In hindsight, I think The Name of the Rose was such an important book in my development as a reader not so much for stylistic reasons (As I Lay Dying and The Visit get most of those awards) but for just being a total genre subversion.
At its heart, The Name of the Rose is "Sherlock Holmes, but the Middle Ages." Its protagonist is William of Baskerville, a monk whose use of logic is somewhat revolutionary for the time when academic arguments are won by Who Does A Better Job Appealing to Famous Texts. The tale is told in hindsight by his apprentice Adso (our "Watson"), as they investigate a series of mysterious deaths at a monastery.
Except nothing works out the way it would in a "typical" detective story.
The deaths seeming to follow the Book of Revelations? First few were total coincidences, and William noting the potential links in public inspired the killer to make it look like latter ones were as well.
The "suicide" that makes no sense in how the body got where it was? Actually a suicide, there was in fact a way for the body to get there. It got overlooked in the hysteria.
Adso the assistant falls in love with some ingenue? She's killed by a local inquisitor who gets away with it because he's killing people legally in his "investigation" of the murders.
Another murder happens after the inquisitor "finds" the murderer? He doesn't care, he did his job already and leaves. No closure, no catharsis.
The monastery seems like it's trying to cover something up? Yeah, they have issues with some of the monks being homosexual, others sneaking peasant women in for sex, and an upcoming major meeting between Christian political factions is going to occur on-site which has them all stressed trying to keep that under wraps. There isn't some large group in on the killings at all.
Killer has some grand plan and is sending the detective "messages"? Yeah no, he just doesn't want anyone finding a specific book and poisoned the pages in case they do. A lot of what happens are genuine coincidences and William is annoyed at himself later for seeing a pattern that wasn't there.
The killer dies in the end? Yeah, but he stopped the book he thought was "evil" from getting out in the world and the monastery's whole library burns with it and him. A much greater tragedy than the loss of life, given the era, leading William to feel like a failure in the end and have his faith shaken.
Hell, William the "detective" even notes that a lot of Sherlockian logical figuring can rely heavily on guesswork!
