Literary puzzles to lose yourself in

Post date: 2020-03-26 16:58:51

I just devoured the audiobook of Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia and now I want more books with slowly unwinding mystery games and puzzles at their core. What else would scratch this itch? Other specific things I liked in this book and questions about mystery as a genre inside.

Things I loved about Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts:
-Mystery solved completely by ordinary people, no law enforcement or professional detective presence
-That Tuesday's career in development and donor prospecting was such a key element of her solving all the puzzles--ordinary office professionals never get to be mystery heroes!
-That the madcap, puzzle-solving elements and the book's more serious undertones co-existed so well.
-The shifting point of view.

I loved The Westing Game as a kid and that seems like an obvious influence on Tuesday Mooney, but I've never been a big mystery reader as an adult. I know that there are subgenres within mystery--do any of them encompass the sort of puzzle structure I'm after, or is that something I need to find in non-genre fiction? Are there specific authors or titles you recommend in any genre, or at least keywords I can search for? Right now the only good descriptor I can think of for what I'm after is "The Westing Game for grown-ups."

Hard pass on any book that glorifies law enforcement or has graphic murder or sexual violence on-page. Extra points for realistic city settings and authors who aren't cis white men.

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