I can’t think of a better way to close out BOOKSPO Season 3 than with a visit with novelist and literary podcast queen, Bianca Marais, whose new novel, A MOST PUZZLING MURDER, is a book she wrote to prove that it was possible to write a locked room mystery by the seat of one’s pants. Possible, which isn’t to say that it was EASY, and Marais made her task even more complicated by packing her novel with puzzles and riddles, and even a CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE element!
In our conversation, Marais talks about wanting to bring her readers deep into the narrative, and have them scribbling in the margins to crack the code. We talk about how writing a novel is like a puzzle anyway, and how she keeps breaking out of the confines of genre and marketing to write a different kind of book every time. And it’s true that A MOST PUZZLING MURDER is something different altogether (complete with raccoons!)—but that those beloved CHOOSE YOUR ADVENTURE novels from our childhood were an inspiration for sure!
How do you solve a murder that hasn't happened yet?
Destiny Whip is a former child prodigy, world-renowned enigmatologist and very, very alone. A life filled with loss has made her a recluse, an existence she's content to endure until a letter arrives inviting her to interview for the position of Scruffmore family historian. Not only does an internet search for the name yield almost nothing, it's a role she never applied to in the first place!
After she decodes the invitation's hidden message with ease, the promise of her family secrets being revealed is too powerful a draw for the orphaned Destiny, who soon finds herself on Eerie Island. It's a place whose inhabitants are almost as inhospitable as the tempestuous weather. The Scruffmores themselves turn out to be not much better, a snarled mess of secrets and motives connected by their mistrust for one another.
Their newly arrived guest proves to be just as much an enigma to them as they are to her. While Destiny slowly works to unravel the mysteries hidden throughout the ominous castle, she struggles to interpret disturbing nightly visions of what is to come. In the midst of cryptic ciphers, hidden passages, and the family's magical heritage and line of succession, Destiny is certain of two things: one of the Scruffmores is going to die and she's running out of time to stop it.
Interspersed with riddles and puzzles that both Destiny and the reader must solve, A Most Puzzling Murder is a one-of-a-kind mystery that will leave you guessing and gasping until the very last page!
Bianca Marais is the author of the bestselling The Witches of Moonshyne Manor,
as well as the beloved Hum If You Don't Know the Words and If You Want to Make God Laugh, and the Audible Original, The Prynne Viper. Her latest novel, A Most Puzzling Murder, was released on the 10th of June 2025
She taught at the University of Toronto's School of Continuing Studies where she was awarded an Excellence in Teaching Award for Creative Writing.
She is the co-host of the popular podcast, The Shit No One Tells You About Writing,
which is aimed at helping emerging writers become published.
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