It’s no secret that we love murder mysteries around here, the sheer amount of games we’ve covered will tip you off. And today we want to tell you about a new way to play: Murder Mystery Word Searches!
What murder mystery games have we covered? Here are just a few: Shady Pets, Cold Case End of the Line, Clue escape room and Who Did It. Not to mention our line of escape rooms for kids and our Who Burnt the Turkey and Who Stole Santa’s Mittens. Did I mention that we love them?
So, when I got the chance to try out a new murder mystery word search, I jumped at the chance! In this post, I’ll cover how to play, how to solve the mystery and if I think you should give them a try. Let’s get into it.
This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link.
What Do I Need for a Murder Mystery Word Search Puzzle?
Before we start, I want to tell you that I bought a software to create the puzzles. The book ideas with the back stories are all from me as well as any extras that come with them. In this post I’ll tell you my honest opinion of the puzzles. Back to the murder mystery word searches!
You will need the puzzles and something to write with. We prefer a highlighter and a pencil. As for the puzzles, you can get our new books! So far we have:
Arthur Ashton: The Rookie Years and Nancy and the Casebook found in the Old Clock, both that can be found on Amazon. We also have smaller collections in our FGS shop with themes like Murder at the Bakery and Murder at the Book Shop. With more to come!
The Ashton books are filled to the brim with 99 puzzles to solve. The Nancy books are a little more compact at a smaller book size and 50 puzzles. (And yes, we’re Nancy Drew fans!) The ones in the shop are a small sample size with just 15 puzzles in them. These are great for getting to know the puzzle style and when you want something quick. (We each got a set to take on vacation this year and it was great.)
The books on Amazon come with hints (you’ll see why in a minute) and an extra puzzle at the end to make the fun last just a little longer. You can check them out on my amazon Author page here.
How Do I Play the Murder Mystery Word Search Puzzles?
Each mystery comes with four separate word searches, a list of weapons, and suspects. In each puzzle, there are circled letters that become important as you play.
First, you will search and find the weapons. All of them will be somewhere in the four puzzles but one of them will show up twice.
Next, you will look for the suspects. All of them are in the puzzles twice.
Once you have found all the clues, you can fill in some of the answers. First, the weapon that you found twice is the murder weapon. You can fill it in on the lines at the bottom. Next, look at the two puzzles where the weapon was found. You are looking for the suspect that shows up in both puzzles. This is your murderer. Again, you can fill this in on the lines at the bottom.
Now you will need to find out the victim’s name. To do this, go over the puzzles for any of the circled letters that haven’t been used in any words. That is, if you’ve circled yourself while find a word you ignore it. Now that you have all the letter you have to unscramble the letters to get the victim’s name.
Now, we did find this part a little tricky at first. (With my learning disability word scrambles are hard and sometimes impossible for me.) The first trick that we found is that a lot of the victim’s names start with titles like Mr., Dr, Lady, Col, Miss. This made it easier to decode them. To make it easier in the books I have included a hints page where you get the first letter of the name and if you’re looking for a two-word name. Maybe I’m the only one who struggles with this, but I figured if you don’t need the hints, don’t look at them but if you do they are there.
Once you have the victim’s name, it’s now time to find out the location. Each of the four puzzles have a location name on them. You now find the victim’s name in the puzzles. The puzzle location where you find the victim is the location of the murder. For example, in the picture below, I found the victim Dr Moss in the puzzle called Café so that’s where the crime went down.
At the end of a puzzle, we like to tell each other the outcome: “The vendor killed Dr Moss with the anchor in the café.” This step is unnecessary, but it makes it fun.
How Do I Solve a Murder Mystery Word Search Puzzle?
When you have found the weapon, the murderer, the victim and the location, you have solved the case!
What We Like
First, these puzzles are very clever. You need to find ALL of the pieces of evidence to be able to solve the crime. We have tested tons of them now and occasionally have found the victim’s name right off the bat. You would think that this would ruin the puzzle, but no. Because you need to use the letters that are in circles, you need to find all of the evidence to eliminate letters.
Next, we like that these puzzles take time. You won’t fly through them like other word searches. At least none of us have. The are a good challenge without being overwhelming.
Last, we like the themed puzzles. The bigger books are random cases, but the ones in the shop are centered around a theme. This makes them fun and a great gift. (We made the Bakery one for my sister-in-law who went to pastry school.)
What We Don’t Like
If we’re being honest, we would have liked the evidence to fit the theme a little better. Yes, a vendor can be in many places but a little more variety would be great. Also, some of the evidence is a little… old fashioned? Like in one puzzle the murderer is the fisher–what is a fisher? I assume that this is a person who fishes. Otherwise known as a fisherman.
Similarly, a little more variety in the weapon would have been good. There’s a fair bit of repletion in them. This does make it easier to spot them as you play though so we don’t mind too much.
Last, the word scramble. As I said before, this is not something I’m good at. But I have been getting better at them. Once you know that you should check for Mr. and Dr and such it makes it easier. Otherwise, the names are usually common (American) names that are short. And in the books, you have the hint page.
Behind Bars
So, should you give the Murder Mystery Word Search puzzles a try? I say definitely. If you love a good mystery puzzle or are a word search lover, then you should give these a try. They are more than a word search but are not as deep of a think as an escape room or even a game of Clue. They are fun, challenging and a must try!
Check out my books here. Get the sample printables here.
And if you’re in the mood for games that are so fun they should be a crime check out…
Mafia the dice game Clue Jr (because you have to start sleuthing early) 13 Dead End Drive
Be sure to visit the shop where you’ll find escape rooms in many themes for kids, dice games, card games and more like our Dice Sticks game where you have a secret mission to accomplish!
Be the first to reply