You-play-detective

Reading lists

11 murder mysteries where you play detective

Hazell Ward

A tour-de-force meta mystery. There are puzzles for the reader to solve, frequent authorial intrusions, dozens of sly, knowledgeable references to detective fiction classics and unexpected twists galore. I’ll freely admit I was baffled much of the time, and the last-minute reveal of the murderer was a total surprise, but Ward’s book is so captivating that I eagerly kept turning the pages

A high-energy mystery, both exclamation point and question mark – like Agatha Christie on amphetamines. Imagine a labyrinth packed with ninety-degree turns and spiralling staircases and art on the walls – and a ruthless guide addressing you directly from the page – and you’ve got a sense of The Game Is Murder, a striking, playful novel for neither the faint of heart nor the slow of wit

No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling author of The Woman In The Window

A significant achievement, packed with insight and invention, The Game Is Murder presents the reader with a fiction killing that seems to defy explanation. It is witty and remarkable and entirely unpredictable

author of Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month, Eight Detectives

A romp amongst Golden Age tropes, in which the reader is asked to become sleuth in a murder mystery...to solve a puzzle conundrum, the novel becoming a sort of board game come to life. If you like meticulously solving puzzles this spright piece of metaficton will appeal

An experimental, metafictional crime novel...Ultimately, The Game Is Murder is a murder mystery that is jsut as interested in dissecting the genre as it is in the mystery itself

A postmodern puzzler that dares to pull apart every trope in the book – literally

I thoroughly enjoyed The Game Is Murder. Strikingly original, but with nods to Golden Age crime, it's an ingenious story of constantly changing perspectives. Different, clever, and highly entertaining!

Move over, Anthony Horowitz. First-timer Ward has entered with a whodunit just as playfully meta as yours...clues like the putative murder weapon will be analysed to within an inch of their lives and all parties in attendance will stand accused, singly and jointly, of crimes and misdemeanours before the author pulls one last rabbit from her hat in a denouement likely to be hailed with both surprise and exhausted relief. Hardcore fans entranced by all those Easter eggs may well turn the last page wondering if they've missed even more

A clever, immersive mystery...through witness testimony, scattered clues, and conflicting accounts, the puzzle unfolds like a classic whodunit - only nothing is quite as it seems

A remarkable, unique novel inspired by an infamous case that embraces experimental, postmodern and metafictional techniques

A mind-bending experiment in crime fiction, throwing light on one of the most enduring mysteries of the twentieth-century

Fifty years ago, Lord Verreman intended to kill his wife – but after striking out in the dark, murdered the family nanny instead. 
Or so the story goes. 
Because after that night, Lord Verreman disappeared. 
With the lead suspect on the run, the case has never been brought to trial. The facts remain unclear – and the verdict, impossible to find. 
Until now. 
You’re invited to a murder mystery party. Thirteen guests have been gathered – rather, thirteen suspects. 
It’s not just dinner on the menu tonight. Justice will be served, too. 
Together, you have all the evidence you need to solve the case. 
Can you solve the murder of the century? Or is there more to this mystery than meets the eye…

Hazell Ward

Articles featuring Hazell Ward

11 murder mysteries where you play detective

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter