Seeking recommendations for contemporary and recent (post-2020) upper-MG mystery novels that include ciphers / puzzles / finding missing people / solving cases. I'm an adult but enjoy the Ruby Redfort series / Codebusters / The Mysterious Benedict Society / Murdle. Thanks!
EDIT: Preferably not sci-fi or ghosts!
Middle-grade mystery novel about a missing principal - 1st draft now complete (40k words). Does this intro adequately pull you into the story, and if not, what is missing?
I hope so, because I'm writing one...
Not talking about Choose Your Own Adventure. I'm talking about a legit full-length novel with 10-12 in-story puzzles scattered throughout the book. E.g. the protagonist comes across a locked door and from the clues given on the pages, the reader has to work out the door code. Or the protagonist finds a cipher puzzle, and the reader is asked to put themselves in the protagonist's shoes to decode it. (Hints and solutions at the back of the book).
My story is for middle-grade, but the concept could work for any age. I've done quite a bit of research/reading and haven't found anything quite like it yet. Books like Journal 29 have lots of puzzles but minimal story. Mystery books like the Ruby Redfort series sometimes include cipher codes but don't directly ask the reader to help solve them. My conclusion is that either a) I have a brilliant and creative mind that conceives original concepts no other writer has ever thought of, or b) the concept is not marketable... Which is it?
[Not here for validation - my book is almost written anyway. Genuinely curious about what is marketable in the industry and why.]
Niche question, just wondering... Do people think it is acceptable to use a 1st person title for a novel written in the 3rd person, or is that a bit weird?
Specific example: I'm writing a YA book set at school and thinking of titles like "How I made my teacher cry" - however the story is told in the 3rd person. Does that matter? Anyone have examples of popular books with 1st person titles told in the 3rd person? (Not looking for feedback on my potential title, which probably won't be the final one, just wondering what people think of the concept).