Today I am reviewing something a little bit different. Whilst it is a book and indeed has a mystery narrative of some sorts, it is not a story or novel. As my blog post title suggests, it is a puzzle book and one I have been working my way through over the summer.
But what is a Murdle?
‘From G. T. Karber, the creator of the popular online daily mystery game at http://www.Murdle.com, comes this fiendishly compulsive and absolutely killer collection of 100 original murder mystery logic puzzles. Join Deductive Logico and pit your wits against a slew of dastardly villains in order to discover:
– Who committed the ghastly deed?
– What weapon was used to dispatch the victim?
– Where did the dreadful demise occur?
These humorous mini-mystery puzzles challenge you to find whodunit, how, where, and why. Examine the clues, interview the witnesses, and use the power of deduction to complete the grid and catch the culprit. Packed with illustrations, codes, and maps, this is the must-have detective casebook for the secret sleuth in everyone.’
Overall Thoughts
Mystery themed logic puzzles are not new, but I think Karber has put his own stamp on the puzzle type/theme, creating in the process a very addictive collection of puzzles. It is definitely a book in which the puzzle solver will have their Columbo moments, thinking: “Just one more puzzle”. Karber has created a very clear and recognisable puzzle format/layout and for me I found something very soothing in the repetitiveness of this structure, which also gives a feeling of having accomplished something. Nevertheless, although these puzzles bring comforting familiarity, variety is added in several ways. The complexity of the puzzles increases over time, for instance, which affects the number and types of clues you receive. One type which occurs later in the collection is where you receive four statements from the suspects. One is lying and the rest are true. I felt this fitted in with the sleuthing theme well and it also gets you thinking about the puzzle in a different way. Each difficulty level in the book is accompanied by one additional clue resource such as a decoder, a maze, or a map. These resources are not overused (they won’t be used in each puzzle for that level) and in some cases I wondered if they could have been deployed a bit more. The maze was also a bit eye-squinting-ly fiddly.
I think if I could suggest one major improvement (one minor quibble I had was that the difficulty level in the final section was uneven, with some of the last puzzles being rather easy to solve), it would be to separate the narrative segments from answers at the end. To backtrack slightly, each puzzle starts with an introductory narrative with what Deductive Logico (the character you are following as he solves cases) is doing next and where he encounters the next murder to investigate. I liked this touch, especially since the narratives follow on from one another. However, after you have completed a puzzle and go to check your answers at the back of the book, alongside the answers for that puzzle, is a further piece of narrative, which continues the story. Yet the placing of this latter story segment was problematic for me as it was hard to read these narrative sections without seeing the answers for the next puzzles. In the end I had to forgo reading those bits, as it was a pain to have to do a block of catch-up reading. It would be better if the answers were in one section and the story segments were in a section of their own. That way both parts can be used without fear of spoilers.
Nevertheless, I think this is a great set of puzzles, with its enjoyable humorous comments and you can enjoy solving them by yourself or you can do them together with someone else. I can see this one being a popular gift item this Christmas. Moreover, if you, like me, have already finished the first Murdle collection, then a second one is coming out in October.
Source: Review Copy (Souvenir press)
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