Although mystery has changed dramatically as a genre through the years, Agatha Christie has defined many of the most enduring conventions, even with novels that bring in contemporary elements, like one Goodreads four-star rated read with a Succession-like hook. Even the most contemporary mysteries and thrillers take inspiration from Christie, whether they realize it or not. Despite the foundations of the genre being established nearly 100 years ago, the best modern mysteries understand that a compelling story is never simply about discovering who’s at fault. Christie and her fellow trailblazers used mysteries to explore deeper themes in their work.

Whether it was to unpack family tension, unearth buried secrets, break open blistering social dynamics, or deconstruct the most uncomfortable truths, mysteries are layered atop the most interesting stories possible, so that even when the mystery is solved, the chaos truly begins. Contemporary mysteries have also found that mixing in a culturally relevant hook, like baking in similar themes to a hit TV show, has struck an interesting balance between literary elements and readability. With recent works using similar character work and intricate plotting that can be found in Christie’s work, the classical style meeting the modern conventions is exciting.

The most successful mysteries of the modern era combine the old and the new with a fresh take, including The Anniversary by Alex Finlay. Published earlier in 2026, the novel’s 4-star score on Goodreads hardly begins to explain just how twisting, interesting, and intense the story becomes through its pages.

The Anniversary Mixes Christie-Style Puzzles With Deep Family Lore

At its core, Alex Finlay’s The Anniversary follows two interconnected characters whose lives become linked after a 1992 tragedy. Quinn Riley, a troubled teenager, finds himself stuck in a mess of violence that threatens to change the course of his life forever. At the same time, Jules Delaney survives an encounter with a serial predator, the May Day Killer, who only strikes on May 1 before disappearing without a trace. Over the course of the following decade, Finlay’s novel revisits their lives on the same day each year as mysteries twist through their lives and change their charted course.

The structure of Finlay’s novel is akin to one of Christie’s greatest strengths, as it constructs stories around multiple layers of mystery, interconnecting them rather than moving in a singular direction. Throughout the novel, readers are looking for the identity of the May Day Killer, but the scope of the narrative is always growing larger with each additional year. Christie’s puzzle-box style works well within The Anniversary, but the larger scale of the novel is what propels it into a more modern territory. On top of being a twisty story, the echoes of Succession throughout are quick to spot.

Finlay’s novel has an emphasis on inheritance and legacy, honing in on the long-term consequences of family decisions. While it’s not a corporate drama, The Anniversary shares Succession’s thread of how personal history and past tension can inform present-day conflict. Characters spend years dealing with the aftermath of other people’s choices and the impacts they’ve had on their lives, which results in creating an emotionally tense narrative that never pulls its punches.

Finlay’s Double Twist Ending Has Echoes Of Christie’s Signature Subversion

While giving away the ending of Finlay’s novel would be a crime of its own, the final moments of the story employ one of Christie’s signature moves. Christie’s most famous stories never relied on a singular resolution or a final moment of shock, instead subverting expectations and making an even bigger splash. In The Anniversary, Finlay does something similar. After spending the majority of the novel pushing readers to focus on specific threads, Finlay uses a Christie-style technique to pull back the veil on the larger truths the intense novel has been trying to share all along.

For readers searching for a modern story with a classical style, The Anniversary combines the thematics and intensity of HBO’s Succession and Christie’s greatest strengths all into one fascinating story.