Antony Johnston’s “Can You Solve the Murder?” represents a bold and surprisingly successful experiment in reviving the interactive fiction format for adult audiences. After decades of Choose Your Own Adventure books gathering dust in library storage rooms, Johnston has crafted something genuinely fresh: a murder mystery that places the reader squarely in the detective’s shoes, complete with the responsibility of solving the crime through careful observation, note-taking, and strategic decision-making.
The premise is elegantly simple yet brilliantly executed. At Elysium, a wellness retreat housed in a crumbling English manor, businessman Harry Kennedy is found dead with a gardening fork embedded in his chest and a red rose placed symbolically in his mouth. As the investigating detective, you must navigate through 200 numbered sections, making crucial choices about which suspects to interview, which clues to pursue, and ultimately, whom to accuse.
The Crime Scene: Setting and Atmosphere
Johnston’s choice of setting proves inspired. Elysium wellness retreat, with its floral therapy sessions, corollic yoga, and angiospermal homeopathy, provides the perfect backdrop for both dark comedy and genuine menace. The author’s background in video game writing shines through in his world-building—every detail feels purposeful, from the polytunnel greenhouses to the crumbling manor’s architectural decay.
The atmosphere Johnston creates is reminiscent of classic British crime fiction, with echoes of Agatha Christie’s country house mysteries, but updated with contemporary cynicism about wellness culture and self-help gurus. The juxtaposition of new-age pretensions against old-world decay creates a compelling tension that permeates every page.
The Suspects: A Gallery of Modern Archetypes
The character roster demonstrates Johnston’s keen understanding of contemporary social types. Each suspect embodies recognizable modern archetypes while avoiding simple caricature:
- Flora Kennedy, the wronged wife seeking divorce, represents traditional motives updated for modern circumstances
- Carla Nesbitt, the MP with a secret past, embodies political hypocrisy and hidden vulnerability
- Tank Destroyer (born Tank Destroyer—a detail that perfectly captures millennial tech culture), the startup mogul with anger management issues
- Alina Martinescu, the Romanian massage therapist harboring family secrets
- Jennifer Watts, the receptionist caught between professional duties and personal boundaries
- Stephen Cheong, the manager desperately trying to maintain his “unique brand promise”
Each character feels authentic rather than constructed, with believable motivations that extend beyond simple murder motives. Johnston’s characterization never feels rushed despite the format’s constraints.
The Interactive Mechanism: Innovation Within Tradition
The book’s greatest achievement lies in how successfully it adapts the interactive format to adult crime fiction. Unlike the fantasy adventures that dominated the gamebook genre’s heyday, this story requires genuine detective work. The Detective’s Notebook system, where readers must track clue numbers and evidence, transforms passive reading into active investigation.
Johnston has clearly learned from decades of interactive fiction, implementing quality-of-life improvements that earlier books lacked. The clue number system prevents readers from stumbling into solutions without proper groundwork, while the scoring mechanism rewards thorough investigation and penalizes lazy shortcuts.
The branching narrative structure serves the mystery genre particularly well. Different paths through the story reveal different aspects of the crime, encouraging multiple readings to uncover all the layers Johnston has embedded. Some clues only become apparent when approaching the case from different angles, creating a genuinely replayable experience.
Writing Style: Crisp Prose Meets Clever Structure
Johnston’s prose strikes an excellent balance between accessibility and sophistication. His writing is crisp and economical—necessary given the format’s constraints—but never feels rushed or underdeveloped. The dialogue crackles with authenticity, particularly in the interactions between the detective and Sergeant McAdam, whose Northern directness provides both comic relief and investigative insight.
The author’s experience with graphic novels and video games serves him well here. He understands how to convey maximum information with minimal words, creating vivid scenes and character moments without extensive description. The pacing never flags, even when readers revisit familiar sections from different narrative angles.
The Mystery Elements: Fair Play and Red Herrings
As a murder mystery, the book succeeds admirably in providing a fair-play puzzle. All the clues necessary to solve the case are present in the text, though discovering them requires careful reading and smart choices. Johnston plants red herrings skillfully without making them feel artificially misleading—each false lead springs naturally from character motivations and circumstances.
The central mystery involving Harry Kennedy’s murder is satisfyingly complex without being overly convoluted. The solution, when revealed, feels both surprising and inevitable—the hallmark of good detective fiction. The coded text messages, the missing key, the botanical symbolism—all these elements weave together into a coherent whole.
Technical Execution: The Mechanics of Choice
The book’s technical execution deserves particular praise. The section numbering system works flawlessly, with clear navigation instructions and logical branching paths. The scoring system provides genuine incentive for thorough investigation while avoiding the arbitrary difficulty spikes that plagued many classic gamebooks.
Johnston has also solved one of interactive fiction’s persistent problems: how to handle failure. Rather than leading to abrupt “game over” scenarios, wrong choices lead to logical consequences within the story world. Failed investigations result in incomplete evidence or wrongful arrests, but the story continues, allowing readers to see the consequences of their decisions.
Cultural Commentary: Wellness Culture Under the Microscope
Beneath its surface as an entertaining mystery, the book offers sharp commentary on contemporary wellness culture. The floral therapy sessions, the emphasis on “holistic healing,” and the retreat’s desperate attempts to maintain its “unique brand promise” all receive gentle but pointed satirical treatment.
Johnston’s critique never feels heavy-handed or preachy. Instead, he uses the murder mystery framework to examine how modern wellness culture can become a breeding ground for exploitation, fraud, and genuine harm. The revelation that Elysium’s manager has been buying flowers from an external nursery to maintain the illusion of organic, on-site cultivation serves as a perfect metaphor for the broader deceptions Johnston explores.
Innovation in Genre: Bridging Past and Future
“Can You Solve the Murder?” succeeds because it recognizes that interactive fiction was never really about the gimmick of choice-making—it was about agency and involvement. By placing readers in the detective’s role, Johnston creates genuine investment in the outcome. The choices matter not just for their narrative consequences but for the reader’s sense of accomplishment in solving the puzzle.
The book also demonstrates how interactive fiction can evolve beyond its primarily young adult origins. This is sophisticated entertainment that respects its readers’ intelligence while delivering the nostalgic pleasure of the format many will remember from childhood.
Comparative Analysis: Standing Among Crime Fiction Giants
While “Can You Solve the Murder?” can’t match the psychological depth of authors like Tana French or the intricate plotting of John le Carré, it succeeds admirably within its chosen constraints. The book bears favorable comparison to classic puzzle mysteries while offering something genuinely new in its interactive element.
Johnston’s previous work in the Dog Sitter Detective series demonstrated his facility with cozy mysteries, but this book shows growth in ambition and execution. The interactive format forces him to be more rigorous in his plotting—every clue must be precisely placed, every red herring carefully justified.
Minor Criticisms: Room for Improvement
Despite its many strengths, the book has minor shortcomings. Some readers may find the wellness retreat setting a bit too easy a target for satire, and certain character motivations could have been developed more fully. The interactive format, while innovative, may limit the emotional depth possible in more traditional narrative structures.
The scoring system, while generally fair, occasionally feels arbitrary in its point allocation. Some seemingly crucial clues receive fewer points than minor observational details, though this may be intentional to reward thorough investigation over obvious discoveries.
The Verdict: A Triumphant Revival
“Can You Solve the Murder?” represents a significant achievement in both crime fiction and interactive narrative. Johnston has successfully revived a dormant format for adult audiences while crafting a genuinely engaging mystery. The book works both as nostalgic entertainment for those who remember gamebooks fondly and as an introduction to interactive fiction for newcomers.
The success of this experiment suggests potential for the format’s broader revival. Interactive fiction for adults need not be limited to fantasy adventures—any genre that benefits from reader agency and involvement could find new life in this format.
Similar Books and Recommendations
Readers who enjoy “Can You Solve the Murder?” might appreciate:
Classic Interactive Fiction:
- The Warlock of Firetop Mountain by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone
- Choose Your Own Adventure series by various authors
- Lone Wolf series by Joe Dever
Modern Mystery Series:
- The Dog Sitter Detective series by Antony Johnston
- The Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman
- Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache series
Interactive Modern Fiction:
- Meanwhile by Jason Shiga
- Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (Netflix interactive film)
- The Stanley Parable (video game with similar choice-based storytelling)
Final Thoughts: A New Chapter for Interactive Fiction
“Can You Solve the Murder?” proves that interactive fiction can grow beyond its nostalgic roots to become something genuinely innovative again. Johnston has created not just a clever gimmick but a fundamentally different way of experiencing crime fiction. The book succeeds because it understands that the best interactive stories don’t just give readers choices—they make those choices meaningful.
For mystery fans seeking something genuinely different and nostalgic readers ready to revisit the format that once captured their imagination, “Can You Solve the Murder?” delivers on both fronts. It’s a book that earns its place not just as a successful experiment but as a genuine contribution to both the mystery genre and the future of interactive narrative.
The only remaining question is whether Johnston will continue to explore this format—and whether other authors will follow his lead in bringing interactive fiction into the adult literary mainstream. Based on the evidence presented in “Can You Solve the Murder?”, the future of interactive adult fiction looks promising indeed.