Having just read about The Murder Game, I was eager to play it. Nowadays, I’ll admit that I tend to read mysteries more passively, allowing the twists and turns of a puzzle to wash over me and hoping against hope that, come the denouement, I will be surprised. But John Curran’s new book reawakened the eleven-year-old armchair detective in me, the one who used to create his own charts of suspects, their motives and their alibis. Fortunately, two boxes arrived at my doorstep this weekend, and like an answer to a prayer, each contained a book that just might fit the bill. Interestingly, neither one employs a traditional narrative form – which only added to the fun. 

First up is the latest creation of Maureen Johnson, who has proven her devotion to the genre with her Truly Devious mystery trilogy and other YA mystery novels. This time around, Johnson has re-teamed with illustrator Jay Cooper, with whom she produced a charming little treatise in 2021 called Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village. Cooper’s charming pictures and Johnson’s witty prose leaned into the cliches of village and country manor mysteries, but it lacked a story you could sink your teeth into. This time around, the pair has created a book that will have all sleuths-in-training chomping at the bit.

Entering the world of You are the Detective: The Creeping Hand Murder, a Solve-It-Yourself Mystery was a lot like picking up one of Dennis Wheatley’s old crime dossiers. Rather than a straightforward narrative, the reader is presented with police reports, suspect interviews, and plenty of clues in order that you may have all the facts that the cops possess and (hopefully) solve the case before they do. Some of my copies of the Wheatley dossiers contained actual items in little packets – buttons, matchsticks, torn scraps of fabric – that you could handle if you actually believe that being tactile will help you with your process of ratiocination.

Frankly, I think Cooper’s illustrations here are far more charming than the goofy photographs we got in the dossiers, but the principal is the same: a mystery unfolds, and you must read the text, look at the maps and “photographs” provided and put all the information together before you open the sealed packet at the back of the book and see if you figured it all out. 

It is 1934, and the avant-garde American novelist Roy Peterson has been stabbed to death while at a small gathering in a London townhouse, Six other people were in the room with Peterson, but nobody went near him until a police constable, acting on an anonymous tip, entered the room and discovered Peterson’s dead body. Thus, we have the makings of an impossible crime, but there’s plenty more juicy scandal to savor. Each of the suspects had received two anonymous letters, the first accusing them of a crime, and the second ordering them to come to this residence to face the sender of the letters. Are the letter-writer and the murderer the same person? And just who is the killer if nobody else could get in and out of the sitting-room and the others present never went near the body?

In true GAD fashion, Scotland Yard is stumped, and so they have turned to YOU, the reader of this book, and have supplied you with all the evidence you will need. With that, we are plungfed into a mystery that is stylish and carefully observant of classic mystery tropes. I particularly appreciated the way Johnson connects the present events to, not one, but two past tragedies. The plot certainly fulfills all the requirements delineated in The Murder Game: a closed circle of suspects, a passel of clues, and a contest between the killer and the detectives (both the police and YOU, the reader). There are actual clues contained in a few of the photographs, if you can spot them (I did not), and plenty in the text. Ultimately, I found the puzzle quite challenging (which means, I didn’t solve it!!) 

Despite its highly traditional trappings, the mystery is also quite funny.  I suppose the characters can be ranked into types: the society raconteur, the sniveling relation, the recalcitrant servant, and so on. Cooper gives each of them a distinctive look, while Johnson gives each of these odious people a distinctive personality and voice that makes them sing comedically, especially in their interviews with the police, so that this section never feels like “dragging the Marsh!” After chuckling along throughout the narrative, I was then surprised to remove the sealed document, read the killer’s confession, and discover that the whole affair is more moving than you might expect.

Despite the ratio of illustration to text, I must warn you that this mystery is not written with  kids in mind. The suspects engage in some outrageous behavior that most parents might not want their children reading about. That said, you’re hearing this from a reader who’s mom let him read Christie, Carr, and Queen when I from when I turned 11. This might explain a lot about the person I became!!

I have no idea if Johnson and Cooper plan on making a series of books like this, but I would happily collect the lot. Fortunately, I just discovered that Maureen Johnson will be interviewed about the book on the next episode of All About Agatha so I’m sure we’ll get all the scoop there. 

And now, to open the second box . . .