If you love Cozy Mystery Books With Puzzles, you’re in luck. Murder mystery puzzle books have become extremely popular and range from epistolary novels to murder mystery games on a page to mystery books incorporating puzzles. Here are my favorites, plus five new 2026 titles to try!
Cozy Mystery Books With Puzzles
If you love cozy mystery books with puzzles, you’re in luck! From epistolary novels where you’re handed the clues along with the detective, to murder mystery “games on a page,” to books built entirely around cryptic codes and word puzzles, puzzle mysteries are having a serious moment. Here are my favorites, plus the best new releases of 2026, and some great picks that I haven’t yet tried!
Jen’s Quick Picks: Find Your Perfect Puzzle Mystery
| If you want… | Read this |
| Pub trivia + puzzle mystery! | The Killer Question by Janice Hallett |
| Words nerds solve a cold case | Guilty by Definition by Susie Dent |
| New book by the master of puzzle mysteries | Guilt by Keigo Higashino |
| Puzzle savant + Japanese puzzle box | The Puzzle Box by Danielle Trussoni |
| Locked room mystery in a cursed library | The Library After Dark by Ande Pliego |
| My favorite Janice Hallett! | The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett |
New Puzzle Mysteries for 2026
The Library After Dark by Ande Pliego
Why you’ll love it:
- A locked-room mystery set inside a genuinely haunted library
- A cast of strangers trapped together — all with secrets worth hiding
- Gothic atmosphere meets classic puzzle whodunnit energy
The Silent Appeal by Janice Hallett
Why you’ll love it:
- Another epistolary mystery from the reigning queen of the format
- An amateur theatre group performing Agatha Christie when a real mystery breaks out (deliciously meta!)
- All the clues are buried in the text if you can untangle them in time
I’ll be reading this so stay tuned!
Guilt by Keigo Higashino
Why you’ll love it:
- A man confesses to two murders he couldn’t possibly have committed — and the puzzle only deepens from there
- Higashino is one of the finest puzzle mystery writers working today
- A pure logic puzzle in novel form — the solution is both shocking and well-earned
Deadly Episode by Anthony Horowitz
Hawthorne & Horowitz #6: you’ll want to read the full series!
Why you’ll love it:
- Written squarely in the Agatha Christie tradition — the whole point is solving the puzzle
- Anthony Horowitz himself appears as a character trying to solve the mystery alongside his detective partner (how meta and fun!)
- A classic closed-circle whodunnit where every detail has been planted deliberately
The Mysterious Affair of Judith Potts by Robert Thorogood
Marlow Murder Club #5 : again, you’ll want to read the series
Why you’ll love it:
- The beloved Marlow Murder Club amateur detective ensemble is back — and celebrities are being killed
- One of the characters designs crossword puzzles, so another “meta” detail.
- Classic whodunnit structure with the emphasis firmly on the puzzle
I’ll be reading this one! If you want a catch up, here’s my Readers Guide to Murder on the Marlow Belle!
Codebreakers by Stella Sands
Wordhunter #2 – you might want to read Wordhunter first!
Why you’ll love it:
- Two detectives who solve crimes entirely through words, symbols, and ciphers
- A mystery where language itself is the clue — perfect for crossword and wordplay fans
- The puzzle is baked into the very mechanics of the investigation
Puzzle Mysteries I Have Read and Enjoyed
The Killer Question by Janice Hallett
Why you’ll love it:
- A pub quiz premise
- An epistolary format that includes group texts and police reports
- An elaborate and twisty mystery that will keep you guessing!
Guilty by Definition by Susie Dent
Why you’ll love it:
- Set at Oxford University
- Follows a group of dictionary employees
- Mysterious clues
- A decades old mystery
The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman
Why you will love it:
- Book five in the Thursday Murder Club series
- A (possibly) missing fortune
- Includes clues that you can follow and solve!
Seven Reasons to Murder Your Dinner Guests by KJ Whittle
Why you will love it:
- A group of people are invited to a dinner party … every year
- Every year, one of them will die
- Who is inviting them, and why?
You Are the Detective by Maureen Johnson and Jay Cooper
Why you will love it:
- A historical murder mystery
- You are given witness statements and clues to read and ponder
- Who is the killer?
The Puzzle Box by Danielle Trussoni
Why you’ll love it:
- Intriguing main character with a brain injury that makes him a puzzle genius
- Set in Japan
- Incorporates Japanese history
- This is book two in a series. I also reviewed book one: The Puzzle Master
The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett
Why you will love it:
- A deviously complex epistolary novel
- Multiple narrative strands that come together
- A character based on a fictionalized Enid Blyton
The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallett
Why you will love it:
- Two rival journalists trying to chase the same story
- An intriguing cult murder
- Complex and really surprising
- My favorite of her books!
Top Rated Puzzle Mysteries that I Have Not Yet Read:
If you’ve tried any of these, give you thoughts in comments!
Picking Up The Pieces by JB Abbott
A group of puzzle enthusiasts team up to solve a murder.
Welcome to Murder Week by Karen Dukes
A woman finds her late mother’s ticket to a mystery murder week and decides to go.
That Missing Piece is Killing Me (Alice Pepper 2) by Roz Noonan
Librarian Alice Pepper and her group of puzzle fanatics solve murders.
Merry Murdle by G. T. Karber
Detective Logico has been called to the North Pole to solve the kidnapping of Santa Claus. Can he solve 25 mystery puzzles and save Christmas?
Be still my Encyclopedia Brown loving heart, I didn’t know these were a thing! Immediately checked out a Janice Hallett and we’ll go from there.
Janice Hallett’s books are all epistolary and hard to figure out. Maybe start with her latest, The Killer Question.