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Collins Murder Mystery Puzzles
Collins Murder Mystery Puzzles - Killer on the Canal: 100 logic puzzles to solve the murder mystery
240 pages, Paperback
Published April 15, 2025
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25 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 5, 2025
Cute story but too many of the puzzles were just straight up math problems and not "logic puzzles".
July 25, 2025
The puzzles in this book had a good variety of difficulty. There was a good mix of puzzle types, including logic, word, maths. The story was also quite fun, albeit silly. Pembroke is the true star.
September 24, 2024
A fairly fun puzzle book, where the puzzles have all been connected into a cosy crime narrative. Here, our main character is on his way on his narrowboat to a crime readers' convention, when his companion is done in, bumped off, and thusly murdered. He makes his way alone, then, save for his dog, but every chapter involves something criminal – even if it's merely a mischievous missing cat – and every step of every chapter is something for us to do.
I think it fair to say that if you've picked up a routine puzzle book in the last few decades you'll recognise some, but not all, of these posers. There are crosswords, hanjie shading-in tasks, and the old-fashioned logic problems complete with their grids, and that more recent 'train tracks' one has been turned into a cat trail, but there are also new ones. An early one asking for us to triangulate a sound source looks like one of those oh-so-hip Japanese number ones, but in a fashion I've yet to encounter in the real world.
So we're either fully on board with those or we're not, leaving the appeal of the narrative as the other aspect of the book's success. This takes some time to adjust to, what with it all being in present tense, but generally proves to be fine. It might, of course, take you more time or less to solve the puzzles, and so how distracted from the story you get is going to vary. But it all also has a very disposable feel – this is the cosiest of cosy crime, turning to a ridiculous farce of a training montage, and the sections of plot in between the puzzles are very short, leaving it more than possible to reread them.
Ultimately I don't think the book would last on the shelf once the puzzles have been done, as the story doesn't leave us much that is memorable. It is, however, snappily written, and has some nice callbacks at one point. No, this is a puzzle book first and foremost, and as one it is pretty commendable – the variety and novelty here really refreshing, and that alone is four star worthy. The difficulty level is completely random, with many veering towards the very easy side, but each puzzler's experience is their own of course. My experience is suggesting this is worth thinking of – but don't bother if you want to solve crimes; we work on the puzzles alone.
I think it fair to say that if you've picked up a routine puzzle book in the last few decades you'll recognise some, but not all, of these posers. There are crosswords, hanjie shading-in tasks, and the old-fashioned logic problems complete with their grids, and that more recent 'train tracks' one has been turned into a cat trail, but there are also new ones. An early one asking for us to triangulate a sound source looks like one of those oh-so-hip Japanese number ones, but in a fashion I've yet to encounter in the real world.
So we're either fully on board with those or we're not, leaving the appeal of the narrative as the other aspect of the book's success. This takes some time to adjust to, what with it all being in present tense, but generally proves to be fine. It might, of course, take you more time or less to solve the puzzles, and so how distracted from the story you get is going to vary. But it all also has a very disposable feel – this is the cosiest of cosy crime, turning to a ridiculous farce of a training montage, and the sections of plot in between the puzzles are very short, leaving it more than possible to reread them.
Ultimately I don't think the book would last on the shelf once the puzzles have been done, as the story doesn't leave us much that is memorable. It is, however, snappily written, and has some nice callbacks at one point. No, this is a puzzle book first and foremost, and as one it is pretty commendable – the variety and novelty here really refreshing, and that alone is four star worthy. The difficulty level is completely random, with many veering towards the very easy side, but each puzzler's experience is their own of course. My experience is suggesting this is worth thinking of – but don't bother if you want to solve crimes; we work on the puzzles alone.
June 26, 2025
Killer On The Canal is a book of murder mystery puzzles put out by Clarity Media. Voracious reader murder mysteries, Harvey Rivers, his terrier Pembroke and his friend Fred Pond are meant to travel on his narrowboat, Lady Grey, to an amateur detective conference at Barrow Head, and solve puzzles along the way. But Fred is murdered before they set off. 100 logic puzzles for the reader to try, with solutions at the end of the book. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?
Pardon the pun, but I’m thoroughly puzzled as to why the publisher would offer this title for review in kindle format without any of the illustrations, crossword grids, other puzzle formats. The reader can enjoy the in-between bits as Harvey tries to solve his friend’s murder, which amount to the equivalent of an average cosy murder mystery, but can’t actually do any of the puzzles. It makes it extremely difficult, nay, virtually impossible, to give a realistic rating to this book.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Collins Reference.
Pardon the pun, but I’m thoroughly puzzled as to why the publisher would offer this title for review in kindle format without any of the illustrations, crossword grids, other puzzle formats. The reader can enjoy the in-between bits as Harvey tries to solve his friend’s murder, which amount to the equivalent of an average cosy murder mystery, but can’t actually do any of the puzzles. It makes it extremely difficult, nay, virtually impossible, to give a realistic rating to this book.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Collins Reference.
November 13, 2024
I really enjoyed it. Lots of puzzles, decent story that took place alongside the puzzles. Some of the puzzles were challenging to begin with but I liked it. Does it have reread potential? probably not but it was fun and I would happily check out the other books in this series.
June 14, 2025
Brilliant...really enjoyed this puzzle book 📖
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews