{"id":7068995,"date":"2026-09-28T08:03:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T08:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/can-you-solve-the-murder-who-killed-harlowe-thrombey-and-more-comics-worth-reading\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T08:03:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T08:03:19","slug":"can-you-solve-the-murder-who-killed-harlowe-thrombey-and-more-comics-worth-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7068995","title":{"rendered":"Can You Solve the Murder?, Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey?, and More \u2013 Comics Worth Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\"A\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve noticed a flock of interactive, solve-it-yourself mysteries, so I thought I\u2019d tell you about them. Note that I\u2019m not talking about mystery puzzle books, like Murdle<\/strong><\/a> or Murdoku<\/strong><\/a>. They\u2019re fun, but they\u2019re logic puzzles with some mystery wrapping. The following are variations on mysteries where you play the detective. <\/p>\n

\"Cover<\/a><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with a classic: Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey?<\/strong><\/a> by Edward Packard was recently re-released. Originally published in 1981, it was the ninth book in the popular Choose Your Own Adventure<\/strong> series<\/a> for kids. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a classically styled mystery. A rich man has died, and while investigating, you can question various suspects, review the crime scene, and interact with a bumbling police detective. There are only 14 endings, but they\u2019re well-structured, looping around and sending you through various activities as you work out who did it, helped by a girl detective. <\/p>\n

The solution to the mystery is the same in all cases, so once you\u2019ve solved it \u2014 or been told it\u2019s solved \u2014 you know what happened, but different paths reveal different details. <\/p>\n

\"Cover<\/a><\/p>\n

Murder at Christmas: You Solve the Crime<\/strong><\/a> by G.B. Rubin has a similar idea, but for adults. (Note: the author, as Gareth Rubin, wrote the most recent Doyle-estate-authorized Sherlock Holmes novel, Holmes and Moriarty<\/strong><\/a>.) You are a pathologist in 1932 London, and you choose whether to help a friend of a friend in what turns into a murder, or go to a country house party where poison pen letters have been causing trouble. So there are two full cases in the volume. <\/p>\n

Each scene takes up several pages, so you navigate by sections instead of pages. And if you get things wrong, you often end up dead\u2026 but you\u2019re told \u201cgo back to the beginning and start again.\u201d The period setting and atmosphere, layered over with the holiday, makes for just the right feel for fans of classic cozies, even if some of the deadly endings seemed a bit capricious. <\/p>\n

\"Cover<\/a><\/p>\n

Murder in Tinseltown: A Choose-Your-Own-Story Mystery<\/strong><\/a> by Max Nightingale is similar. (It doesn\u2019t seem to have had a US release, but you know, the internet.) Only this time, it\u2019s 1958 Hollywood and a famous actress is found dead in her hotel suite. You\u2019re a police homicide detective who happens to be on the scene. <\/p>\n

An interesting change in this book is that when you have a bad ending \u2014 which happens frequently, whether you\u2019re murdered or your boss steals the case \u2014 the book sends you back to where you made the previous decision, a big help for those of us who like to make sure we\u2019ve read through all the endings. Otherwise, I didn\u2019t care for this one as much as the others; it didn\u2019t feel particularly involving or authentic in setting. <\/p>\n

(I will pause here to mention that all of these books assume you\u2019re male. Which is odd given how many cozy mysteries are investigated and read by women.) <\/p>\n

\"Cover<\/a><\/p>\n

You Are the Detective: The Creeping Hand Murder<\/strong><\/a> by Maureen Johnson & Jay Cooper is very different. It\u2019s more like a dossier. In 1934, a bunch of society people (or those associated with them) have gotten nasty notes accusing them of bad things, assembled from newspaper letters, and when they gather as ordered one night, one of them is stabbed. <\/p>\n

Starting with newspaper articles and a case file, the book continues with maps and illustrated photographs, evidence and suspect interviews. At the back is a sealed envelope with the solution enclosed. (I assume. I haven\u2019t solved mine yet so I haven\u2019t opened it.) It\u2019s all in black and white and red, and it feels very dissolute. <\/p>\n

\"Can<\/a><\/p>\n

Can You Solve the Murder?<\/strong><\/a> is the book that got me onto this topic. It\u2019s by Antony Johnston, whom I know better as a graphic novel author (The Fuse<\/strong><\/a>, Atomic Blonde<\/strong><\/a>), although he\u2019s also written prose mysteries I\u2019ve enjoyed (The Dog Sitter Detective<\/strong><\/a> series). <\/p>\n

This volume feels more like an actual investigation. There\u2019s been a murder at a crumbly old mansion that\u2019s been turned into a floral-themed spa. You decide where to look and who to question, and as you move through the book, you collect \u201cclues\u201d (letter-number pairs such as A5, C2, etc.) that then affect where you go next. I found the scene-setting and characterization compelling. The mystery here is solved by police procedure, not dramatics, and it\u2019s my favorite of these gamebooks, as it was the most satisfying. There\u2019s already a sequel out, The Forest of Death<\/strong><\/a>. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the whole set of them, with both the UK (top row, larger size, French flaps, nicer presentation) and US (bottom row, more boring cover) editions of Can You Solve the Murder?<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Related Posts: <\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve noticed a flock of interactive, solve-it-yourself mysteries, so I thought I\u2019d tell you about them. Note that I\u2019m not talking about mystery puzzle books, like Murdle or Murdoku. They\u2019re fun, but they\u2019re logic puzzles with some mystery wrapping. The following are variations on mysteries where you play the detective. Let\u2019s start with a classic: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7068996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111799],"tags":[9458,230060,27008,3711,3646,7387,230061,11288],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7068995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mysteries","tag-comics","tag-harlowe","tag-killed","tag-murder","tag-reading","tag-solve","tag-thrombey","tag-worth"],"yoast_head":"\nCan You Solve the Murder?, Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey?, and More \u2013 Comics Worth Reading - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7068995\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can You Solve the Murder?, Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey?, and More \u2013 Comics Worth Reading - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I\u2019ve noticed a flock of interactive, solve-it-yourself mysteries, so I thought I\u2019d tell you about them. Note that I\u2019m not talking about mystery puzzle books, like Murdle or Murdoku. They\u2019re fun, but they\u2019re logic puzzles with some mystery wrapping. The following are variations on mysteries where you play the detective. 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