This is the most fun I’ve had with a book ever. The challenging puzzles, choose your own conundrum chapters along with a magically mysterious plot, what’s not to love? I went in expecting an Inheritance Games style mystery. I got that and sooo much more! I’ll certainly be in the lookout for anything this author writes in the future!

I love this author’s writing style, and I was so excited to receive this ARC audiobook! Her character descriptions are clever and entertaining and the whole premise of this book was completely unique! I cannot wait to get my hands on the physical copy to read back through the puzzles. This book is an experience. Interactive. Which made this a little difficult to listen to in the NetGalley audio app, but I know I will be obsessed with the hard copy. Magic, humor, drama, family secrets, a mysterious island setting, murder…the whole package.

This is the first book that I've read that you can actually help solve riddles. There was only one I couldn't solve, but they were all fun. The story itself was good too. Lots of twist and turns. I highly recommend this if you want more than just a story. Although if your not a puzzle solver the book is awesome.

Ahhh! I wanted to like this book so much! But unfortunately the execution suffered. The description drew me in especially as I had just read a similar book that used the interactive story that had stops in play so you could figure out the puzzles and it was done really well. This one, not so much.

I’m not going to harp on things as I am reviewing the audiobook but I wanted to mention that
1. while it’s great that their is a off on the authors site that you can download or print out to assist audiobook readers in the task at hand, it didn’t work for me. For one, it’s not accessible. I realize many people read audiobooks who do not depend on them due to disability. But for those that do that PDF is woefully inadequate. While you can use assistive technology to narrate the addendum to you, it is too difficult to navigate in order to use it effectively.
2. When the stops happen it gives you choices according to what you choose to do. If you choose not to solve the puzzles you still have to look up “the answer” before moving on rather than having the characters figure them out and through the prose show you how it falls in the story. Because that doesn’t happen it relegates the puzzles as a marketing tactic rather than a true interactive book.
3. Lastly, the book had so much information and POVs and sub plots that’s it’s too much, especially since it’s also fantasy (which somehow I didn’t get when I requested the book). It was as if the author had all these ideas and instead of grouping them together and saving some ideas for future works, she threw everything into this one book. The whole throw “everything under the kitchen sink and see what sticks” concept. It’s just way too much and the book suffers for it.

Back to the audiobook part of the review. It was narrated by Dylan Moore who did all the voices and POVs. Unfortunately at the 1x speed ahead spoke so incredibly slow that it was painful. So much so that I thought I may have accidentally slowed it down as it sounded like she was trying to speak whilst in a vat of molasses. Obviously I had to speed it up significantly to have it passable for natural speech but unfortunately it changed the pitch so much that it made it tolerable but not any more enjoyable.

With all that said, for a fully sited individual that can read the physical book that enjoys fantasy and detective fiction, while it has issues, it is inventive and it can be a great way to really connect with a book. So if you want to give it a go, it comes out June 10th 2025.

I am thankful to have gotten a complimentary audio ALC from Harlequin Audio through NetGalley to read which gave me the opportunity to voluntarily leave a review.

My rating system since GoodReads doesn’t have partial stars

⭐️ Hated it
⭐️⭐️ Had a lot of trouble, prose issues, really not my cup of tea (potentially DNF’d or thought about it)
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Meh, it was an ok read but nothing special
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Really enjoyed it! Would recommend to others
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Outstanding! Will circle back and read again

Most Puzzling Murder
by Bianca Marais
Narrated by Dylan Moore

Remember those interactive stories from your elementary school days, where you could choose your own path through the narrative? They were marketed as “pick your own plot.” Fast forward to 2025, and you’ll encounter a similar structure in A Most Puzzling Murder by Bianca Marais, narrated by Dylan Moore.

At the heart of this tale is Destiny Whip, an orphaned former child prodigy and world-renowned enigmatologist. Instead of leading a fulfilling life, however, Destiny finds herself mired in loneliness and profound loss, retreating into a semi-reclusive existence. Her world takes a dramatic turn when she receives a mysterious letter inviting her to interview for the role of family historian for the enigmatic Scruffmore lineage. Curiously, she never even applied for the position!

Undeterred, Destiny skillfully deciphers the hidden message within the invitation, its allure of uncovering her family secrets proving too tempting to resist. Soon, she arrives on Eerie Island, where the family castle rivals the gloomy settings found in Bram Stoker's *Dracula*—complete with dark secret passages and chatty cats and raccoons haunting its halls. This inhospitable place, teeming with suspicious inhabitants, feels even more foreboding. The Scruffmores, it turns out, are as tangled in secrets and mistrust as the stormy island that encloses them, with whispers of magical powers lurking in the shadows.

As Destiny diligently unravels the mysteries hidden within the ominous castle, she grapples with unsettling nightly visions of impending doom. Surrounded by cryptic ciphers, hidden passages, and the complexities of the family's magical lineage, she becomes increasingly convinced of two truths: one of the Scruffmores is destined to die, and her time to prevent it is slipping away.

With riddles and puzzles designed to challenge both Destiny and the reader, A Most Puzzling Murder unfolds as a truly unique mystery that will keep you on your toes.

Dylan Moore’s narration beautifully captures the essence of our damsel in distress and the quirky inhabitants of Eerie Island, creating an exceptional listening experience you won’t want to miss.

Thanks are extended to Harlequin Audio and NetGalley for the advance copy of the audiobook.

Here's to New Adventures in our Reading & Journaling Journey!
@thewritingwhisperer &
@shh_imreading Continue to Believe In Truth, Beauty, Freedom, Love, & the Power of the Written Word!✒📖

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By far the most original, twisty and thrilling book I've read this year!! Canadian author Bianca Marais's latest is an utterly captivating choose your own murder mystery adventure featuring Destiny, a 21 year old genius in search of family connections who travels to a remote island not knowing the dark secrets, power struggles and magic she's going to get caught up in.

Highly recommended if you enjoy puzzles, family drama, shocking reveals and locked room mysteries. It's also good on audio but should definitely be read with a print copy nearby for the many, MANY clues hidden throughout the pages. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

This is the coolest book I have ever "read" as an adult.
I was lucky enough to receive a physical ARC as well as the ALC. This was great because I did a lot of this in tandem.

I went in 100% blind and had NO IDEA it was like a choose your own ending/strategy book. You definitely want to keep a pen and paper nearby so you can keep notes along the way - if you think it's important, it is! This was such an incredible concept, especially for people with brains like mine. I am always solving the mysteries along the way. I highly recommend you check this out!

I think a physical copy of this book would be great for the puzzle solving and choose your own conundrum type chapters. However it does not translate well to audiobook version as usually when I listen to an audiobook it is while I am doing other activities and not able to sit down and solve the puzzles that pop up quite frequently, so I am left out and it makes the book more convoluted (since then I can't find out who Destiny mistrusts, names, secrets, and all the answers to the puzzles reveal) with the multiple characters and their different views as well as jumping through time back and forth between the past and the present with Destiny heading off to the island to find out the truth about her family and ending up in the middle of a sorcerers war for who will be the heir to all the power. I think I would have enjoyed the story a lot more without the puzzles because I will say, that the Scruffmore's have one messed up family tree and I ended up chuckling each time the increasing frustrated genealogist had to update it. And once I got into the story, with the different family members, their plots to get the power, revenge, or just find out the truth of what happened long ago with Bramble, the serial killer murders, and who Destiny's family is. I still thought it was a bit too long and drawn out because I would think almost everything had been explained and then you have a raccoon mixing it all up again!

The story is 4 stars, puzzles 2 stars, Narrator gets 5 stars because of the good job done bringing so many characters and twisty turns on a very strange island to life. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to listen to this book which ended better than it started though I really hated the cha-ching of puzzle time, right when the story got interesting.

3.75/5
This was narrated very well by Dylan Moore. It was clear and crisp.

This was pretty decent, but I felt like it took too long to become grounded in the story. This is probably a "me" issue.

The puzzles were interesting but a bit of a distraction for me. It was a little too busy and there was so much world building being done around the character work and the figuring out of the puzzles.

I found the story itself much better once we got through the lore of the family and island. After that it was quick and clean story with twists I didn't see coming. The plot was clever and fun.

There was just a lot going on for me to really sink into it.

A reclusive enigmatologist accepts an invitation (or rather, a job offer for a job she never applied for) she finds herself on Eerie Island, surrounded by a strange otherworldly family, one member of whom she’s sure is going to be killed if she can’t decipher their secrets in time