I have noticed that the eastern Midwest has a somewhat superior version of WalMart called Meijer. I was in one recently killing time before heading to the airport; I did an impulse grab of Murdle vol. 2. I’ve seen these puzzle books around and thought it looked interesting but never enough to really get into one. The series started as a web game based on the word-based game of great popularity, and apparently has grown into print. The general premise is (as noted on the back blurbs and elsewhere) there’s a series of 100 murder puzzles that kind of add up to a story narrative as experienced by one Detective Logico (with some occasional assistance from their pal Inspector Irratino whose investigations use dreams, tarot cards, horoscopes, etc.). Irratino’s help comes mostly in the form the hint section at the back. After the hints come the answers which move the story on to the next puzzle.
If you like puns, you’ll appreciate the characters names. They’re sort of themed in sets, and there are a few whom you follow through at least part of a narrative arc. The opening narrative which doubles as an example of how to work the puzzles features the suspects Mayor Honey, Dean Glaucous, and Chancellor Tuscany. There are several potential locations, and several potential murder weapons (yes, there’s a Clue basis here), and based on some clues of who was/wasn’t where, and had/didn’t have what, you as Logico have to figure “It was X in the Y with the Z”. The demo grid shows how to keep track of clues and work out whodunnit; the puzzles/murders have four levels, getting progressively harder (elementary, occult medium, hard boiled, and impossible), and the harder levels add suspect statements (in which the murderer lies, all else are truth), and motives; this naturally expands the grids and means more content to keep track of and match up.
I haven’t finished the whole book but I’ve jumped around a little trying out some the harder levels just to see. It turns out that the grid provided doesn’t work very well for me; as soon as I started using my own graphic organizer, things went much easier/more smoothly. I was having a hard time figuring out some connections using the grid, and the hints and answers don’t always fully explain how/why things are supposed to be figured out that way.
It’s kind of an entertaining puzzle series, but don’t get into this looking for strong narrative story continuity. There is very little worldbuilding or characterization, and more often then not, the answer narrative ends with something like “and everyone agreed to throw the killer out of the party” or “everyone agreed that the victim deserved it, and thus the party carried on”.