Author interview: Murdle creator GT Karber

The author designed the book so that adults wouldn’t feel self conscious buying it, but children wouldn’t be put off.

GT Karber: 'I don’t want to say the books are targeted at a certain age or demographic. I wrote them for adults, but in a way that kids could enjoy.'

• Murdle: Even More Killer Puzzles 
• GT Karber
• Souvenir Press,  £14.99 (May 9)

A year or so ago, a member of the Moynihan household was loudly championing a puzzle book — declaring it a stone cold classic that everyone should be reading.

The scepticism expressed by the other members of the household came up against some hard facts last Christmas.

Murdle, the puzzle book in question, outsold the Guinness Book of Records in Britain to become the best-selling book of the holiday season.

When I tracked author GT Karber down to Los Angeles, he was still surprised by the news.

“It’s still hard for me to wrap my head around, I feel when I look back on it I’ll understand it more, but it’s just been a joy.”

For the uninitiated, what is Murdle?

“It’s a collection of murder mystery logic puzzles. As a kid, I’d do any murder mystery puzzles I could find. As an adult, that changes a little.”

There are puzzles adults can do like crosswords and sudoku, newspaper puzzles, but a lot of people can forget the puzzles they did as kids.

“The logic grid design is one of those puzzles many people have encountered at one point, and Murdle was a way to make that fun again — something that could be enjoyed by people of all ages, and all levels of puzzle expertise.”

Going on the evidence close to hand, it appeals to all ages. The books’ cover design is cannily neutral — they’re not books that adults would feel self-conscious about buying, while they don’t appear off-putting to children either.

“I don’t want to say the books are targeted at a certain age or demographic,” Karber said.

“I wrote them for adults, but in a way that kids could enjoy.

“One of our touchstones when putting the book together was that it would be family-friendly — except for the murders, of course — and I always wanted to make sure it felt like something a fully grown adult could pick up and not feel ashamed about.”

I also wanted to make sure it was something accessible for children, something they could get into.

“I was in the UK recently and did some signings, and quite a few people asked me to sign books for their dads, so that idea, that this was something a family could share — that’s the part of the success of the book I’ve enjoyed the most.

“All of that said, we’re also developing a Murdle Junior, which will be more story-focused, even though it is accessible already to kids.”

There’s something particularly appealing about the old-fashioned, analogue aspect of the books, and Karber is happy that they provide an alternative to the entertainment factory most of us carry around in our pockets.

“I’ve heard people say that doing Murdle is part of their daily routine, or that they do it last thing before going to sleep, or that it helps with their anxiety, that it’s soothing for them when stressed.

“I really like that because there are so many games now on your phone, and many of those games don’t really respect you, if I can put it that way.”

“A lot of them are based on slot machines and are designed by someone trying to trick you into playing for another 10 minutes a day, into doing more micro-transactions — they show you ads between the games and so on.

“As someone who can get quite focused on such games, I wanted to create a game that might improve people’s lives rather than consuming their lives — a game that would give them some time to themselves, and a moment of joy, rather than something that’s designed to try to steal every waking moment from you for more ads or to sell you more digital currency.”

On that basis, it must be doubly gratifying to see the book embraced by different cultures, surely.

“That’s been great,” Karber adds.

“I love British mysteries, and this is like a love letter to that tradition. I’m also a huge fan of Columbo and at the core of this is an idea almost of Columbo solving Agatha Christie mysteries.

“The fact that it’s been successful in Britain and Ireland was a little shocking to me because when I write a joke, for instance, about an English village and it goes over well in Britain — that’s surprising to me. We just had it translated into French, so we’ll see where it goes then.”

Where next for Murdle? The third book is out in May, but ancillary projects are also crowding in.

I’m writing the fourth book, which is out later this year, but I’m also looking at a card game, a children’s series, a board game ... it feels like it’s taken on a life of its own.

“It’s funny, whenever I became a fan of a book series that became successful I noted that the author would take a little more time between each book, and I was always frustrated by that.

“When you’re in that position as a reader, you read each book in a series faster and faster. Now I understand why those delays occur.

“When you have a successful series you deal with so many more emails, for instance, and that time cuts directly into the time you could put into your next book.”

Looks like Murdle fans will have to add patience to their sleuthing skills.

A Murdle fan writes

I’ve never read a puzzle book that was quite as good as Murdle.

When I bought it, I was
instantly addicted, turning page after page, puzzle after puzzle.

You get this sense of satisfaction from each puzzle, as if you’re a real detective solving real crimes, without any of the real dangers, of course.

Whether it’s the funny character names or the inventive motives, there’s truly nothing not to love about the books. And all the while, as you
complete each case, there’s an underlying plot being woven right under your nose.

Stories of ancient cults and secret feuds are relayed, mysteries long unsolved waiting for your help. It is structured to be interactive, making you feel involved in all of the debacles that go down.

Deductive Logico, the witty and skilled protagonist of
the book, is an interesting character to journey through the story with, making it all the more enjoyable. All in all, Murdle is definitely worth your while.

Bridget, aged 12