Murder Mystery Word Search for Adults

A murder mystery word search with a case to solve: fill ten blanks from the file, find nine words in the grid, and the one that isn't there is the weapon.

This book is for adults who do a word search most evenings and like a murder mystery on TV, and for the sister, daughter or friend who buys one for them. The goal is to close every case yourself: name the weapon, the killer and the place, then check your final report against the solution at the back. You work one case at a sitting, with a pen, on two facing pages: the case file on the left, the evidence board on the right. It makes a birthday or Christmas present for someone who has finished their last puzzle book and is looking for the next one.

What's inside:

• 60 case files and a final case. 61 invented murders set in the United States between 1970 and 1989, each on its own two-page spread.
• A mystery before the search. There is no word list. Each case has a news clipping with ten words cut out, one box per letter. You work out the words from the clipping and the inspector's note, then look for them.
• The weapon, the killer and the place. Nine of the ten words are hidden in a 12 by 12 grid; the weapon is in it in no direction. The letters no word passes through spell THE KILLER IS and a name, then THE PLACE IS and the scene of the crime.
• Three levels of twenty. Rookie, cases 1 to 20: words run across and down, and the first letter of every blank is printed. Detective, cases 21 to 40: five directions, backward and upward included, and empty blanks. Chief, cases 41 to 60: six directions, and the weapon comes from the clipping and the note read side by side.
• Ten linked files. Every sixth case, from 6 to 60, is stamped LINKED FILE, and its inspector's note ends with a line you copy into your notes. Case 61, The Final Case, stands on its own; with those ten lines in hand, its blanks come faster.
• Every grid checked by a program. A program made every grid and solution, and a program then checked all 61: each of the nine words is in its grid once, the weapon is in none, and the leftover letters spell the hidden sentence. Before a case went into the book, it was worked from the file alone, without the answers.
• Solutions at the back, in case order. Each shows the grid with every word marked, the leftover letters circled, the ten blanks, and the weapon, killer and place. Under every final report is the page of its solution.
• Room to work. 8.5 x 11 inch pages, grid letters set at 18 points, and lines on every case file for your notes on suspects and times.
• Two at a table. One reads the clipping aloud, the other keeps the pen.

What it is not. It is not a plain word search with a list to circle: the words come from the story first. The cases are made up, with no real victim, killer or crime, and a program checked the name of every person in them against public lists of real murder victims and killers in the United States. It is a paperback for a pen, with no Kindle edition, and it does not lie flat on its own.

Open case 1, read the file, and pick up a pen.