The Writer’s Playground Series – Mystery: The Clue Web

Mystery: The Clue Web

• Objective: To practice creating layered clues and red herrings, the lifeblood of a mystery.
• How to Play:
  1. The facilitator presents a central crime puzzle (e.g., “A priceless painting vanished from a locked room,” “A famous scientist was poisoned at a dinner party”).
  2. The group’s task is not to solve it, but to complicate it. Going around the circle, each person adds one piece of physical evidence or testimony to a central whiteboard (e.g., “a muddy footprint by the window,” “a cryptic note,” “a witness who heard an argument”).
  3. The Rule: Every clue must have at least two plausible interpretations, one of which points away from the real solution. The group can briefly discuss the potential interpretations for each clue.
• Best for: Plotting mysteries, developing misdirection, and complex problem-solving.

Use one of the puzzling crimes below, or create your own:

• A famous magician is found dead inside his “inescapable” water tank, but the tank is completely dry.
• A reclusive billionaire is found stabbed to death inside his panic room, which is bolted from the inside.
• A lighthouse keeper is found dead at the top of the lighthouse, with all doors and windows locked from within.
• An archaeologist is found dead inside a newly-discovered, sealed ancient tomb, with no sign of how a killer could have entered or exited.
• An infamous treasure hunter is found dead in his study during a category 4 hurricane, but the cause of death is drowning.
• The crown jewels are stolen from a tower, but all guards are accounted for and the single door was never unlocked.
• A priceless painting is stolen from a museum wall and replaced with a perfect forgery, all in the ninety seconds between guard patrols.
• The only copy of a revolutionary new software formula is stolen from a secure server, leaving no record of a digital breach.
• A trained killer whale vanishes overnight from its secure, million-gallon tank at a marine park.
• A rare, poisonous orchid is stolen from a locked, climate-controlled greenhouse, leaving a single, unidentifiable feather behind.
• A famous chef known for his extreme poison immunity dies after eating his own signature dish.
• A conspiracy theorist who claimed to have proof of aliens vanishes from a moving train, leaving only a strange metallic dust behind.
• A world-champion chess player is found dead in the middle of a tournament, the victim of a checkmate on the board in front of them.
• An agoraphobic man, who hasn’t left his high-security apartment in 20 years, is found dead on a public monument miles from his home.
• The lead actor in a play is poisoned on stage by drinking from a prop bottle, but the bottle is later tested and found to be harmless.
• The power grid for a major city is shut down, and the only clue is a cryptic riddle sent to the CEO of the power company.
• A brilliant scientist’s life’s work is destroyed in a lab fire, but the only thing left untouched is a single, unscorched photograph of his rival.
• The Royal Alchemist is found turned to solid gold in his locked-from-the-inside laboratory.
• The captain of a starship on a long journey is found dead on the bridge; the ship’s log has been erased for the past 24 hours.
• A time traveler is murdered, but the murder weapon is a common object that won’t be invented for another fifty years.
• In a city of superheroes, the one hero who is famously invulnerable is found murdered.
• A famous oracle is murdered, and the main clue is her own written prediction of the crime, which names an impossible culprit.
• An anonymous philanthropist who was scheduled to reveal their identity at a charity gala is found dead just before going on stage.
• A deep-sea explorer’s high-tech submersible surfaces on schedule, but the pilot is gone, and the unbreakable hatch is fused shut from the outside.
• Every clock in a jewelry store simultaneously stops at the exact moment the owner is killed in the back room.