Printable mystery puzzles for adults: a guide and a free case

This guide compares the formats and includes a small original mystery you can solve here or print. It is a Bookstorez puzzle, not a sample taken from a product.

Choose a format / Try the free case / Before buying a PDF / Explore puzzle books

Formats

The theme does not tell you the mechanics. A book can have detectives and suspects on its cover but contain word searches, logic grids, narrative cases or a mixture. Check the contents and sample pages.

If you want a puzzle you can stop and resume, start with independent cases. If following a story matters more, look for a connected mystery, but check whether later puzzles depend on earlier answers.

Free puzzle

The missing cabinet key

The museum is about to open, but its display-cabinet key is missing. Ava, Ben and Cleo each search one room and find one object.

Each person searches a different room: the archive, the gallery or the study. They search at different times: 2:00 pm, 2:10 pm and 2:20 pm. Each finds a different object: a map, the key or a ribbon. Every room, time and object is used exactly once.

Who finds the key, in which room, and at what time? Complete the whole table to check your deduction. You need only these clues; there is no hidden evidence or outside knowledge.

1. Ava searched exactly ten minutes before the person who found the key.
2. Ben searched the study.
3. The person in the gallery found the ribbon.
4. The map was found at 2:00 pm.
5. Cleo searched later than the person who searched the archive.

Original puzzle by Bookstorez. Free to print for personal use. The hint and solution are at the end of this guide, after the buying advice. Stop there if you want to solve it yourself.

Buying

What to check before buying a PDF puzzle book

1. Look at an actual page. Cover art does not show how small the clues or grids are. Preview a puzzle at the size you intend to print and check there is room to write.
2. Check how help works. A final answer tells you whether you were right; a worked solution teaches you how to get there. Separate hints are useful when you want a nudge without the whole answer.
3. Check the file and page size. The product's included-files section should tell you whether you receive a PDF. Check the description for paper size and colour requirements. A download is not a printed book.
4. Separate puzzle count from page count. A page may hold an introduction, a grid, hints or an answer. Choose by the number and kind of cases you want, not the thickness of the file alone.
5. Match the licence to your plans. Bookstorez purchases are for personal use. If you need copies for a club, classroom or event, do not assume one purchase allows sharing the digital file. Read the printing and licence guidance.

Printing without spoiling the answer

Find the puzzle and solution page ranges before pressing Print. Print one puzzle page first to check legibility and scale, then print only the pages you need. Keep solutions separate; on double-sided pages an answer can show through or appear when you turn a sheet over.

The free case on this page is printable HTML, not a PDF download. Use your browser's Print command or Save as PDF option. The whole guide, including the answer, is part of the document: select only the puzzle pages in print preview if you want to keep the solution out of sight.

Books

Three puzzle books to explore on Bookstorez

These are catalogue suggestions, not a ranked or independently tested "best of" list. The descriptions below reflect what their listings say; check each product page for current files, previews and price.

Blue Ribbon Logic

Blue Ribbon Logic describes 50 county-fair logic-grid puzzles, with a checkpoint and a full worked solution for each. Consider this if you want structured matching and elimination rather than a murder storyline.

The Guidebook Murders

The Guidebook Murders describes forty cozy murder-mystery logic puzzles, with lessons, hints and full reasoning. Consider this if you want short detective cases built around deduction.

Murder in Large Print

Murder in Large Print describes one library mystery told through 30 puzzles of 17 kinds. Consider this if you want a connected story and varied puzzle mechanics; check the preview to judge whether the print size works for you.

Explore more logic puzzle books, or read the buying guide for file formats, downloads and support.

About this guide

Written for Bookstorez. The mini mystery and its worked solution are original to this page and are not extracts from the linked books. Bookstorez sells the products linked above; the links are provided so you can inspect their listings, not as evidence of independent testing.

Hint

Spoiler warning: the hint and full solution follow.

Start with rooms. Ben has the study. Clue five means Cleo cannot have the archive: a person cannot search later than themselves.

Solution

Ben finds the key in the study at 2:10 pm.

1. Ben searches the study. Cleo cannot search the archive, because clue five puts her later than the archive searcher. With the study taken, Cleo must search the gallery. That leaves Ava in the archive.
2. The gallery searcher finds the ribbon, so Cleo finds it. Ava searches before the key finder, which means Ava cannot be the key finder. Of the remaining objects, Ava must have the map and Ben the key.
3. The map is found at 2:00 pm, so that is Ava's time. Ben finds the key exactly ten minutes after Ava: 2:10 pm. Cleo takes the remaining time, 2:20 pm, which also satisfies clue five.

There is exactly one solution. At publication, we checked all 216 possible assignments of rooms, times and objects against the five clues.