6 Twisty Mystery Books With Puzzles & Games 

Nero Blanc’s engaging mystery novel follows Belle, a crossword editor, and Rosco, a PI, as they try to solve the mystery of Belle’s father’s sudden death—officially ruled a heart attack, but the duo suspects something amiss. 

Along with the usual trail of evidence, sketchy suspects, and a tragic familial backstory, the narrative also includes interesting crossword puzzles for readers to solve as they piece together the mystery. 

Overall, A Crossword to Die For is an engrossing, enjoyable book, and you can check out the other books in the series.

With Murdle, you can solve a murder mystery each day in a matter of a few minutes. Inspired by daily games like Wordle, Murdle started out as an online sensation. 

Each day, you get a set of clues, locations, weapons, and suspects. Using logic to figure out who the killer is, and where and how they killed the victim. Now you can enjoy the game in book form, packed with hundreds of puzzles. 

Whether you prefer to start the day by solving a murder mystery or you’d like to unwind after a hectic schedule with a neat book of puzzles, Murdle is the perfect bedside companion.

Raskin’s puzzling book, The Westing Game, follows the sixteen heirs of Westing as they listen to the reading of his will. However, only one of them can inherit a fortune if they can find out who killed Westing —and here’s the catch: the killer is one of the heirs. 

With word games, puzzles, illusions, and other puzzles thrown into the mix, The Westing Game will keep you hooked from start to finish. As a bonus challenge, you can even try to figure out who the killer is before the characters do!

Similar to Murdle, Murdoku is a book of logic puzzles with a bare-bones narrative, but the approach is slightly different. It combines Sudoku puzzles with murder-mystery logic puzzles. 

So you get a list of suspects and clues, and a grid (which doubles as the location of the murder), and you have to figure out who was in which room and with whom. 

With a visually enticing layout and puzzles ranging from easy to hard, Murdoku can get pretty addictive. One of the best antidotes to doomscrolling.    

If you liked The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin mentioned earlier, and you’re craving more, treat yourself to a boxed set of The Inheritance Games. The series follows a teenage girl, Avery, who gets embroiled with the wealthy and mysterious Hawthorne family when she’s invited to inherit their legacy.

But getting a sudden inheritance isn’t easy—there are complex puzzles to solve and games to play. With memorable characters, jaw-dropping plot twists, and a very intricately planned storyline, reading the books is one hell of an immersive experience. 

Along with the main three books, there’s also a novella, a short story collection, a prequel, and even a spin-off series in the works, so there’s a whole puzzling universe to explore!

Finally, this one isn’t a mystery novel, although it’s shaped like one, and it pushes the interactive mystery genre to new heights. The Killer Isn’t Alice entrusts the reader with eighteen clues and over forty thousand suspects. 

Alice Starling is missing, and there’s a dead body in her apartment along with a note and a folder of names. The reader’s job is to carefully go through the clues, eliminate the suspects, and zero in on the killer from that vast sea of names. 

The rules are simple, but the puzzle is far from easy. Take it with you on a long car ride or on vacation, and when you’re reasonably sure who the killer is, check online to see if you’re right!