Crime Puzzles

The Heritage Hall book fair was my chance to showcase my bookbinding techniques. Instead, I become the main suspect in a murder. Paper flowers and leather bindings filled my Heritage Hall book fair booth. This was my chance to showcase traditional bookbinding techniques. Instead, I found a dead authenticator in my space. Mark Henderson, known for exposing forgeries, lay sprawled among tools stolen from my exhibit. Making me the prime suspect. Book preservation is my passion - being a murder suspect, not so much. I teamed up with Fitzgerald, my Maine Coon cat and journalist Jennifer Walsh to...

The murderers have committed the crimes, now it's up to you to solve them. Using your powers of deduction, can you play detective and help put the killers behind bars? 5 Minute Murder features 100 logic and code-based murder-mystery puzzles, skillfully compiled by acclaimed psychological thriller writer Christopher J. Yates and puzzle expert Bruce Pitchers.

A sleepy bakery, a secret recipe, and a corpse beneath the flour. Sugar Maple’s sweetness just turned deadly. Daisy Quinn wakes to the scent of cinnamon buns and the shock of her Aunt Margot’s cold hand gripping a Tarot card. Detective Owen Langley arrives with sharp questions and shrewder eyes. Flour dust hides cryptic notes and blackmail. A battered recipe box, locked beneath the café’s floorboards, spills decades of family deception onto the kitchen tiles. Daisy’s friend Holly stands ready, apron tied and alibi airtight, while Owen prowls for clues amid cupcakes and whispered ...

Welcome to The Berry Home: where the food is to-die-for! Kylie is thrilled when the space next door is finally leased out to a bookshop owner. Unfortunately, opening day doesn’t go as planned. Instead, the bookshop becomes the scene of a murder. Who could’ve killed Charlie Mccoy, a man of many secrets and just as many enemies? With a murder to investigate and a friend’s wedding to plan, Kylie must call on all her friends to help keep the Berry Home afloat as she scrambles to uncover the truth before it’s too late. Meanwhile, Brad is left to fend for himself as a newly minted ...

Welcome to The Berry Home: where the food is to-die-for! When Kylie's friend Jack is accused of murder, she must go the distance to uncover the real killer... Meanwhile Kylie's nemesis, Detective Gregson, appears to be joining forces with her BFF Zoey - but to what end? "Winters will have you giggling into your book!" Zoey refuses to tell Kylie about Gregson's secret, leaving her to figure it out on her own. Meanwhile, the odds seem to be stacked against Kylie's friend Jack. He had every reason to want the horrible Gary dead - but then again, so did quite a few other people. Will Kylie ...

A flower shop, a festival and a fatal secret. When florist Iris Bennett agrees to judge the Spring Festival’s flower competition, she expects bright blooms and community cheer—not to find local businessman Howard Larrabee dead, sprawled beneath his beloved hyacinths. As whispers coil through Cedar Grove’s cobbled streets, Iris’s instincts—and her one-eyed cat, Winston—lead her into a thorny maze of lies, blackmail, and betrayals that run deeper than the town’s tulip beds. With Detective Mark Cooper at her side, and danger creeping closer, Iris must follow a trail of botanical ...

When amiable old village eccentric Quentin Andrews dies, the good folk of Cherringham are astonished at the crowd that turns up to his funeral. But even more astonished are the beneficiaries of his will: Quentin has left a veritable fortune to whomever is the first to solve an intricate "Cherringham crossword". That puzzle is only the first of many that Jack and Sarah will uncover as they follow the treasure hunt for clues and learn the truth about who Quentin Andrews really was... and the biggest mystery of them al... was he - in fact - murdered?

Disappearing wasn’t going to be enough…they needed a plan…some answers…and a safe place so they could figure out what to do next and stop running in circles trying to stay one step ahead of the guys who seemed to want her dead. Simon Sullivan might not be who Ava always believed him to be, but along with his brother, he’d spent his life trying to protect her. That wasn’t going to change especially now when everything they’d planned for, hoping against hope it would never be needed, was playing out exactly as they’d feared. But he’s not alone. Harper Riley isn’t about to ...

"A harrowing and unforgettable FBI thriller." –BestThrillers.com Three fourteen-year-old boys are inextricably linked by abduction and murder. Two of them were just abducted off a safe suburban street. Kelliher and his team of FBI agents have 24 hours to find them or they'll end up like all the others... dead! They have no leads, no clues, and nothing to go on. And the possibility exists that one of his team members might be involved. A fourth boy, George Tokay, a Navajo, holds a key piece to this puzzle and doesn't realize it. Kelliher and his team have been on this case for two years. ...

One Sip Too Fatal As Murder Brews at The Book Nook! At a charming book club gathering in the storybook town of Willow Creek, murder isn't on the menu—until sharp-tongued Madeline Prescott keels over, poisoned mid-sip. Enter Harper Lane: sarcastic, sharp-eyed, and owner of the quaint bookshop, The Book Nook. With a trusty cup of tea and her gossip-loving parrot, Edgar, Harper prefers plots on the page—until real murder lands in her lap. When the police chalk it up to a tragic accident, Harper isn’t convinced. After all, Edgar won’t stop muttering, “Not mine! Not mine!” Between ...

Salem Wiley is a genius cryptanalyst. She’s also a loner who prefers a safe and familiar path. Until her mother disappears in the wake of a brutal murder, leaving behind a cryptic warning of threats to come. Forced out of her safe zone, Salem embarks with her best friend, Bel, on a dangerous quest that reaches back centuries into America’s hidden history.

“Watson, there is not a moment to lose. If you care to join the chase, pack your bag at once!” Likewise, enthusiasts of the greatest detective will not want to miss this opportunity to join Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson in a whirlwind of exciting new adventures… A daring thief penetrates the defenses of the Tower of London in search of a secret treasure. A profligate young actor is accused of murdering his exemplary sibling. From the safe of a prominent London banker, a priceless heirloom is stolen. Upon a high cliff, a ghostly assassin commits an impossible murder. A kingpin of ...

The human mind is drawn to puzzles like a moth to flame. We cannot resist the challenge of the unknown, the satisfaction of fitting disparate pieces together to reveal a greater truth. But what happens when we ourselves become the pieces, manipulated by an unseen hand into a pattern we cannot perceive? This is a story of twelve individuals who thought they were solving a puzzle, only to discover they were part of one far more complex and dangerous than they could have imagined. Each carried with them secrets, regrets, and connections they never knew existed—threads in a tapestry woven by ...

Hiram Gottschalk, owner of the Palm Beach shop Parrots Unlimited, fears for his life. First, he finds a photo of himself and his deceased wife slashed to ribbons; then, a Mass card with his name on it is taped inside of his closet door; now, someone has wrung the neck of his beloved pet bird. In desperation, he turns to McNally & Son for a private investigation. McNally meets with Gottschalk, along with his client's cursing parrot.

Total Strangers, One Man and Two Boys, each hold a piece of a deadly puzzle and they don’t know it. The bodies of six boys are found in remote areas in different states with startling characteristics. FBI Agent Pete Kelliher and his team from the Crimes Against Children Unit investigate and discover a curious pattern that his superiors refuse to believe. Unfortunately for Pete, there are no other leads and nothing else to go on, and no proof to verify his theory.

Freya Lockwood is shocked when she learns that Arthur Crockleford, antiques dealer and her estranged mentor, has died under mysterious circumstances. She has spent the last twenty years avoiding her quaint English hometown, but when she receives a letter from Arthur asking her to investigate—sent just days before his death—Freya has no choice but to return to a life she had sworn to leave behind.

Pete Kelliher and the FBI thought the boys were safe. So did their parents. So did the hospital staff. In fact, everyone thought the boys were safe. That is, until people began dying. More than a hundred arrest warrants were served and those who took part in the human trafficking ring were arrested. However, six dangerous men escaped and go into hiding. These men vow revenge on those who forced them to run, and no one is safe. Brett, his brother Bobby, George, and the twins, Randy and Billy are in danger and live in fear that at any moment, they could be murdered along with their families. ...

Disappearing wasn’t going to be enough…they needed a plan…some answers…and a safe place where they couldn’t be found…and time to figure out what to do next….and why their pursuers are interested in Harper’s father…and are willing to do anything to draw her out. Now it appears that they have an unknown and unlikely ally…maybe two. But what does it mean when one of their allies becomes the new target… An attack on the Mulholland’s wasn’t expected…and though much could be tied to Mick Johnson this wasn’t his style…or his target. Suddenly there is another target....

Owning a bookstore in a small town is a dream...until murder makes it a nightmare. The victim, the new lighthouse owner, left behind more enemies than friends. The suspect list is endless, and I'm on it. I team up with my best friend, Sam, and my rescue dog, Sherlock Paws, to uncover the truth. Clues are popping up all over, and just when I think we're getting somewhere, another body turns up. With Sherlock Paws' sharp instincts for sniffing out hidden clues and her talent for squeezing into tight spaces, we're making headway—but the clock is ticking. Each new discovery pushes us closer ...

Are you a Law & Order Junkie? Then take the challenge. Read each chapter. Find the evidence. Solve the case. Become a Couch Detective.