“You Are the Detective ”Invites Readers to Solve the Murder — Are You Up to the Task? (Exclusive)

Calling each amateur sleuths! A caller interactive book invites you to lick nan enigma — if you dare.

You Are nan Detective: The Creeping Hand Murder by Maureen Johnson and Jay Cooper, opens successful November 1933 successful London. Seven group person mysterious poison pen letters summoning them to a posh townhouse. But erstwhile they arrive, personification is murdered correct successful beforehand of nan others — but somehow, nary 1 saw a thing. It's up to nan scholar to comb done nan clues to fig retired whodunnit. The beautifully designed book features a dossier of witnesser statements, maps, letters from nan constabulary and different clues to guideline readers to nan solution.

Johnson, who's besides nan bestselling writer of nan Truly Devious trilogy, among others, says nan thought stemmed from her ain puerility obsession pinch solving mysteries and 1930s-era dossier enigma books.

"When I was a kid, I publication each mystery.  And for Christmas once, I sewage reprints of these 1930s dossier mysteries," she explains. "And they were my favourite thing."

She instantly thought of Cooper erstwhile it came clip to find an creator to partner pinch connected nan project. The writer and illustrator person known each different "forever," they say, and moreover dated successful college. They utilized to walk drawings and penning backmost and forth, truthful nan unsocial collaboration made consciousness for them.

"It was different than immoderate different process that I'd worked connected before, because usually you get astatine slightest a first draught of a manuscript, and past you commencement moving disconnected of that," Cooper explains. "But this is much for illustration jazz. She'd riff connected something, I'd tie a thing, that mightiness animate thing else, truthful it was a existent integrated process."

Of course, arsenic pinch immoderate integrated processes, nan brace noted, "there's gonna beryllium immoderate weird small clicks and hiccups." Those cropped up, successful particular, erstwhile drafting maps, since nan characters' actions described successful nan matter had to lucifer up pinch what's physically imaginable connected nan map. "I'd do nan full map, and she'd beryllium like, 'That can't beryllium nan drugstore there, because there's nary measurement nan murderer could get to there,' so, location would beryllium immoderate changes mid-process, aliases moreover post, but it was fine, because it was conscionable benignant of a really cool, different measurement of working," Cooper adds.

Both artists' meticulous attraction to item shows up connected nan page, arsenic good — Cooper moreover originated existent perfume bottles from nan 1930s to make judge he sewage nan size and creation right. "I wanted to beryllium arsenic dramaturgically correct arsenic imaginable pinch it all, truthful I benignant of sewage into nan weeds a small bit," he confesses. "I really deliberation I drove Maureen a small spot insane pinch that, because I'd beryllium like, 'No, it's gotta beryllium perfect!' "

But for nan author, it's important to return enigma readers' eagle eyes into relationship — particularly successful a book that asks them to cautiously analyse each small detail. "That's nan point pinch mysteries, you person to beryllium precise," Johnson adds.

The beauty of nan book, they added, is that it's each self-contained: No Internet connectivity required.

"What we wanted was to springiness group a point you could conscionable prime up and take, and not beryllium online — you don't request immoderate extracurricular references to get it," Johnson says. "This is straight-up conscionable a case. You don't request nan internet,  there's nary extracurricular information. It's a wholly contained puzzle."

As readers dive into You are nan Detective: The Creeping Hand Murder, Johnson recommends reference it each first, to get a consciousness of it, and past going backmost and examining each constituent much carefully.  

"It's a lawsuit file, publication it each nan measurement through, and past spell backmost and spot and commencement taking notes astir who was where," Johnson advises. "Really look astatine nan pictures and nan evidence. Because I tin really say, having studied each pixel of those images, nan clues are each successful there."

How agelong should that take? Well, it depends connected nan scholar — and their Sherlock skills. But some writer and illustrator dream it offers a fun, interactive acquisition for bookworms and gamers alike, particularly those who person recovered it difficult to really perpetrate to a regular book successful nan deluge of news and integer stimuli these days.

"Taking a infinitesimal to beryllium pinch thing really tangible and conscionable activity pinch it, for illustration this book and this puzzle, is simply a shape of giving your encephalon thing nosy to do, but also, it's a remainder and reset," Johnson says.

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You are nan Detective: The Creeping Hand Murder is connected waste now, wherever books are sold.