Interactive Mysteries

Transcript

Speaker: Welcome to Clued in Mystery. I'm Sarah. And I'm Brooke, and we both love mystery. Hi, Brooke. Hi, Sarah. We're going to have a lot of fun today because we're going to talk about interactive mystery books.

Speaker: Oh, this is going to be great. There are some fantastic ones out there. There really are. And so these are stories that ask us to do a little more than just turn the pages to find out who done it.

Speaker: The idea certainly isn't new. Cain's Jawbone was first published in 1934, and it famously asks readers to literally tear apart the book and put the pages in a different order to solve the murder mystery.

Speaker: And many of us grew up with choose-your-own-adventure books, which are also a type of interactive mysteries. And the stories were dependent on the decisions that we made.

Speaker: During the golden age, fair play mystery writers were already treating detective fiction partly as a game, both between different authors and their readers. And you might remember that the detection club experimented with collaborative mysteries. And so this is a kind of game of the system as well.

Speaker: But for some reason, interactive books seem to be having a big moment in the mystery world. There are books that ask readers to solve puzzles. There are books that ask readers to do word searches for clues, make decisions, or even work out the identity of the murderer with a series of clues.

Speaker: So Sarah, let's talk about the different ways mystery stories can invite the reader to become part of the actual investigation and this moment that they seem to be having.

Speaker: um I'm very excited about this, Brooke. So ah you mentioned Kane's jawbone in the introduction, and i was in a bookstore this summer and almost bought myself a copy But I decided not to because i thought I just have a few too many things on my plate right now and I don't want to get sucked into this book and abandon my life as I try to solve it.

Speaker: Yes, i um I remember seeing ah Instagrams or um you know different social media platforms of people who really got into it during the pandemic because there was obviously a lot of time on our hands and you're literally taking this book apart and they would paste the different pages on their wall and try to figure it out. And their room starts to look a little bit like a murder board, doesn't it? And you could just see that they are, it could, it could really become an obsession.

Speaker: Exactly. And I just, I have, I don't have time for another obsession right now.

Speaker: So you also talked about Brooke, ah like choosing your own adventure books and kind of these things. maybe being targeted towards kids, but that's, and maybe we can talk about that some that are kid friendly, but that's not always the case. And and maybe more recently, ah as you say, there's kind of this boom of these interactive puzzle books.

Speaker: Exactly. Yeah, I think that maybe traditionally we think about these stories as being for a younger audience. um We were ah fortunate enough to get a advanced reader copy of a book from Penguin Young Readers that's in the Solve Your Own Mystery series. And oh actually, they sent us several options. I spent some time with The Time Thief, which is one of their books. Yeah.

Speaker: And I think that those books are a little bit of what we think about when we think about interact interactive mysteries. There's lots of pictures. They're pretty funny. And you think about it as a way to keep a younger reader engaged with the story.

Speaker: But I think that we're finding um more recently that adults love it just as much And I think that there's a little bit of that. Remember when we talked about grandma hobbies and people want, we want analog and kind of tactile. We're kind of sick of being stuck glued to our screens. And so there's ah a part of that as well because it keeps us a little bit more active.

Speaker: Oh, that's a great observation that it, yeah, it is a way for us to maybe separate ourselves from our phones for a little bit if we've got this book.

Speaker: I have a couple of books in a Sherlock Escape Room series, and these are As you say, these are puzzle mysteries, right? There's a narrative element to the story. But every so often, i don't think it's every page, but every couple of pages, there is some sort of mystery that you need to figure out. And the front cover of the book actually has this like secret mystery dial that you have to use to answer some of the, to solve some of the clues. Yeah.

Speaker: Oh, that sounds like a great time. And really, i like how challenging these are, right? Like we read mysteries because we like to be challenged by our by our reading, I think. that I think that's a part of being a mystery fan. And these type of stories just make it doubly so because you really can't, especially in that example, you can't really move on until you've deciphered this piece of the puzzle. So um yeah, I think that there must be quite good for our brains.

Speaker: As you say, they're challenging. There's a mystery. It's like taking reading a novel one step further because you're actually involved in in analyzing the clues. You're not just hearing how the sleuth in the book is doing that. um And yeah, they can just be a like good way to pass a couple of hours that is more than just reading what's on the page.

Speaker: I think there are levels too, because you mentioned with this Sherlock Escape Room series that there is, it seems like quite a lengthy narrative, right? There is like a book that you're reading and then these additional puzzles. But some of the um interactive books that we're seeing, there's not as much of a narrative story. It's more, you do a word search, you get a clue, and they're more about the game and less about like, say, a long story. And I think there's a place for that. you know that That can be really fun too.

Speaker: In getting ready for today, I did an Amazon search for word search mysteries and I got more than 10,000 results. So this is definitely positive popular genre at the moment. And again, like there's this different amount as you look at each title. Some of them have a lot of story and some of them just have a little bit, but either way, it's this emphasis on the mystery space, like, you know, themed very much like a mystery. You know, i think we would be remiss if we didn't mention Myrtle, which of course started out,

Speaker: as daily puzzles on the on the internet, right? Like um logic puzzles. ah And they've expanded more narrative more narrative books that still involve the the puzzles, but there are like versions for kids and ah ah other versions that are more intended for an adult audience.

Speaker: Yeah, there there clearly is a lot of interest in this. I'm glad you brought up Myrtle, Sarah, because I had kind of forgotten that, but you're right. They've expanded into more actual stories that contain the puzzles. That's a wonderful example.

Speaker: When we were talking about doing this episode, Brooke, i thought of a book that I read. i think I read it a couple of years ago called All This and More, written in or released in 2024 by Pung Shepard. So if you remember, um I had recommended that you read her book, The Cartographers, which was about maps, but it didn't have an interactive element to it. But All This and More is very much a you choose how the book goes.

Speaker: I would say The Cartographers is more of a mystery than All This and More, but it was very good and a great example of an interactive style book.

Speaker: Mm-hmm. Yeah, and I think that that is a great point because um and thinking back to, say, a choose-your-own-adventure book when I was a kid, i I remember a certain grade that I really got into those. I thought that was great fun. And not all the stories are mysteries.

Speaker: But because you're putting it together, it's sort of a mystery where the story is going to go. So I think that that sounds like sort of a an adult version of that feeling that you would get in doing a choose your own adventure book.

Speaker: The other observation that I have about these types of books is um how many of them riff off Sherlock Holmes as the central character. So um with my son, we've read several books in the Sherlock Bones series, which is written by Tim Collins. and there's, you know, a narrative that is part of the story, and every couple of pages, there's some sort of activity that you need to do. it might be a matching activity, or it might be spot the difference, word puzzles. There's

Speaker: a whole variety of different kinds of puzzles. And um it was really something that was a lot of fun for, I think, particularly for younger readers, like early primary school readers. um And it was just another way for the two of us to engage with the book.

Speaker: oh Definitely. So were the puzzles in that instance, did they impact your understanding of the story or are they extras? Because I'm thinking that there's kind of a difference between a story that is interactive or just a story that has additional puzzles.

Speaker: Yeah, that's a really good question. And i think you could read those books without doing the puzzles, but you would do the puzzle and then the next page would say, yes, Sherlock Bones realized that it was the gray furred cat or whatever, right? Like there was a connection between the story and the puzzle, but it wasn't, um it didn't hamper your reading if you didn't do the puzzle.

Speaker: Right. Or if you couldn't figure out the puzzle, because ah you and I have talked about that I am a little bit like Myrtle disadvantaged. And so sometimes these books, like they they can feel like a struggle if you like can't get the puzzle and you kind of beat yourself up. Right. But ah maybe I just need to focus on reading them that are ah geared towards kids and I'll feel better. Yeah.

Speaker: One of the series that came to my mind when I was thinking of just a story with some extra puzzles on the side are the Marcy K. Monson children's books. And, you know, these are obviously ah intended for young children. They have the storybook, but then on every page, there's just a little game or puzzle for kids to play. And I think that they are so well done.

Speaker: I agree. Those books are an absolute delight. And yeah, just another way to engage with the story. And I think particularly for young readers, this is a really important thing.

Speaker: um And, yeah you know, as the parent, I i enjoy it or it, as an adult reader, I enjoy it. But there is, i think,

Speaker: I hope that these books are planting seeds for continued enjoyment of reading of all types of books, whether there's a puzzle involved, you know, an interactive puzzle element or not. And I think they just are actually really important part of reading for children. Yeah, I completely agree.

Speaker: Well, for those people who really got into Kane's jawbone back in the 2020 era, I found a book that I think would be perfect for them. And this is called The Killer Isn't Alice, the 46,600 suspect murder mystery puzzle. And while I do think that there is somewhat of a narrative, I think that this is heavy on the game um end of the spectrum. And the book has, again, 46,000 plus names listed. And then 18 clues is all you've got. And the clues are something like, the killer's page is no more than one page away from Sasha. Right. So you have to then look for the name Sasha in these long lists. And you can see that examples are when people can eliminate someone, then they can cross it out. Or if they're still on the suspect list, then they might highlight or circle it or something. So this would be similar to Kane's Jawbone, a very lengthy project to find this killer.

Speaker: Yeah, that sounds amazing, Brooke. And I like how you've described that and Kane's Jawbone as project books. yeah Because, you know, I think there's a big difference between reading something like um Myrtle puzzle, which is essentially a puzzle book, right? So it's just a series of logic puzzles. And there's a narrative that is a light narrative that is woven throughout. Um, whereas this is like, yeah, get your, get your murder wall ready because you're going to need to have various pages and maps and pins and, you know, like, um, you really get to play detective and, uh, yeah, I, I love that there is that, um,

Speaker: spectrum for people as well, right? So if you either don't have time or that's just not your thing, you just want to do the word search puzzle mysteries, then great. That is there for you and that you have lots of options. If you want to dig deeper into something,

Speaker: There's something like The Killer Isn't Alice or even the Sherlock Holmes um puzzle book that I was talking about that has the the spinning wheel. um Like that's not something that you, I think, can do in one sitting.

Speaker: No. um And so, yeah, if you want to spend – actually, these are probably great for – over the Christmas holidays um or, you know, over the summer break, maybe when you've got a bit more time and and can really sit down and get into it.

Speaker: Well, and you know, that comment just made me think it, it's also something you could do with your family or your friends, couldn't you? um And i maybe you would need to, especially with something like Kane's Jawbone, it would probably be better to bring a community of minds together.

Speaker: So it could be interactive and also interactive on the level of like having some community around it. And that could be a lot of fun. Yeah, swapping clues and theories and and everybody really getting into it, but in a really safe way, right? Like we've talked about, i know we did an early episode about true crime and people, you know, amateur sleuths solving true crime. There's ah an element of risk associated with that, whereas this is a very safe environment.

Speaker: That's right. Only fictional crime. You know, you're describing the killer as an Alice and it's this, you have to eliminate all of these names, which is, i guess, an extension of a ah logic puzzle, right? Um,

Speaker: And I didn't realize that that was a thing, but just searching on um searching on Amazon, there looked to be several similar books. So clearly this is a ah popular ah a popular subgenre that I wasn't aware of.

Speaker: Yeah, I feel the same. I didn't realize but it's there are lots and lots of options with different you know themes, like one's in the hospital and one's at a hotel. And so you can kind of pick the setting and and go for it. But I think a lot of people are playing these themes.

Speaker: these, like as you said, it's like an extension of a logic puzzle. And like, what a great way to get away from that digital screen, right? Because these are definitely a paperback book that you're holding in your lap with your pens and highlighters and you're like um diving into it. And it takes me back again to that idea that we'd like to do something more analog and tactile. Yeah.

Speaker: Well, and so I wonder, as people are increasingly, I think, trying to take that step and distance themselves from their phones and and other screens, I wouldn't be surprised if we see more books like this in the in the near future. So um just like, i don't know how to describe them, mystery plus.

Speaker: Yeah, that's a great name. And while on the one hand, you might say, well, you know, this is kind of easy, an author doesn't have to come up with the whole story. On the other hand, I think about trying to build one of these, and it would be really challenging. It's ah in an entirely different skill set from, I think, writing just a narrative story. So really interesting, definitely something I think we want to keep our eye on. And you know, maybe something we should try out together at some point, Sarah.

Speaker: I love that idea, Brooke. I think that would be a lot of fun and we can document our progress for our listeners and subscribers to our newsletter. I think that is a fantastic idea, Sarah. And listeners, here is your question of the week.

Speaker: Read or solve? What do you prefer? The more passive, just reading the mystery, or do you like to get involved and become part of the investigation? Let us know. You can send us an email or reach out to us on social media.

Speaker: But until next time, thank you for joining us on Clued in Mystery. I'm Brooke. And I'm Sarah. And we both love mystery. Clued in Mystery is written and produced by Brooke Peterson and Sarah M. Stephen.

Speaker: Music is by Shane Ivers. If you liked what you heard, please consider telling a friend, leaving a review, or subscribing with your favorite podcast listening app. Visit our website to sign up for our newsletter, The Clued in Chronicle, and get mystery news, podcast updates, and bonus episodes.

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