Solve-It-Yourself Mysteries: Can You Solve the Murder?, Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey?, and More

I’ve noticed a flock of interactive, solve-it-yourself mysteries, so I thought I’d tell you about them. Note that I’m not talking about mystery puzzle books, like Murdle or Murdoku. They’re fun, but they’re logic puzzles with some mystery wrapping. The following are variations on mysteries where you play the detective. Let’s start with a classic: Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey? by Edward Packard was recently re-released. Originally published in 1981, it was the ninth book in the popular Choose Your Own Adventure series for kids. It’s a classically styled mystery. A rich man has died, and while investigating, you can question various suspects, review the crime scene, and interact with a bumbling police detective. There are only 14 endings, but they’re well-structured, looping around and sending you through various activities as you work out who did it, helped by a girl detective. The solution to the mystery is the same in all cases, so once you’ve solved it — or been told it’s solved — you know what happened, but different paths reveal different details. Murder at Christmas: You Solve the Crime by G.B. Rubin has a similar idea, but for adults. (Note: the author, as Gareth Rubin, wrote ...