The Museum Heist: A Mystery Agency Puzzle Book

by Henry Lewis

Can you solve the puzzles and piece together the clues to find out who dunnit?

The Mystery Agency Puzzle Book is an interactive book where murder mystery meets escape room-style puzzle solving, in an epic adventure for all the family. Put yourself to the test, and follow the story, working your way through a whole host of challenges - from deciphering clues at crime scenes and searching for hidden pieces of evidence in the pages - to satisfy your inner detective. Look out also for interactive elements within the book that will take each mystery to a whole new level.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Puzzles, Whodunit, Cozy Mystery

128 pages, Hardcover

Published February 20, 2024

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

very cool little interactive mystery book. Just saw a sequel is coming soon so I'm excited for that as well.

[Katherine Kendig · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was looking for something interactive and screenless to do when I didn't feel like reading and this was perfect. Just enough of a narrative to tie everything together, with puzzles that range from enjoyably easy to rather challenging, and some reasonable depth to the investigative work you have to do by the end. I completed it over maybe 5 or 6 sessions across a month and had a lot of fun in the process... I hope there are more of these!

[Victoria Conway · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful way to solve a fictional crime! To solve the mystery and identify the thief, many different types of puzzles had to be solved. The clues lead to the elimination of one suspect, but sometimes you had to do several puzzles at different times to get the full information. I often flicked back to check earlier solutions. I’d recommend having a notebook to hand to help with your working out and deductions. The puzzles, on the whole, were suitably challenging, and luckily, hints were available if needed!

[Sarah AK · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the first half of this, but the further in I got, the more complicated and convoluted the puzzles seemed to become. I consider myself pretty good at stuff like this, but I was HUMBLED. I struggled to understand several of these puzzles, even AFTER looking at the solutions. Sure, some of them I just didn't consider the right angle and that's fine. But a handful had me screaming WHO THE FUCK WOULD EVER THINK THIS WAY?! I also found the hints generally useless. They were too obvious to be helpful, a thanks-but-no-thanks situation.

I found satisfaction in breezing through the early stuff and even greater satisfaction when I solved the tough ones entirely on my own. However, around the 70% mark, my frustration peaked and I stopped caring about the case as a whole. I was just there for the puzzles, and some are a hit, some are a miss.

As a non-destructive player (helloooo, tracing paper), I kept the book pristine so I can revisit it later or pass it along. I really did enjoy it, but I also felt a VISCERAL urge to commit book violence and throw it against the wall, especially in the latter half. I do think this would be much more enjoyable to do with friends, as multiple brains would be helpful when one brain (such as mine) does not compute. I already have the next book on my shelf, but I’ll be taking a LONG breather after this one before I dive back in... next time with friends.

One final note: Can anyone explain to me why The Storeroom puzzle on pages 92-93 appears to be duplicated FOUR times over the next several pages? A printing error? A puzzle in a puzzle? I am so confused...

[Sarah Calvert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this puzzle book. My husband and I had a few date nights and had a go at cracking all the codes. The level of the challenges was good - as we had to think about them all and started out alright but we got stuck for a while on a couple of the problems. It is more of a puzzle book than a detective thriller, I like the characters and the setting and the option for more books with the mystery agency. The plot was straight forward, there has been a robbery while 8 suspects were in the building and you need to find out everyone's motive and eliminate 7 suspects to reveal who the thief is. However, I would say some of the reasons suspects are eliminated have not been fully proven or realised, which is why I'm giving this book 4* rather than 5, however it works well enough in the world of the book. If you enjoy a puzzle or breaking a code I would give this a go.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable way to spend downtime over a long weekend—a well-made set of puzzles of various sorts (decryption, logic, find-the-code, think-expansively escape room stuff) to provide clues to a nice little deduction of the thief at the end. I appreciated the cleverness of several of the puzzles and the fact that there are two "items" you can acquire if you do well at less-mandatory puzzles. I only got one of them and can confirm that it didn't ruin the associated task, just made it a little harder :). The book frequently required you to leverage clues obtained in the later pages to return to earlier pages and obtain additional evidence for the final solution, which I haven't seen very often and was a nice challenge.

I'd happily spend time with another of these.

[Vix · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is absolutely stunning, such high quality - and a perfect Christmas gift for anyone that likes puzzles.

I've already dived into the book and am loving it - the artwork is beautiful and everything is laid out clearly.
There are QR codes at certain locked doors where you'll need to enter your answer, but if you get stumped, there's also hints (and solutions).
And it all leads you to eliminating 7 suspects and discovering the thief, along with extra details around the crime.

*I received a complimentary copy of the book from Tandem Collective and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

[Victoria Pring · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had so much fun completing this book. Some puzzles are harder than others and depending on how your mind works which ones are easier will probably vary quite a bit. I failed a little as I was left with 2 suspects at the end rather than one (you really do need the torch), however I found the criminal and got through the last bit of the book. I had my husband look at a few of the pages I couldn't figure out and he helped so I only needed a couple of clues, the clues were well written though and helped immediately. The only thing that dissapointed me was that there isn't yet a second book in this series.

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very fun. Although some puzzles were frustrating and almost all the hints I consulted were useless, this book was very fun to go through. The hand puzzle made me very mad. And it was so funny to think that people would have to find codes (from things which are easily replaceable/moveable/tweak-able) and sit near the door trying to open it, while people in those locked rooms are just chilling inside. And one more funny memory of it would be that my partner and I skipped the page with Suspects G and H. And for the whole book we thought that there were only 6 suspects. Luckily both of those suspects didn't matter much, as we had guessed the correct thief.

[Katie Blythe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I felt like this book was really good. I tried to do some puzzles with my 9 year old… some he got some he didn’t! The puzzles were moderate not to easy not to hard but enough to use your brain a bit! I’ll be getting the next one if another one comes out! Very enjoyable for me

[Lineree · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a blast! My OCD brain loved all the puzzles and deduction that had to be done to eliminate suspects that might have stolen the Tiger’s Eye at the Kensington Museum. I really hope there will be more of this!

[Jaclyn Tano · Rating 5 out of 5]

A couple of the puzzles didn't give enough information to go off of, but overall, it was one of the most unique and fun books I have ever read! If you like escape rooms, this is a really good alternative for just yourself to get your escape room fill!

[Felipe Sanchez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic entertainment. Enjoyed from cover to cover. I wish I had noted before there are printables on the website in case you want to lend it after you finish it. Changing some hints or making 2 or 3 of them a bit more obvious would have improved my experience even more. But in any case 5/5.

[busé]

ya ben geri zekalıyım ya da bazı bilmeceleri çözemeyelim diye yapmışlar

[Helen Marsden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not solve the crime. I eliminated the person due to having the wrong shoe size for them.

[Sarah (relativelylucid) · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was a fun little romp and a delightful way to stay up past my bedtime

[Dijananas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best gifts I've ever received. I haven't enjoyed solving a mystery story this much since I played The Return of the Obra Dinn. I hope there will be more coming up in the series.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed how interactive this book was and solving the clues to piece together who did it. Really recommend

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun puzzle book for solo puzzling. A few relied on common knowledge or memory where you weren't supposed to flip back and reference the previous pages. Those were mainly focused on making a later puzzle easier or harder, which you could choose to take the better answer if you really needed to. Overall the writing for the story bits was amusing, and the overarching plot was fun! Would recommend.

[Tia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I completely enjoyed this puzzle book! I worked on it over a few days, the puzzles were satisfying, and engaging. I love puzzles and most of them were all at completely the right level, not too easy and not too difficult to be frustrating. I stayed up late past my bedtime playing!