A Most Puzzling Murder: A Quirky, Humorous Locked Room Murder Mystery with Riddles and Puzzles for the Reader to Solve

By: Marais, Bianca

Book Overview

How do you solve a murder that hasn't happened yet?

Destiny Whip is a former child prodigy, world-renowned enigmatologist and very, very alone. A life filled with loss has made her a recluse, an existence she's content to endure until a letter arrives inviting her to interview for the position of Scruffmore family historian. Not only does an internet search for the name yield almost nothing, it's a role she never applied to in the first place

She decodes the invitation's hidden message with ease, and its promise to reveal her family secrets proves too powerful a draw for the orphaned Destiny, who soon finds herself on Eerie Island. It's a place whose inhabitants are almost as inhospitable as the tempestuous weather. The Scruffmores themselves turn out to be not much better, a snarled mess of secrets and motives connected by their mistrust for one another.

Their newly arrived guest proves to be just as much an enigma to them as they are to her. While Destiny slowly works to unravel the mysteries hidden throughout the ominous castle, she struggles to interpret disturbing nightly visions of what is to come. In the midst of cryptic ciphers, hidden passages, and the family's magical line of succession, Destiny is certain of two things: one of the Scruffmores is going to die and she's running out of time to stop it.

Interspersed with riddles and puzzles that both Destiny and the reader must solve, A Most Puzzling Murder is a one-of-a-kind mystery that will leave you guessing and gasping until the very last page

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0778387690
• ISBN13: 9780778387695
• Release Date: June 2025
• Publisher: Mira Books
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Quite the twisty puzzle

I think a physical copy of this book would be great for the puzzle solving and choose your own conundrum type chapters. However it does not translate well to audiobook version as usually when I listen to an audiobook it is while I am doing other activities and not able to sit down and solve the puzzles that pop up quite frequently, so I am left out and it makes the book more convoluted (since then I can't find out who Destiny mistrusts, names, secrets, and all the answers to the puzzles reveal) with the multiple characters and their different views as well as jumping through time back and forth between the past and the present with Destiny heading off to the island to find out the truth about her family and ending up in the middle of a sorcerers war for who will be the heir to all the power. I think I would have enjoyed the story a lot more without the puzzles because I will say, that the Scruffmore's have one messed up family tree and I ended up chuckling each time the increasing frustrated genealogist had to update it. And once I got into the story, with the different family members, their plots to get the power, revenge, or just find out the truth of what happened long ago with Bramble, the serial killer murders, and who Destiny's family is. I still thought it was a bit too long and drawn out because I would think almost everything had been explained and then you have a raccoon mixing it all up again! The story is 4 stars, puzzles 2 stars, Narrator gets 5 stars because of the good job done bringing so many characters and twisty turns on a very strange island to life. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to listen to this book which ended better than it started though I really hated the cha-ching of puzzle time, right when the story got interesting.