As you may guess from the title, Can You Solve the Murder is a ‘choose your own adventure’ take on the crime novel. As you read, you’re asked to make choices (eg about who to interview next, or which location to go to). You need to make notes (essential, not optional) of certain things along the way, as well as your own suspicions. There’s even a code to crack!
The mystery is set at a wellness retreat. One of the guests is found dead in a courtyard, a garden fork in his chest, pushed from a balcony accessed via a locked room. Oh, and surprise surprise, it turns out he has enemies in every direction, among the staff and customers. And you’re the detective who has to figure it all out.
If this book didn’t have the ‘choose your own adventure’ aspect it would probably be a solid three for me. The mystery is interesting but straightforward and the main character can’t have too much depth when they’re also the reader. Similarly, it’s hard to build relationships or learn more about the side characters.
The adventure aspect is fun but quite a lot of work. If reading as an ebook, you have to be careful to click the right links or you can get lost very easily. I ended up making notes about where I was every so often.
As for the code, I did turn to AI for help, mostly because I figured a detective would look to all sources for help too. ChatGPT got nowhere, Claude was able to work out most of it!
Definitely enjoyed this one as a fun activity but I think generally I’d rather a more traditional book that enables you to go deeper with the characters. Maybe a great gift for murder mystery fans?
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