casualavidreader 's review for:

A Most Puzzling Murder by Bianca Marais

4.0

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Thank you MIRA and Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for a free and honest review.

Former child prodigy and current world-renowned enigmatologitst, Destiny Whip is very alone in the world. That is until an invitation to interview for the Scruffmore  family historian arrives on her doorstep with a hidden message, promising to reveal family secrets. The catch is Destiny never applied for this job and even the internet yields no answers of who the Scruffmore’s are. Through puzzles and adventure Destiny must solve all the puzzles to get to the heart of the Scruffmore mysteries.

To begin with I thought the premise of this book was so fun. I loved we had to solve the same puzzles Destiny was given to continue the plot. I will always be a fan of unique formatting and adding the reader right into the plot through chose your own path chapters and puzzles was thrilling. This novel also kept me guessing the whole time of what was actually happening. The fun part was all of the clues to the final reveal was sprinkled through the book so if you looked hard enough all of the answers were right there to be discovered. Onto of the fun puzzles I loved the overall story as it was ultimately a story of family and finding ones place in the world. I loved that all the characters were complex and even a little messy. It felt like the family story blended perfectly with the murder mystery. 

Final thoughts are that I probably will buy myself a physical copy after publication to mark up and love as I solve the mystery and puzzles with Destiny all over again