits at bay by the constant sounds of hammering. Um, but really we'll never know the truth. And this leaves the sprawling property, just an enduring mystery. Uh, it is a tourist spot and you can tour the home. And I have actually had the pleasure of going there twice. Oh my goodness, Brooke.
00:20:03
Speaker
It sounds incredible, and i I love that you can actually um go there. And the other thing that occurred to me as you were describing it is that connection with ah the supernatural. And ah you know I think we often, with older buildings, make that make that connection.
00:20:25
Speaker
And um i don't have a ah there's there's not a a book that I'm aware of, but um there's ah a website that at in October leading up to Halloween, people share spooky stories. And I can remember someone had posted a video of a school actually here in Vancouver, one of the older buildings in the in the city, where the window was shut repeatedly by itself and and like you just kind of got this chill watching this video. um And I imagine that you you just get that sense when you go into that Winchester House, this like otherworldly feeling.
Supernatural Elements and Conclusion
00:21:14
Speaker
100%. I think you're right. We hadn't mentioned the supernatural components of many of these stories, but, um, but that is definitely the case. And that is the feeling at the Winchester house there. I was, uh, reviewing some information about it before the episode and I now they have a nighttime flashlight tour. I don't know if I'll ever have ever have the nerve to go on that one.
00:21:40
Speaker
Oh, it sounds like so much fun. Well, Brooke, if we ever do a um mysterious tour, maybe that's something we can put on our list. I think that's a great idea.
00:21:53
Speaker
Well, Brooke, it has been so much fun to talk about mysterious buildings. I think there are so many other examples. And like you said at the beginning, this is probably the first of a couple of episodes that we're going to end up doing around this topic because there are just so many that we can that we can talk about.
00:22:14
Speaker
Yeah, I think so too, Sarah. And we hope that you enjoyed today's episode as well, listeners. But for today, thank you for joining us on Clued in Mystery. I'm Brooke. And I'm Sarah. And we both love mystery.
00:22:28
Speaker
Clued In Mystery is written and produced by Brooke Peterson and Sarah M. Stephen. Music is by Shane Ivers. If you liked what you heard, please consider telling a friend, leaving a review, or subscribing with your favorite podcast listening app. Visit our website at cluedinmystery.com to sign up for our newsletter, The Clued In Chronicle, or to join our paid membership, The Clued In Cartel. We're on social media at Clued In Mystery.