The Puzzle Room

Free puzzles to play right now

Three original mini puzzles in the style of the Owlbrook series. Play them here on screen, or print them and grab a pencil. They're made for this website, so you won't find them in the books.

And five free Grim Tales mysteries, seven puzzles each

Owlbrook Grim Tales

Five free mysteries to solve tonight

Each is a whole evening from one of the Grim Tales books: seven new puzzles, from medium to fiendish, and a culprit to name at the end. Nothing in them spoils the books.

The guests of Tallow’s Waxworks in the checkered Foyer by lantern light

Book One Free from Locked in the Waxworks The Night Before the Gala Madame Tallow’s setting key has gone from its hook, and everybody is looking at the raven. Tumbler Lock · Word Search · Logic Grid · and four more 7 puzzles, then Madame’s Question Play it free owlbrookpuzzles.com/galanight

Mister Sawdust, a grinning wooden dummy, on his crate on a foggy heath

Book Two Free from The Crooked Carnival Mister Sawdust Is Missing An hour before the gates open, the ventriloquist’s dummy has vanished from his crate. Seven alibis, and exactly one fails. Barker’s Anagrams · Coconut Shy · Knife Board · and four more 7 puzzles, then The Reckoning Play it free owlbrookpuzzles.com/sawdust

Crookspire Lane at night, and the crooked House of Automata

Book Three Free from The Clockwork Witnesses The Golden Lark Master Sprue’s golden lark has gone from the workbench, and only his automatons saw who took it. Mechanism Cipher · Gear Train · Logic Grid · and four more 7 puzzles, then The Testimony of the Witnesses Play it free owlbrookpuzzles.com/lark

Book Four Free from Seven Nights Dead One Night on Sepulchre Hill Captain Fathom’s spyglass has gone missing from his grave, and the whole Hill blames Dirge. Spirit Board · Knock Code · Ghost Testimony · and four more 7 puzzles, then What the Dead Know Play it free owlbrookpuzzles.com/hill

Josiah Coffinwright outside the shop of Coffinwright and Daughter, Undertakers

Book Five Free from The Undertaker’s Casebook The Apprentice’s First Case The organist played the last hymn far too fast, and Dr. Dole has written “natural causes.” Josiah disagrees. Coffin Arithmetic · Obituary Word Search · Code-Breaking Lock · and four more 7 puzzles, then The Casebook Entry Play it free owlbrookpuzzles.com/firstcase

Owlbrook Puzzles

The Marrow in the Hatbox

GentleAbout 10 minutes

At the village fête, the prize-winning marrow vanished from the vegetable show and turned up, slightly bruised, in a hatbox. Four villagers were nearby, each at a different stall and each carrying something different. Who had the hatbox?

The clues (tap a clue to cross it off)

Whoever carried the umbrella was at the tombola, sheltering from a passing shower.
Mrs. Marchbank never went near the flower show or the bandstand.
The Colonel carried neither the hatbox nor anything with knitting in it.
Miss Pickering spent the whole fête judging dahlias at the flower show.
Whoever was at the tea tent had brought a picnic basket, and it wasn't the Colonel.
The Reverend's hands were too full for knitting.

Use the grid as scrap paper: tap a square once for ✗ (no), twice for ● (yes). Each person was at exactly one stall with exactly one thing.

Your answer

Enjoyed this? Whodunit? Cozy Mystery Logic Puzzles has 50 cozy village cases like this one.

Owlbrook Noir

The Note Under the Door

Warm-upAbout 3 minutes

Someone slid this note under your office door at a quarter to nine. Every letter has been moved the same number of places along the alphabet. Turn the dial until it makes sense, then answer the question.

Shift back0

Show the alphabet key

Where are you being asked to go?

Enjoyed this? The Nightshade Ciphers has 50 codes that tell one Victorian murder story.

Owlbrook Grim Tales

Knocks on the Stair

MediumAbout 10 minutes

Every night at three, something knocks on the cellar stair. The knocks come in pairs: the first group gives the row of the square, the second gives the column. (The ghost knocks K as C, as ghosts always have.)

What does the ghost want you to do?

Enjoyed this? Seven Nights Dead has knock codes, séance ciphers and lying ghosts over seven nights.

Want more?

Each Owlbrook book holds 50 to 200 puzzles like these, wrapped in a story.

Browse the books Read the puzzle guide