This was so much fun!
After not solving the murder I was a bit salty but I still had so much fun solving the text messages and writing down notes in a notebook! This is one I will get to return to once my detective skill get better!

I loved the Choose Your Own Adventure books as a kid so this was a little nostalgic for me. What a fun way to get involved in a murder mystery. I enjoyed following along with the clues and making decisions on how to proceed with the investigation. I did not solve the murder and I can’t wait to try again. Highly recommended for a more interactive reading experience.

More of a fun, light activity than a reading experience, but enjoyable. The book is in a “choose your own adventure “ style. You also collect clues (some are red herrings!) and score points at the end for diligence, depth, and accuracy. The book is set up to play again and again, which I will probably do. The kindle version had hyperlinks in the text, which was very helpful.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review

Like the author, I was a huge fan of the choose your own adventure books as a kid, and I always wanted to see a murder mystery done in this format! Needless to say, I LOVED this book. The mystery was straightforward and challenging - I’ll admit I made plenty of wrong guesses before figuring out the right answer. I really appreciated the interactivity of having to write clues down and decode messages. I felt like a kid again! The mystery was also engaging, the setting was spooky (crumbing manor, locked room mystery) and the suspects were all perfectly unlikable. I’d love to see more of this format!!

Choose your own adventure murder mystery!

This was such a fun, nostalgic read! I spent hours going forward and back, drawn into the mystery of the story. Each turn meant picking my next direction and I found myself really pondering which answer I would choose. This one doesn't have the obvious route to go and I enjoyed starting again and again to see if I could get to a new outcome. It was a little hard not to feel like I didn't fully read the story, but I really did take every route I could and try to get every outcome I could. It was so fun, such a treat - that I think I loved the story even more, just for the adventure of it all. I love unique reads, highly recommend!

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

THE MOST FUN I’VE HAD READING in a LONG TIME!!!
Not since I devoured every Choose Your Own Adventure book I could get my hands on in grade school have I enjoyed a reading journey this much! I loved keeping notes and deciphering clues. I was excited when I figured certain things out. (I decoded the text messages without any help!) I had so much fun reading this! I have no idea how the author kept track of everything and all the clues….amazing! (Thank you for all your hard work making this one of a kind interactive novel, Mr. Antony Johnston!!!) That being said, I apparently suck at being a detective…lol. I did NOT guess the murderer correctly. But hey, I had a blast. PLEASE WRITE MORE of these murder interactive novels!

I absolutely loved Choose Your Own Adventure books when I was young, so I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book!

You need a notebook as many sections tell you to write down clue numbers. There are also times when you have to write down how many locations you've visited or how many interviews you've conducted. There are also a few cryptic text messages that need to be decoded.

The end of each section will tell you which section to visit next, depending on what you've chosen to do. I read a digital ARC, which made skipping to another section easy to do. However, there were times when I wanted to go back and reread the last section but couldn't, because I had no idea where I had been in the book. Once I hit the wrong clue and had no idea how to get to where I was actually supposed to be. There were a few times when I didn't have an option that pertained to me, which was probably because it was an uncorrected ARC, not a fault of the finished product. I found some of the jumping from section to section a little annoying. A few times where there was only one option at the end, which made me wonder why the following section wasn't just included with the current one. (Perhaps several clues lead to the same place?)

It's probably easier to read to solve the mystery if you read the whole book in one sitting, rather than over a few days, which is what I did.

Overall the story was intriguing and the idea of solving the mystery myself was fun. I picked the wrong suspect in the end, and was told to return to the beginning, which I didn't have the patience for, so I just skipped to the end to find out who the murder was.

Bonus points for the vegetarian theme in the story!

When I was little, I use to LOVE choose your own adventure books. LOVE. So I was really excited to read this!

I will say, if you choose to read it, the physical book would be easiest, but if you have a separate notebook, the kindle version works fine. Don’t try, like I did, to use the notes in your kindle. It’s not impossible, but it’s not easy.

The story was pretty simple. I would imagine the entire concept of writing a book like this is complex and you want people to be able to figure it out, so I assume that’s why. I did think it was written clearly. I was never confused. It was medium-fast paced. There wasn’t much fluff, which I appreciated because too much story and detail other than clues would have probably made it hard to solve.

I think that’s what needs to be kept in mind…you’re not reading a novel or some deep thriller. You’re reading a choose your own adventure book for adults and I think that considering that it was really fun and I enjoyed it a lot!
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for letting me review this arc.

This was a lot of fun. Throwback to the CYOA from my childhood but more murder-y and definitely not for kids. I enjoyed this and will likely buy a copy.

I had a few choose-your-own-adventure books as a kid, and remembered them fondly. So when I saw this book, the grown-up version with a mystery mixed in, I couldn't resist. While some of the narrative was a bit hokey, the intricacy of the CYOA conceit more than made up for it. I spent a good two hours following the clues back and forth through the book and had a great time, almost enough fun for me to want to go through and read the other possible outcomes.

This was a clever, fun mystery reminiscent of Choose Your Own Adventure books from my childhood. I enjoyed getting to play along as I tried to solve the case. Ultimately, I think it would be best to read in print so you can make notes and easily flip and and forth between sections. I think it will be a fun way to immerse readers in the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Books for a complimentary copy of this book.

You are a detective sent to investigate the Flowers of the Elysium murder. Harry Kennedy, a local housing developer, has been found dead at around 10:45am by the facility owner, Stephen Cheong. The victim was found on the ground, seeming to have fallen from a balcony with a garden fork in his chest and a red rose inside his mouth. You are the lead investigator working alongside a new recruit to help solve Harry Kennedy's murder. You come across a slew of characters ranging from the widow of the deceased, employees of the establishment, as well as other patrons (aka "Friends") attending the facility.

This is a choose-your-own-adventure-type book where you are given a choice on what you would like to do at the end of each chapter and are prompted to go to a certain section of the book once you make your choice. Be careful of red herrings as well as shifty choices because you will end up being reassigned to a different division without having solved the murder. So....Can You Solve the Murder?

I HIGHLY enjoyed this. It kept me hooked and there were many clues and motives behind the victim's murder. I found some choices difficult to make and I ended up "losing" twice, but I went backwards and looked at my notes and found out where I believed I went wrong and tried again. I also thought it was really neat at the end you were scored on how well you did and how, based on your score, how well of a detective you are.

If you grew up reading choose your own adventure books and having that freedom to discover the end of the story, this book is for you.

This is such a cool concept for a book, but I just couldn’t get through it. It was hard for me to keep track of all the information in an organized way which took away from my ability to enjoy the book. Kudos to the author for trying something new and original!

I loved Choose Your Own Adventure books when I was younger. I’ve always loved murder mysteries. And I’m a narrative gamer. So it is no surprise that I adored Can You Solve the Murder?, a happy combination of all three for adults.

You are the Detective Chief Inspector leading an investigation into the pitchfork death of an abrasive guest at a local wellness retreat. Your decisions will lead you to a successful arrest or an embarrassing defeat. Since each decision leads you down a different path, this book has a bit of repeatability just to see if you can better your score. And there is a scoring tool in the back so you can rate your different paths, or perhaps your score with a friend’s.

As I predicted, I loved Can You Solve the Murder? The mystery is genuinely challenging. If you want to play detective in a very real sense, don’t miss reading this book. Hopefully, this is a start to a new series as I’ll be the first to order the next one. 5 stars and a favorite!

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Books for providing me with an advanced review copy.

If you enjoyed Choose Your Own Adventure books as a kid – or if you’ve enjoyed interactive or visual novels as an adult – this book will provide you with a pleasant afternoon or two.

Can You Solve the Murder? places the reader in the role of a British detective investigating a locked-room murder at a posh wellness spa. Told in second person, the narrative immerses you in the case as you chase leads and hunt down clues, assisted by a wildcard sergeant who adds extra narrative texture along the way. Throughout the book, you’re offered a menu of investigative options but limited in how many you can pursue, forcing you to actually make decisions rather than sit back while the author solves the mystery for you.

I especially enjoyed the section requiring me to crack a code – keep paper and a pencil handy for your sleuthing!

While I thoroughly enjoyed the the narrative experience and would absolutely read a sequel, I did find the solution a little disappointing. It wasn’t as narratively satisfying (for me) as it might have been if another suspect had been the perpetrator.

But this is a fun reading experience if you have ever wanted to fulfill your dreams of starring in a British crime procedural. A great choice to keep you company on a plane or train ride, or to pass a rainy afternoon at home.

This is the second interactive book I’ve ever done, and I had a blast. Taking place in the UK, you play the role of the DCI trying to solve a murder at an exclusive spa. Along with your (new) sergeant and constable, you have to make the right decision and follow the clues to solve the whodunit.

As with any murder mystery, you meet the usual suspects: the wife, the spa owner, the business partner, etc. This is one case that definitely has an answer, but there are six suspects, and each has a reason to want the victim dead. There are red herrings and actual clues, but be careful! The wrong decision could lead to you being kicked off the case, and you having to start over.

The book starts with instructions on how to solve the murder, and I would follow those instructions. It made it easier to play along. I personally went with pen and paper because my mind said it would be too difficult to try to use Kindle functions to play along. I didn’t need to read all sections, but they are fun to read, nonetheless. The part that was the most fun to me was deciphering text messages. You don’t get the key right away to decipher the messages, but that’s part of the fun. There is a scoring system so you can see how well you did. (I read a lot of murder mysteries and cozies… sigh) While this could probably be done in one sitting, I did this over the course of three days. It’s not time-consuming, but I didn’t want to feel like I was falling down a rabbit hole.

I would be curious to know what this would be like using a physical copy, but I enjoyed using my Kindle. I would love it if there were to be another book like this, and make it a series.

This was so fun! I love choose-your-own-adventure books! And as a longtime mystery reader who craves surprise but sometimes feels like I’ve seen every twist before, it was exciting to get something new.

The format requires a little effort—you need to keep track of clue numbers as you go, either with the Kindle’s highlight function or on paper. My kindle made the reading experience quite smooth, since you jump between sections using hyperlinks instead of flipping pages back and forth. That said, I still found myself wishing for a paper copy so I could physically mark pages and keep track of different paths more easily. My Kindle ended up a mess of highlights and bookmarks, and I eventually gave in and grabbed pen and paper anyway. (And, yes, I also wrote out 1 to 200 on the paper so I could make sure I read every section, even the ones I was too smart to fall for the first time, like the nerd I am.)

I correctly solved the murder (yay!), then had fun going through the different endings and sections I'd missed. It felt like the movie Clue with its alternate murderers. (Though there is only one right answer here.)

A fun "choose your own adventure" type of mystery.

This is a book for all kinds of mystery fans. You, the reader, are the DCI for a murder that took place at an exclusive health retreat/resort in the UK. After reading the setup, you make a decision of where to begin your investigation. After each section (some are pages long; some are just a sentence or two), you again make a decision, until you reach the part that asks you to accuse someone of the murder. After to turn to the indicated passage, you'll find out if you were able to solve the crime.

This truly was a lot of fun. I took notes, followed the instructions, solved the puzzles, and was clever enough to accuse the correct villain, like a master detective! I'm not so sure this is the result of my sleuthing abilities or more a reflection of how many mysteries I read. Either way, I really enjoyed reading this book.

A few random thoughts: The plotting was good, and I think it would be easy to get fooled by the red herrings or by falling down a rabbit hole, which would lead you astray. Several times I really had to think about my choices at the end of a section--I wasn't always completely sure what to do next. Finally, I advise you to read this over just a few days; I think it'd be easy to forget important clues if you let too much time go by between reading sessions.

Would I read another solve the murder book by Antony Johnson? Absolutely.

Thanks so much to Penguin for the galley.

This was such a fun twist on the murder mystery genre! I grew up loving Clue, the short-lived show Whodunnit on ABC, and choose your own adventure Goosebumps books, and this book felt like such a good combination of all of those. In this book, you are the detective, and must make the choice of which suspects to interview, which scenes to search, and ultimately, who you think committed the murder. There is no telling how difficult it must have been to construct a story like this, weaving together all the different paths without accidentally spoiling something you haven't discovered. If there is a sequel of some kind, I would love to pick up another story like this.

The best way I can describe the experience is fun. I could hardly put the book down. I did end up figuring out who the killer was, but not without a few missteps along the way. My detective score was 115, which puts me so close to the top category!

This would be the perfect mystery to read on a rainy day. The atmosphere of this crumbling manor felt so vivid. I also like that this book has reread appeal. I am curious to go back and make different choices and see how that would affect the clues I gather and the conclusions I come to. Even though I got most of the important things on the first pass, I know there are bits of the story I missed.

4.25 stars
The case is The Flowers of Elysium and the reader plays the part of the lead detective. The book is written in the second person to really make you feel like you are on the scene, guiding the investigation. When a suspicious death occurs at an expensive wellness retreat, you and your new partner, Sergeant McAdam, are called out to Finchcote Manor to question the witnesses and look for clues.

This isn't a book you read sequentially from cover-to-cover. The book is divided into sections and at the end of each section, you are directed to go to another section and you are often given a choice on where you want to go next based on who you want to question or what clues you've already gathered. You will need to have something handy to take notes as you will refer back to some things as you go. (Instructions are given at the beginning of the book.) Going between the sections is probably easiest with a print copy and may be smoother in the finished ebook versions. For the eARC, I did a search on my Kindle for the section number I wanted and it was pretty easy. In addition to solving the mystery, the main and supporting characters are interesting, too.

I had a lot of fun trying to solve the case. I was wrong in who I thought the killer was, but there are still points given at the end for clues you're able to get. I was proud that based on points, I made it to the second highest rank, Detective Inspector. The door is open for further cases and if that happens, I would be interested in being a detective once again.

Thank you to Penguin Books and NetGalley for the advance copy of the ebook for review purposes. My review is voluntary and unbiased.