Murdle Jigsaw Puzzles Blend Pieces With Logic

After Wordle gained popularity, several related or even completely unrelated daily puzzles spawned, from the other New York Times puzzles to more indie efforts like Redactle (a favorite in my house).

One I’d never heard of until recently was Murdle, a daily murder mystery-themed logic puzzle. I was surprised I hadn’t heard of it before, as I am very keen on logic puzzles (especially those with grids that you get to fill out). But I was quickly made aware of it and then got sucked in when I heard that they have related jigsaw puzzles now!

I’ve come to truly enjoy a good jigsaw puzzle now in a way that I didn’t appreciate as a kid. Not those “all blue sky” ones, but the ones with interesting features and themes really keep my interest, get me out of my head by forcing me to focus, and are good mental health breaks. When you add in a bonus mystery and logic puzzle, you definitely have my attention.

The first Murdle jigsaw puzzle came out earlier this year with the second just published this week. They are kind of three activities in one—a puzzle, a maze, and a logic puzzle—the most time-consuming of which is the jigsaw puzzle itself.

See, they don’t give you a picture of the completed puzzle. You have to sort that out yourself. Then, once you assemble the pieces, the mystery solving can begin. You can solve the puzzle by tracing all of the murder suspects through the maze in the image, or you can solve the logic puzzle based on the clues given inside the box while referring to the puzzle image. These logic puzzles are of the type where you have a certain number of people, locations, and weapons, and you have to use clues to deduce who murdered the victim, where they were murdered, and with what weapon.

Murdle in the Hedge Maze by G.T. Karber, illustrated by Sean C. Jackson

Someone has been murdered at Dame Obsidian’s garden party! It is now a murder mystery, and it’s up to you to solve it.

The first Murdle jigsaw puzzle, Murdle in the Hedge Maze, is a 500-piece puzzle with a finished size of 24 inches by 15.5 inches. You can tell right away from looking at the pieces that there are interesting and fun (and funny) details to discover in the scene, and, despite there being no finished image to examine, it’s pretty easy to get started, since edge and corner pieces are pretty obvious. Past that, though, you need to group things together by color, content, and your gut feeling. The box does give a few minor glimpses into small sections of the puzzle, though, and that can help you get started assembling the middle portions. The colors are a bit drab, but that evokes a film noir feel. The whole thing is tongue-in-cheek and very funny.

Though this type of Murdle seems to be a jigsaw puzzle first and foremost, it offers a lot of other depth and engagement as well. The murder mystery story behind the images on the puzzle—with clever and silly characters—that you are meant to solve makes the puzzle even more goal oriented. You can solve the mystery by completing the puzzle and following the maze paths in the image.

Or, if mazes aren’t your thing and you prefer logic puzzles, you can use the included clues, detective notebook, and 24 copies of the Deduction Grid to piece it together. Also included is the hint-and-solution envelope that contains a small image of the completed puzzle, the solution to the whole mystery, as well as a hint to get you on the right path to solving it, if you are struggling. And the whole thing is packaged together in a book-shaped box with magnetic closure; it looks fancy on a bookshelf.

On the inside of the box are the clues, plus the list of suspects, weapons, and locations. Between the clues and the images in the completed puzzle, you have enough information to mark things down on your solving grid, but you will need to be thorough! Then check the answer and see if you’re right.

Don’t worry if you’re new to logic puzzles, as the Detective Notebook includes basic instructions on how to approach these types of puzzles. Basically, they include a certain number of people, locations, and weapons, and you have to use the clues to deduce who murdered the victim, where they were murdered, and with what weapon.

Since I’m an old logic puzzle pro and I love the quiet contemplation of assembling a jigsaw puzzle, I chose to solve the mystery by myself after completing the puzzle (mostly) by myself. It’s a challenging enough puzzle that a group effort would make it a bit easier and faster (especially the first time), but it’s up to you. You can choose to do the puzzle and solve the mystery by yourself, cooperatively with friends or family (it’s fun with kids, and the box suggests 9+ for the age range), or in a race against others, to see who can solve it correctly before anyone else!

If you’re really stuck:

The logic puzzle built in to the jigsaw puzzle (and the clues in the box) is a much simpler logic puzzle than I am used to, and I solved it very quickly, not even having to go back over the clues a second time. (But I’ve been doing these kinds of puzzles for over 40 years, so YMMV.) But the added element of the jigsaw puzzle itself being full of clues was a lot of fun, and can really provide a competitive or cooperative element. And the jigsaw itself was quite a good one, compared to some.

Murdle in the Mystery Mansion by G.T. Karber, illustrated by Sean C. Jackson

This time, there’s been a murder at the Investigation Institute! And they need your help to solve the crime!

Murdle in the Mystery Mansion is the second puzzle in the Murdle jigsaw puzzle series, also 500 pieces and the same size as the first, and brand new this week. Though the same in format to the earlier Hedge Maze puzzle mystery, this one has some added challenges and bits of fun. You quickly figure out that some of the items in the puzzle are sitting Escher-like at odd angles, with an strange take on perspective, creating an interesting challenge for assembly since you can’t definitively orient most pieces in advance.

Like with the original Murdle jigsaw puzzle, there is no completed puzzle image to refer to, though the box for this one also gives a few glimpses into small sections of the puzzle, giving you a good start on the interior after you assemble the border.

Similar to the puzzle above:

The format is the same here as well: Once you complete the jigsaw puzzle, you can solve the maze to connect the murderer with the victim, and/or solve the logic puzzle with the included clues and grid. You can do this solo, cooperatively with others, or in competition. You get to decide!

Both of the Murdle jigsaw/maze/logic puzzles are available now for $19.95, which is a pretty fair price for all of the fun that these provide. Even once you know who the guilty party is, there is a lot of replayability in doing the puzzle again and again, and studying all of the little quirky details is always fun.

Note: I’m not sharing any photos other than the official publicity ones, since I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone. The puzzles can be a challenge the first time you assemble them, but once you’ve done it once, you can refer to the image in the solution envelope for future puzzle solvings to make it easier to complete the next time.

Beyond the Jigsaws

In addition to these fun Murdle jigsaw puzzles, there are Murdle books with more logic puzzles, as well as Murdle puzzles online. I haven’t yet tried the books, but many of the online ones are very quick and simple. If you’re looking for more of a challenge, the site says that Saturday puzzles are the hardest, and Sunday puzzles are the largest. They seem very effective and fun for those just getting started with this type of logic puzzle.

The online puzzles are generated by an algorithm, though, not a human. And all the clicking that’s required to solve the puzzles on the website is frustrating to me—I like to have everything in front of me at once, not to have to click to flip over cards and refer to other information. It seems like a purposeful complication that makes it more frustrating. But, it will be enticing to others, and the website is free!

Note: I received copies of the puzzles for review purposes.