Puzzle books
Twenty paperbacks, printed by Amazon. Two lines of them: picture and number puzzles under the name Marlow Quill, and murder-mystery logic grids under E. V. Marchmont.
What every book in this list promises. Each puzzle has exactly one solution, and each one can be finished by reasoning alone — there is never a point where the only way forward is to guess and see. That is not a slogan; it is how the puzzles were selected. A program solves each candidate using only logical steps, and any puzzle it cannot finish that way is thrown out rather than printed. Afterwards a second program, written separately and sharing no code with the first, re-derives every clue from the printed answer and counts the solutions again.
The puzzles are computer-generated. That is stated on the copyright page of every book, and declared to Amazon.
Marlow Quill — picture, number and word puzzles
Published as Quill & Grid Press. Nonograms (also called hanjie or picross) use the numbers along each row and column to tell you which squares to fill in; the filled squares make a picture. Kakuro is a crossword done with digits, where each run of squares has to add up to its clue with no digit repeated. The mazes and word searches are in this line too.
Nonogram Puzzles: From Beginner to Master $11.99
150 picture logic puzzles from 5×5 up to 20×20, in six levels from Warm-Up to Master, with a worked example and an illustrated answer for every puzzle.
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Large Print Nonograms $12.99
100 all-new nonograms at a bigger cell size, in four levels, one puzzle per page, printed as large as the page allows. No puzzle is shared with Nonogram Puzzles.
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Travel-Size Nonograms $9.99
80 pocket-sized nonograms in four levels, up to 15×15, in a book that fits a bag.
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Nonogram Puzzles Volume 2: From Beginner to Master $11.99
150 more picture logic puzzles in the same six levels. Every grid is new — no puzzle is repeated from Volume 1.
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Big Grid Nonograms $12.99
70 large nonograms, 20×20 to 25×25, one per page, in two levels: Hard and Master. For solvers who want a long sitting rather than a quick one.
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Kakuro Puzzles: From Beginner to Master $11.99
150 cross-sums puzzles from 6×6 to 12×12, in six levels, with a step-by-step worked solve and a full answer grid for each one.
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Mazes for Adults: From Easy to Extreme $9.99
100 mazes in six levels, one per page, printed as large as the page allows. Every maze has exactly one route from entrance to exit.
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Word Search Puzzles $9.99
100 themed puzzles on 15×15 grids, 20 words each, one puzzle per page, with the solutions at the back.
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Large Print Word Search $9.99
100 themed puzzles at a bigger letter size on 15×15 grids, 20 words each, one per page, with the solutions at the back.
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Nonogram Puzzles Volume 3: From Beginner to Master $11.99
150 more picture logic puzzles in the same six levels, drawn from an all-new art pack. No grid is repeated from Volumes 1 or 2.
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Kakuro Puzzles Volume 2: 150 More Cross-Sums Puzzles $11.99
150 new cross-sums puzzles from 6×6 to 12×12 in six levels, with a worked solve and a full answer grid for each one.
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Sudoku Variants: 120 Puzzles Beyond Classic $10.99
120 puzzles in six variants — Killer, Sandwich, Thermo, Arrow, Anti-Knight and Diagonal — each with its own rules page and worked example.
Buy on Amazon →E. V. Marchmont — The Armchair Detective Logic Puzzles
Logic-grid mysteries. You are given a short case and a list of clues, and you work out who did what, where and when by ticking and crossing a grid. Every clue in every case is true of the printed answer, and no clue is filler — take any single one away and a second answer becomes possible.
Murder at the Manor $14.99
Book 1. 45 logic-grid cases in three tiers — Warm-Up, Investigation, Cold Case. Each case gives you the story and the clues on one page, the grid on the next, and later the answer table, the filled grid and the reasoning written out step by step.
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Murder on the Crossing $14.99
Book 2. 45 new cases aboard an ocean liner, same three tiers and the same worked-out solutions. Every case is new — no puzzle is repeated from another volume.
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Murder at Midwinter $14.99
Book 3. 45 cases in a country house cut off by snow, in the same three tiers.
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Murder on the Night Express $14.99
Book 4. 45 cases aboard an overnight sleeper train, in the same three tiers.
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Murder at the Grand Hotel $14.99
Book 5. 45 cases in a grand hotel and its grounds, in the same three tiers.
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Murder at the Playhouse $14.99
Book 6. 45 cases in a working theatre, from the stage door to the flies, in the same three tiers.
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Murder at the Manor House Fete $14.99
Book 7. 45 cases at a summer fete on the manor lawn, in the same three tiers.
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Murder at the Winter Ball $14.99
Book 8. 45 cases at a winter ball, in the same three tiers.
Buy on Amazon →Where to buy
These are printed books, so they are sold on Amazon rather than here — Amazon prints and ships each copy. The links above go straight to each book's Amazon page. There is no Kindle edition: the puzzles are laid out for paper, and the grids do not survive a reflowable screen.
Print-at-home PDFs
Nine of the books are also sold as PDFs to print yourself, as an instant download on Etsy — and the six mysteries come as one file too. The mystery pages are printed a fifth larger than the paperback's, so the grids have more room for a pencil. Print one puzzle or the whole book, as often as you like for yourself and your household.
- Nonogram Puzzles: From Beginner to Master — PDF, US Letter
- Kakuro Puzzles: From Beginner to Master — PDF, US Letter
- Mazes for Adults: From Easy to Extreme — PDF, US Letter
- Murder at the Manor — PDF, US Letter
- Murder on the Crossing — PDF, US Letter
- Murder at Midwinter — PDF, US Letter
- Murder on the Night Express — PDF, US Letter
- Murder at the Grand Hotel — PDF, US Letter
- Murder at the Playhouse — PDF, US Letter
- All six Armchair Detective volumes in one PDF — 270 cases, 856 pages
- The Armchair Detective Case File — a print-at-home escape room: nine puzzles, one safe code, 39 pages
- The Armchair Detective Starter Case — the short one: three puzzles, a three-letter lock, 16 pages
- The Armchair Detective Halloween Case — a Halloween escape room: six puzzles, a six-letter lock, 28 pages
- The Armchair Detective Christmas Case — a Christmas escape room: six puzzles, a six-letter lock, 28 pages
Try one free
The Armchair Detective Starter Case — three puzzles, a three-letter lock, 16 pages — is free to download on Gumroad. Pay what you want, including nothing. If your table likes it, the Halloween and Christmas cases are the same idea at twice the size.
Free printable samples
Want to try before you buy? Free printable pages from six of the books, answers included.
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