Mystery Story Ideas

Mystery premises sharp enough to hold a turn-based story. Use each idea as the first line of evidence and write the investigation together.

1. A funeral guest realises the body is not the person they came to bury.
2. A village bake-off ends with the judge dead and twelve identical sponges.
3. A lighthouse keeper logs a ship that arrives every night but is never there in the morning.
4. An estate sale uncovers a diary that predicts the buyer's next move.
5. The hotel's complaints book contains entries from guests who never stayed.
6. A retired detective receives birthday cards from a child she never had.
7. Town CCTV shows everyone twice except one woman.
8. A confession arrives by post, signed by the deceased.
9. A pub quiz answer sheet contains a confession.
10. Every Tuesday the same person reports the same crime.
11. A train conductor finds an empty carriage that wasn't on the manifest.
12. A library book is returned with a different ending.
13. A grandmother's last words name a murderer who hasn't killed anyone yet.
14. The bookshop owner has been quietly cataloguing the village's secrets.
15. A wedding photographer captures a guest who isn't on the list.
16. A jury foreman is being followed by another juror.
17. A vicar's sermons begin predicting parishioners' deaths.
18. A new postman delivers letters to a house that was demolished in 1982.
19. An auctioneer recognises a stolen item from his own house.
20. A village has been awarded a prize nobody nominated it for.