Books that feel like Condemned: Criminal Origins?
It's nighttime. In an alley in a downtrodden part of the city, the detective crouches beneath the rotting boards in the doorway on the backside of a long-dark office complex. Clicking on his flashlight, he descends the stairs into a forgotten basement filled with pipes and rusted metal shelves. Behind a cluster of these pipes, in the next room of the basement, a grim tableau has been set up: a woman, bound and murdered, propped in a chair across a table from a blank-faced male mannequin dressed in a groom's tuxedo.
This is the opening scene of the game Condemned: Criminal Origins and I think it evokes perfectly the feelings that I'm looking for. To put into into more literal terms, I'm looking for crime novels that emphasize the horror element (preferably without a supernatural element, but it's welcome if it's tasteful), and the atmosphere of dark, moldy, long-forgotten urban and industrial settings is especially important. I'd love some recommendations. Thanks!
Posted Aug 14, 2025, 12:29 AM UTC