Room Escape Artist

“Murder,” I wrote in my notebook.

Location: at home

Date Played: November 2, 2025

Team Size: none specified, we recommend 1-2

Duration: 2 hours

Price: It was free with any fieldnotesbrand.com purchase

REA Reaction

Field Notes is a stationery company that makes, among its many delightful offerings, limited edition notebooks with a vintage aesthetic that appeal to the writer in me. When I heard about their Wednesday Murder Club collaboration with The Mystery League, I purchased it immediately. It was available for just a single day, which unfortunately means it’s no longer easy to obtain.

At first glance, this notebook looked no different from other Field Notes memo books. It called itself a “48-Page Murder Book” on the cover, and the pages were printed with a dot grid. However, at the bottom of the pages were pairs of rhyming couplets that told the story of a murder. The inside back cover contained an introduction to the Wednesday Murder Club mystery, along with a list of suspects and weapons.

Despite its compact form factor, this was a surprisingly complex puzzle experience. A series of key insights were required to fully solve it. At various points, I found myself trying several different approaches before stumbling upon the next crucial aha. Solve times will vary greatly depending on how quickly each step’s insight clicks.

Overall, this was a satisfying solve. I was able to complete it solo, and its difficulty is roughly comparable to an easier puzzle from the MIT Mystery Hunt, though most Mystery Hunt puzzles tend to require significant external research.

Based on this experience, I’ll be eagerly watching for any future puzzle collaborations from Field Notes—and any new puzzle offerings from The Mystery League.

Who is this for?

• Puzzle lovers
• Stationery fans
• Best for players with at least some experience

Why play?

• Unusual form factor
• Interesting puzzle

Story

Thirty guests were invited to a gathering where the host ended up murdered.

Setup

Puzzle clues were hidden within an ordinary-looking notebook. I first needed to find, and then decode, the necessary information to obtain the final answer of who the murderer was.

Gameplay

The Mystery League’s Wednesday Murder Club was an unusual puzzle game (just a notebook) with a high level of difficulty, albeit with a relatively short, single-path solve.

The puzzles focused on observational skills, information processing ability, with a dash of inspiration (for the aha puzzles).

Analysis

➕ Field Notes memo books appeal strongly to the stationery lover in me. This one was no exception.

➕ The unusual form factor made for a refreshing puzzling experience. The puzzle info was discreetly scattered throughout the notebook – not obvious, yet not difficult to find.

➕ These puzzles were much more similar in nature to puzzle hunts, in the amount of data processing that was required, but the length was more akin to escape game boxes, so stamina-wise it would be a good way for escape game players to get a taste of what a puzzle hunt might be like.

➖ There was one step that required the player to recognize a famous author. I would technically consider this outside knowledge, which should not have been required (according to the instructions.)

❓ This notebook was only available by making a purchase from Field Notes on a specific day. This felt like an unnecessary limitation on this unique product.

❓ The uniqueness of this item meant that I had no way of knowing what level of solving difficulty to expect. It was harder than most average at-home puzzle games, but with fewer steps, which balanced out the gameplay length.

➖ Since Field Notes was hosting a contest for puzzlers to submit their solutions, no hints were available when I played this.

➕ I was happy to have this as both a lovely souvenir and a useful notebook after the puzzle solving was complete.

Tips For Players

• Space Requirements: None
• Required Gear: Although no other materials beyond the provided notebook were necessary, I found a spreadsheet quite helpful for organizing intermediate solution steps. The book stated that only the information within it should be used, but I believe one step required a bit of outside knowledge—albeit fairly common knowledge.
  

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