Puzzles and Poison

A read-and-solve cozy mystery that lets you join the investigation.
Read the story. Solve the puzzles. Catch the culprit.

Welcome to Mossy Bend, South Carolina, where the sweet tea is strong, the gossip is stronger, and the local puzzle club is about to stumble into a murder investigation.

Birdie O’Connor has a secret. For eleven years, she has served what everyone agreed was the best banana pudding around. The trouble is, she didn’t make a bite of it. She bought it from a restaurant across town, spooned it into her mother’s crystal dish, and served it to her friends with a perfectly straight face.

Then Marjorie Pruitt, know-it-all president of the rival Book Belles, snatches up the last pan in town and turns up dead that afternoon. By suppertime, half of Mossy Bend knows Birdie had words with her that morning, and unfortunately, those words were “I hope you choke on it.”

Now Birdie is a suspect in the town’s first murder in thirty years. Good thing the Puzzle Club has decided to clear her name, whether the police like it or not.

And that's where you come in.

As you read, you’ll solve 40+ puzzles, including cozy mystery word searches, crosswords, mazes, cryptograms, word scrambles, and a final solve-the-case challenge. Follow the clues, fill in the answers, and see if you can identify the killer before Birdie does.

Perfect for fans of cozy mysteries, small-town Southern humor, word puzzles, amateur sleuths, and books that let you play along.

Can you catch the killer before the Puzzle Club does?