Publication Date: June 10, 2025
How do you solve a murder that hasn’t happened yet?
Destiny Whip is a former child prodigy, world-renowned enigmatologist and very, very alone. A life filled with loss has made her a recluse, an existence she’s content to endure until a letter arrives inviting her to interview for the position of Scruffmore family historian. Not only does an internet search for the name yield almost nothing, it’s a role she never applied to in the first place!
She decodes the invitation’s hidden message with ease, and its promise to reveal her family secrets proves too powerful a draw for the orphaned Destiny, who soon finds herself on Eerie Island. It’s a place whose inhabitants are almost as inhospitable as the tempestuous weather. The Scruffmores themselves turn out to be not much better, a snarled mess of secrets and motives connected by their mistrust for one another.
Their newly arrived guest proves to be just as much an enigma to them as they are to her. While Destiny slowly works to unravel the mysteries hidden throughout the ominous castle, she struggles to interpret disturbing nightly visions of what is to come. In the midst of cryptic ciphers, hidden passages, and the family’s magical line of succession, Destiny is certain of two things: one of the Scruffmores is going to die and she’s running out of time to stop it.
Interspersed with riddles and puzzles that both Destiny and the reader must solve, A Most Puzzling Murder is a one-of-a-kind mystery that will leave you guessing and gasping until the very last page!
When I agreed to review A Most Puzzling Murder by Bianca Marais, I’ll admit to jumping in pretty much blind. I read the blurb but mostly saw the tagline of the email that stated it was a Choose Your Own Adventure, and I said, ‘Sign me up!’
In A Most Puzzling Murder, the reader follows Destiny as she is drawn into a mystery. It begins when she receives a letter informing her that she is on a shortlist for a job she never applied for, but then she spots a hidden message within the letter. The author then has the reader attempt to find the hidden message, offering the option to send an email for hints before providing the answer at the end of the book. And thus, this goes on throughout the book.
As I was reading this on my e-reader, which was an advanced reader copy, I found it a little hard to view the images within the text. However, I then went back to read the forward and found that a “workbook” was available on the author’s website with all the puzzles. That made this interactive story a little easier.
The story jumps around between several characters’ points of view, which can get a little exhausting. However, it was also interesting to see all the scheming that was going on around Destiny. Thankfully, the new point of view is always the start of a new chapter, and the reader gets a warning that it’s changing. It’s just not something that I’m used to.
I enjoyed the few chapters that ultimately became the “choose your own adventure” part of the mystery. It only happens a few times, and up until the last one, I only read the option that I took and didn’t see how the other path unfolded. However, from the one I read, I imagine that the paths were relatively polar opposites. It would be interesting to revisit those small changes. However, those few divergent points don’t significantly alter the story as a whole, as the plotline eventually converges after a few pages.
I will admit that I was expecting something more cozy than I got, and that’s entirely my fault for not researching the book more thoroughly before picking it up. It was a bit darker and fantastical than I usually read, so I often felt out of my comfort zone, which isn’t a bad thing.
I ended up reading most of this book in one sitting. I was pulled in, even though I felt a bit uncomfortable, but that’s probably the point since none of the characters were exactly comfortable either. I needed to see where the story was going and how everything would turn out, and having fun puzzles to try to solve alongside Destiny was a nice perk.
If you like a good mystery and don’t mind a bit of fantasy mixed in, A Most Puzzling Murder might be for you.
Bianca Marais cohosts the popular podcast The Shit No One Tells You About Writing, which is aimed at helping emerging writers get published. She teaches creative writing through the podcast and was named a winner of the Excellence in Teaching Award for Creative Writing at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies. She lives in Toronto, where she loves playing escape-room games and writing about strong female protagonists.
