60 Mystery Riddles To Solve

Last Updated on February 16, 2024 by Michele Tripple

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Grab your magnifying glasses and detective hats, and get ready to solve the case! This list of Mystery Riddles is the perfect thing for the aspiring Sherlock Holmes.

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Riddles are always a fun activity. They boost your brain, encourage cooperation, and help you connect with your kids. 

Help your kids build their logic and critical thinking skills as they try to solve these mystery riddles! You could even create an entire imaginative play activity around a single riddle by physically recreating the scene and dressing up in costume. A perfect addition to a mystery-themed party, these riddles will leave everyone feeling like a world-class detective!
If you enjoyed these riddles, don’t forget to check out Logic Riddles and Halloween Riddles!

Mystery Riddles

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  • British Police inspect a room where there are no windows, no doors, no tables and is almost empty except there is just a puddle of water. They found a dead woman who obviously hung herself from the ceiling, but they are not able to figure out how this had happened. Sherlock and John Watson entered the crime scene and were easily able to solve the case. How did the women die? She hung herself using big Ice slabs, which are now melted and hence puddle of water.
  • Sherlock breaks into a crime scene. The victim is the owner who is slumped dead on a chair and have a bullet hole in his head. A gun lies on the floor and a cassette recorder is found on the table. On pressing the play button, Sherlock hears the message ‘I have committed sins in my life and now I offer my soul to the great Lord’ and followed a gunshot Sherlock smiles and informed the police that’s its a murder. Why did he think so? How can a dead person rewind back the tape himself?
  • A dead body is found outside a multistory multinational company. The case is reported and a homicide detective is called to the crime scene. He looks at the body and then toward the building. From the position of the body, it is evident that the victim committed suicide. He goes to the first floor of the building and then walks in the direction of the dead body, opens the window, and tosses a coin in the air. He goes to the second floor and again repeats the process. He keeps doing this till he is done on all the floors. Then he returns back to the floor and tells his team that it is a murder. How in heaven did he deduce that? He was able to deduce that after noticing that all the windows in the direction of the body on all the floors were closed. If the man had committed suicide, one window must have been left open.
  • There are five people. One of them shot and killed one of the other five. We know the following clues: 1. Dan ran in the NY City Marathon yesterday with one of the innocent men. 2. Mike consider being a farmer before he moved to the city. 3. Jeff is a top-notch computer consultant and wants to install Ben’s new computer next week. 4. The murderer had his leg amputated last month. 5. Ben met Jack for the first time six months ago. 6 .Jack has been in seclusion since the crime. 7. Dan used to drink heavily. 8. Ben and Jeff built their last computers together. 9. The murderer is Jack’s brother. They grew up together in Seattle. Consider yourself to be a famous detective “Sherlock Homles”, Can you find the killer? Jeff Killed Mike ( 1. Jack is not the murderer because he is the brother of the murderer. 2. Dan can’t be the murderer since he ran a marathon, and the murderer recently had his leg amputated, and wouldn’t be running a marathon of any magnitude that quickly. 3. Ben is not the murderer if he just met Jack since Jack and the murderer grew up together. 4. This leaves Jeff and Mike. Since Jeff is still alive (he wants to install a new computer next week, present tense) he must be the murderer. Mike also didn’t grow up with Jack. It has been determined that Jack, Dan, and Jeff are all alive. Ben must also be alive since Jeff plans to install Ben computer next week. This means that Jeff killed Mike. )
  • Tarun Asthaniya is found dead in his office at his desk. The police have narrowed the suspects down to three people: Mrs. Harish Kumar, Tarun’s wife Himanshi Asthaniya, and his business partner Mr. Jason Negi. All three visited Tarun on the day of his murder, but all three provide the police with stories of explanation as to the reason for their visit. Police found Mr. Tarun with his wristwatch still on his right arm, a torn-up picture of his wife laying on the floor beside the trash can, and an ink pen in his right hand. On the desk, the police found a nameplate, a telephone that was off the hook, and a personal calendar turned to the July 5th page with 7B91011 written on it. After examining this evidence, the police knew their suspect. Who was it? Jason Negi ( The number on the calendar was written in a hurry , police matched the written number with the months of the year. So the B was an 8, thereby giving us 7-8-9-10-11: July, August, September, October, November. Use the first letter of each month and it spells J-A-S-O-N. )
  • Cops found a dead man lying in the snow. They saw the tracks of a footprint pair in between two parallel lines a few feet away from the dead body. Who should be on the cops’ radar? A person in a wheelchair.
  • At the crime scene, the police found a cassette recorder and a gun in the dead man’s hand. After playing the cassette, they heard the man’s voice saying, “I have committed sins and have nothing to live for”, and a gunshot. Even then, the police knew it wasn’t a suicide but a murder. How? A dead man cannot rewind the recorder to play from the start.
  • A man was found dead while on his work trip to California. The suspects were Mars, Mason, Barry, Lisa, and Alex. On the calendar, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11 were written in blood. How to decode the numbers to find the killer? The numbers are those of the months whose first letters spell out ‘Mason’.
  • Alexander is stranded on an island covered in forest. One day, when the wind is blowing from the west, lightning strikes the west end of the island and sets fire to the forest. The fire is very violent, burning everything in its path, and without intervention the fire will burn the whole island, killing the man in the process. There are cliffs around the island, so he cannot jump off. How can Alexander survive the fire? (There are no buckets or any other means to put out the fire). Alexander picks up a piece of wood and lights it from the fire on the west end of the island. ( He then quickly carries it near the east end of he island and starts a new fire. The wind will cause that fire to burn out the eastern end and he can then shelter in the burnt area. Alexander survives the fire, but dies of starvation, with all the food in the forest burnt. )
  • A dead body is seen outside a four-story building. The detective ran up the first floor and checked the window. Continued the same process for the second, third, and fourth too. When he came down, he said it wasn’t a suicide but a murder. How? All the windows were closed except the third floor, and a dead man will never be able to close the window.
  • A killer gives his victims 2 pills to play a game. One of the pills is a vitamin pill, and the other is deadly. The victims choose one pill and gulp it down with a glass of water, and the killer swallows the other at random, and still every one of the victims dies. How? The water is poisoned.
  • A man invited his friend for dinner, and they both had a gala over mashed potatoes and chicken nuggets. For dessert, he cut an apple in half and gave one to the man, and he ate the same apple’s other half. How did his friend die? Only one side of the knife was poisoned.
  • A Japanese boat was stuck in the water because of the storm, and after the storm, the captain was found dead. The engineer was busy fixing the signals, the cook was managing the wine barrels, the wife went to the room, and the maid was fixing the upside-down turned flag. Who killed the captain? The maid. A Japanese flag is the same from all sides, with a red dot in the center of a white background.
  • The geography teacher was found dead on the very first day of their school. The gardener was busy fixing the new saplings, the science teacher was taking a mid-semester test, the coach was playing basketball, and the principal was in the office. Who killed the geography teacher? The science teacher. He cannot conduct a mid-year test on the first day of school.
  • A chemist was killed in his own lab. The crime scene had no evidence to be found except a piece of paper with the names of chemical substances Nickle, Carbon, Oxygen, Lanthanum, and Sulphur on it. On the day of his murder, he had only 3 visitors; his nephew Nicolas, his wife, Martha, and his friend John. Who was the killer? Combine the symbols of the chemical substances to get a name, Ni-C-O-La-S.
  • A man was hanged through the ceiling in his own apartment. There was nothing except a small puddle of water in the room. No chair or a table or even a bed for him to climb up and hang himself. How did he manage to do so? The man was standing on a huge ice block, hence the puddle of water.
  • Melissa was killed on a Sunday morning. Her roommates gave the following testimonials: Agnes was getting the mail, Angela was doing laundry, Maggie was cooking, Carl was planting in the garden. Who killed Melissa and how did the police know who to arrest? Agnes killed Melissa as no mail is delivered on Sunday.
  • A man drank the punch at a party and left quite early. Others who drank the punch died because of poisoning. Why didn’t the man die? The poison was in the ice, and the man drank the punch when the ice hadn’t melted.
  • Man killed his wife, and even though people watched him do so, no one could accuse him of the murder of his wife. Why? The man’s job was of an executioner, and his wife received the death penalty.
  • Two friends have gone on a trip, but only friend A returns and says that friend B fell into the valley while trekking. The police came and arrested friend A a week later and said he’d murdered friend B. How did they know? The travel agent mentioned that friend A had booked only one return ticket before the trip.
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  • A man shot his wife and held her underwater for three whole minutes. Later that night, they both had a delicious dinner together. How is this possible? The man shot the woman with the camera!
  • A girl was at her mother’s funeral, where she met an interesting man and fell for him right away. Before they could exchange numbers, he was nowhere to be seen. She didn’t even know his name. Later the police arrested her for killing her older brother. Why did she kill him? She hoped the man would show up for her brother’s funeral too!
  • The prisoner was locked up in a room with a dirt floor. The room has one window, which is high up above the prisoner’s height. The prisoner had a shovel, but he had only 2 days to get out, and digging would take him more than 5. How would he escape? He would use the shovel to make a pile of dirt to climb up to the window and jump out.
  • A man goes to sleep after an exhausting, long day of work. He turns off all the lights and falls asleep within a few seconds. Waking up, he finds that he has killed 100 sailors. He does not sleepwalk and has slept all night without waking up even once. How is this possible? He was a lighthouse operator.
  • A man was writing a letter during a lightning storm in his cabin and died suddenly. How did he die? The cabin was on a ship.
  • The woman watched a guy being murdered. She cries but does nothing to save him. Why? She is watching a TV series!
  • Someone used a sharp item to kill Robert; his friends clarified they couldn’t have killed Robert as they only had a music player, a water bottle, and some papers with them. How did the detective find out they were lying? One friend had put a piece of broken ice in the water bottle, which melted after Robert was killed.
  • A woman who came back from a hiking trip announced that her husband died by accidentally falling off the cliff. The detective identified that the woman was lying after speaking to the travel agent. How did the detective find that the woman was lying? The woman had booked only a one-way ticket for her husband.
  • A detective informed his wife that he would return home by 8:30, and he came home by 8:30. Why did the detective’s wife still get angry with him? The detective returned home at 8:30 am instead of 8:30 pm the previous night.
  • Three men were swimming in the ocean. The ocean guard called them to stay away from water during high tides. He saw that only two men’s hair was wet. What happened to the third man? The third man was bald.
  • A man kept crossing the border every day with bags of sand. Cops suspected the man was smuggling illegal goods into the country. The detective couldn’t find anything upon checking the bags, yet he got arrested; why? The man was smuggling motorbikes.
  • One woman was not punished by the court despite her sister claiming and showing ample proof that she murdered her husband. Why was the woman not jailed? Both women were Siamese twins.
  • A murderer informed police that he would kill someone in the only place from where one couldn’t see the Eiffel tower. How did the police catch him? Police caught the killer inside the Eiffel tower.
  • On a winter morning, a man was found standing in someone’s front yard. This man stood there for several weeks without moving; however, the yard owner didn’t mind at all. Eventually, the man disappeared. Who was he? Snowman
  • A woman shot her husband, then held him underwater for about five minutes. Both of them go out and eat a wonderful dinner together in a while. How is this possible? The woman shot her husband using a camera and later developed the photo
  • Every single person died in a plane crash. However, who survived? Married Couples
  • I only live when there is light; however, I die if light shines on me. Identify me? Shadow
  • What has hands but cannot clap? Clock
  • One night, a woman was sitting inside a house with no light; she did not even have a lamp or candle, nothing at all. Yet how was she reading? This woman was reading braille as she’s blind
  • hat two things can one never eat for breakfast? Lunch and dinner
Magnifying glass with blue colored glass and gray handle, blue border with mystery riddle and answer.
  • Why did Micky Mouse go to outer space? He wanted to visit Pluto
  • What would a baseball glove say to a ball? Catch you later
  • You can serve it but never eat it? Identify it. Tennis ball
  • What is that? One can catch but not throw? Cold
  • They come out at night without being called; however they get lost in the day without being stolen. What are they? Stars
  • A man is found dead one Sunday morning. He got killed while his wife was asleep. The wife told the cops all that she knew. She told them that the cook was busy preparing breakfast, her maid was cleaning, and the butler was getting the mail. Cops arrested the killer t responsible. Who is responsible and why? The wife, as she was sleeping, otherwise she wouldn’t know all the other details.
  • Identify me. I have cities without houses. There are mountains, but no trees. There is water but no fish.  A map
  • A woman was found hanging in the bedroom 10 feet above the floor. There was nothing else noticeable in the room beside a big puddle of water on the floor. Cops couldn’t see anything that the woman would use to climb onto, for hanging herself. How did she commit suicide? The woman stood on a huge block of ice. She then placed the noose on her neck. She died once the ice melted. In the end, just the puddle of water remained.
  • I can fly without wings. I don’t have eyes, but I can cry. Darkness does follow me where I go. What am I? Cloud
  • I am all about but cannot be seen. I can be captured but cannot be held. I don’t have a throat, but it can be heard. What am I? Wind
  • I don’t have flesh, feathers, scales, or bone. Yet I do have fingers and thumbs of my own. What am I? Gloves
  • On the first day of school, a little girl was murdered. Cops suspected four male teachers and questioned them. They were asked what they were doing at 8:30 am. Mr. Alex: I was driving to school, and I was late. Mr. Garry: I was checking English exam papers. Mr. Kevin: I was reading the newspaper. Mr. Smith: I was with my wife in my office. Cops arrested the killer. How did they find the murderer? Mr. Garry, as he couldn’t be checking exam papers on the first day of school.
  • What is so delicate that saying its name breaks it? Silence
  • I am at the beginning of the end & at the start of eternity, I am at the end of time and space, in the middle of yesterday, but nowhere in tomorrow. What am I? The letter ‘e.’
  • If I have it, then I don’t share it. If I share it, then I don’t have it. What is it? Secret
  • What is it that can run but never walk, has a mouth but can never talk, has a head but can never weep, has a bed but can never sleep? A river
  • What gets wetter and wetter the more it dries? A towel.
  • You have drawn a line. How can you make the line longer without touching it? You draw a shorter line next to it, and it becomes the longer line
  • When you are running in a race and pass the person in second place, what place are you in? Second place
  • What needs an answer but doesn’t ask a question? Telephone.
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Do you have other favorite mystery riddles? Share them in the comments so that we can try and solve them!

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