As a boy I fell in love with Whodunnits - mystery stories that weave subtle clues into the plot that allow the reader to solve the crime alongside the story’s protagonist (usually a brilliant detective). Novel-length whodunnits are still alive and well, but many of us would prefer more bite-sized mysteries, which are surprisingly hard to come by. In the 90’s Salon published a regular series called 5 Minute Mystery but it was eventually discontinued. Now entrepreneur Randy Okane is trying to bring the format back to life at his site 5MinuteMystery.com.
Every day the site posts a new mystery, followed by the solution the next day. At the end of the story is a menu asking who the reader thinks committed the crime. Users are also asked to highlight up to four statements in each story, indicating if they either Exonerate or Incriminate one of story’s characters. To help spice things up, the site keeps score for every member based on their accuracy, with the most ingenious detectives featured on the site’s leaderboard.
Unlike many mystery stories, which tend to be gruesome, 5MinuteMystery is being written to appeal to a younger audience. Crimes are gore-free, and tend to be written at an accessible reading level. The site charges $20 a year for a daily subscription, and offers a program for schools and charities who receive 50% of all subscriptions sold through their fundraising efforts. Prospective authors can also submit their own stories and will be paid if their stories are published.
While many of these stories tend to require ridiculous leaps of logic and assumptions, they’re fun nonetheless. Provided the site can ensure a steady flow of quality material, the site’s focus on logic and reading comprehension could help it become a hit at schools nationwide.
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i was a big fan of encyclopedia brown series. i pretty much read all their books.
I used to read Encyclopedia Brown and Hardy Boys all the time. Also Boys’ Life used to have mysteries sometimes.
I don’t know if this was the point you were making or if you were just sharing a childhood anecdote but for the record Donald J. Sobol (author of Encyclopedia Brown) started this whole trend with his “2-Minute Mysteries” which were pre-cursors to the Encyclopedia Brown series (published in ‘59 I believe)
Sobol really is a giant in my opinion. Not only did he write the best children’s book when I was a kid but he’s amazingly still kicking ‘em out (latest Encyclopedia Brown book was published last year by an 83 year old Mr. Sobol)
They really should have some sort of free or demo version in addition to the subscription.
I think you can read a few of the stories for free, but you need to sign up to view the solutions.
which is clever marketing, but I still think its kinda cheap to not let me do at least 1 full mystery for free.
it was colonel musterd, in the pooper, with the candlestick.
what was the question?
Hokey internet fun + free = awesome
Hokey internet fun + paid subscription = fail.
I loved Sherlock Holmes mysteries as a kid. Time to get back into it - once I have more time again …
I hadn’t even finished the first paragraph before i was on the website, trying to rekindle my love for detective stories, but just as i was about to sign up, i saw the dreaded payment information.
I would definitly not mind to pay a measly $20 a year for something i am genuinly interested in, but i’m not sure that this is actually worth it. It is quite fun from what i can gather on the website, but as a student and part time worker, i’ve got very little time on my hands and this kind of stuff would be fun to delve in once in a while; however it’s not to the standard of quality that i’d enjoy it to the degree of forking out money for it.
I bought a Poirot and Three Investigators (my prime detective story source as a kid) omnibus collections for about $23 which will probably serve me far better than a subscription currently would.
Let me know if it ever comes available for free.
Something about their logo just doesn’t look right. The letters are kerned too tightly and It kind of looks like Sherlock has a giant earlobe.
Sounded cool until I saw I had to pay for it.
what was the answer to the Riddle of the Confederate Spy?
When I read it first, I thought - yessssssss, brilliant
then I visited the site, and having spent a minute browsing - i’m really thinking, no… the design isn’t good, and we really need to be able to try this out properly for free, in order to reel in potential addicts (because that’s what you need!)…
I was really thinking a demonstration of the event timeline (maybe using flash or AJAX) would have been far more interesting than just reading text, so each event is presented to the user as a story… I know it’s a lot more work, but that’s what ya gotta do to stand out..
The night was moist…. [no] The night was humid… [nope]
The night was sleepy, and death was lurking around with his iPhone… [hmm, this has potential!! Quick, call my agent]
My guess for confederate spy is Parker:
1) Arriving first allows him to put the dynamite at the bridge without anyone noticing.
2) Sleeping behind a rock means he’s not able to be seen by everyone so he can sneak away to light it when necessary
3) Maryland is where the Confederates are, Parker is from West Virginia (not as far as the other soldiers)
i say parker too. he knows who the confederate president is, he says that the dynamite was under the bridge when the sargeant just said it was “on” the bridge, he doesn’t have a good reason for sleeping where others can’t see him, and his job back home makes no sense - a receiving house is a theater for traveling theatre companies. i don’t know why there’d be ships there, especially in west virginia.
Oh my god, what a flashback — I was the designer on Salon Games and had somehow completely forgotten about 5 Minute Mystery! Those little navigation “cards” might be one my favorite things I ever did, and were my very first mouseover, as I recall. Man, that was a long time ago. Thanks for the walk down memory lane …
Let’s help raise a generation of brilliant criminals
I’ve been selling “5 Minute Mysteries for years” in MP3 format.
Check out the first link on this page:
http://www.oldradiofun.com/catindex.asp?Cat=DE
Maybe that is where they get some of the stories? Not sure….