Murdle creator GT Karber reacts to winning Book of the Year and shares update on future of series

Virgin Radio

15 May 2024, 14:15

Fresh from having won Book of the Year at the British Book Awards 2024, Greg T. Karber spoke to Chris Evans about the future of his murder mystery puzzle series, Murdle.

Joining the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with webuyanycar after his win at the event on Monday (13th May), Greg said: “Everybody was so glam and sophisticated and then they gave me the award. I don't know, it seems like a mistake! But I didn't demand a recount or anything. I’m gonna stand by the results!” 

He added: “We were the Waterstones gift of the year in December. And I thought that was the greatest thing. And then to win not only Book of the Year in our category, but then overall, which in a million years, I couldn't have imagined.” 

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The mini-mystery puzzles within the Murdle books challenge you to find whodunit, how, where and why. It presents clues so readers can use the power of deduction to complete the grid and catch the culprit. Explaining the origins of Murdle, Greg said: “This whole thing happened when I was making a puzzle for a friend. It had some ridiculous title. It was deductive logic codes, multifaceted murder mysteries. They went on and on and on. And I had spent a couple of months kind of refining it and working on it. And then everybody started making Wordle-like games, you know, daily puzzles. And it occurred to me like, ‘Oh, I can make this a daily thing. And that would be a great title. And then it's sort of caught on.” 

Having worked as a computer programmer, Greg said: “I was able to create a little programme that could generate them over and over again. And that's what I was able to put online at murdle.com, where people can play one every day. And because that was able to be created, my now agent reached out to me and said, ‘I think I could sell this as a book.’

“If someone calls you and says, ‘I'm going to sell a book for you,’ I was very suspicious. I immediately Googled, is she a scam? But she wasn't!”

With the latest book, Murdle: Even More Killer Puzzles, out now, G.T. spoke to Chris about the future of the series, saying: “All I know, right now, is the things that we already have in place. So, I've just written a children's version of it. Murdle Junior. Finally, murder for children! That's the pitch. I want everyone to hear that.” 

He added: “It's mostly the same, but the puzzles are a little simpler, and there's not so much information on every page and also there's fewer murders! I mean, I said murder for children, but there's not going to be a murder every page!” 

The author continued: “There's at least going to be three more of the adult line Murdles,  least because the next one's coming out this fall.” 

When asked whether the Murdle world could lend itself to something like a movie, its creator said: “It's interesting, I think that you could definitely be inspired by some of them. And I think that in the books, each one of the books has an overarching storyline that you go through, where they uncover some deeper mystery behind them all. And I definitely think that it's a rich world, or at least I've tried to make it one.” 

Speaking about the benefits of such puzzles, G.T. said: “With the mystery. I think there's a lot of reevaluation of what you take to be commonplace. You know, you see some story, some scene is presented, you think you understand it, and later on, you learn that you didn't really understand it at all. And I feel like it's a great lesson. Mysteries teach us that maybe things aren't as they seem. And also not only are maybe things not as we seem, but maybe we could figure out how things really are if we applied ourselves.” 

Murdle: Even More Killer Puzzles is out now. 

For more great interviews listen to The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with webuyanycar weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here.