Games like Murdle: what to play when the case is closed

Murdle hands you suspects, weapons and places, and a grid to work out whodunit. If the best part for you is the moment the grid clicks, here are six more puzzles with that feeling, starting with one you can try right here.

What makes Murdle work

G. T. Karber's Murdle, at murdle.com and in a series of books, is a logic grid puzzle in a detective's coat. Each case asks who did it, how, where and sometimes why, and the clues let you cross off pairings until only one story fits. The mystery is the wrapping. Underneath is classic deduction: every answer follows from the clues, and nothing is luck.

So a good game like Murdle doesn't need a murder. It needs clues you can trust, a grid that rewards careful elimination, and a satisfying click at the end. The six below all have that, and they differ in how much story comes with it, how much you read, and when you can play.

Six puzzles to play next

1. Hence: the same deduction, in pictures

Hence is a daily logic puzzle where every clue is a small picture. Tiles stacked together share a column, tiles side by side are about position, and a red ✕ flips a clue into its opposite. There's no murder and almost nothing to read: you rule pictures out until each one has a single place left. Each day brings a quick 4x4 and a bigger 6x6, the same for everyone, and they get harder from Monday to Sunday.

2. Clues by Sam

A free daily deduction puzzle in the browser. Twenty people sit in a 4x5 grid, and you work out who is criminal and who is innocent from written clues, which unlock more clues as you go. Like Murdle, it never asks you to guess. The puzzles get harder through the week. If you'd like more like it, see games like Clues by Sam.

3. mystery-o-matic

The closest in spirit to Murdle's whodunit: a free daily mansion murder where you work out the killer, the weapon and the time from statements, physical evidence and who moved where. You can pick an easier mode where everyone tells the truth, or a harder one where the killer may lie. Expect to read the most here.

4. Puzzle Baron's Logic Puzzles

If what you love is the grid itself, this is the deep end: a huge archive of classic logic grid puzzles, free to play in the browser with ads, or printed out to solve with a pencil. No story, just categories and clues. Good for a long session rather than a daily ritual.

5. The Murdle books

More Murdle is the obvious answer when the daily case is done. Karber's books collect cases with the same suspects, weapons, places and grids, so you can solve as many as you like in one sitting.

6. Murdoku

Manuel Garand's Murdoku books mix sudoku-style grids with short murder mysteries, set in illustrated rooms where you work out where each suspect was. A good pick if you like a puzzle you can see, and a natural pairing with Hence's picture clues.

Which one should you pick?

• You want a daily habit: Hence, Clues by Sam and mystery-o-matic all have one shared puzzle a day.
• You want the story: mystery-o-matic, or the Murdle books.
• You want the logic with less reading: Hence. The clues are pictures, so you spend your time deducing instead of parsing sentences.
• You want something to print: Puzzle Baron, or either book series.

New to grid deduction, or want to get faster? How to solve logic puzzles walks through six techniques, and Einstein's riddle is the famous one that started many people on these.