A Most Puzzling Murder

Marais (The Witches of Moonshyne Manor) serves up an entertaining interactive whodunit peppered with riddles and choose-your-own-outcome elements. Socially awkward 21-year-old Destiny Whip has long taken solace in solving puzzles and mysteries alongside her fellow members of the Council of Enigmatologists. One day, she’s contacted by mysterious Mordecai Scruffmore, who invites her to Scruffmore Castle on Eerie Island to compete as one of two finalists for a coveted position as his family’s historian. Destiny is surprised, considering she never applied for the role, but she eagerly accepts, harboring suspicions that Mordecai might be her long-lost biological father. After she arrives, she’s haunted by visions that someone in the family will die, and she sets out to solve that mystery while digging into her own past. Readers affect which clues they get by choosing which chapter to read next, and are tasked with solving a series of brainteasers (answers can be found at the back of the book, for the less puzzle-inclined). There’s some subpar prose (“ ‘No, my lord,’ his butler rasps, his voice branded with agony as the stench of sulfur seasons the denial”), but for the most part, Marais’s execution matches her ambition. This is pure catnip for armchair sleuths. Agent: Cecilia Lyra, P.S. Literary. (June)