Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey?

Talk about a throwback! I loved the Choose Your Own Adventure series when I was a kid in the 80's and recently ran across a stack of them at a local used bookstore and of course I had to buy them. Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey was surprisingly good. The choices were well written, the clues were a little weak but on par with middle grade, and the killer was unexpected.

The Choose Your Own Adventure series offered an option every few pages to choose how the story would continue. According to your preference, you would follow its instructions by turning to the appropriate page of the book as indicated by your choice. This was a popular and revolutionary idea when the series was first launched in the early 1980s, driving it to incredible sales levels for many years until it was overshadowed by variants on the idea that took the concept to more elaborate lengths (e.g. Fighting Fantasy) and especially by other interactive media.

The plot: here's one even Agatha Christie never thought of, a murder mystery with multiple possible outcomes depending on which choices you make. The endings are pretty consistent show more about the actual solution to the murder, I guess it would have been a difficult trick to make it variable and still have all the possible stories make sense.

Observations: there is an amazing page towards the end that offers you an absolute bonanza of possible choices. I was always trying to get back to that page. This early entry in the series gets an unusual sequel in Ghost Hunter #52.

Personal memories: funny story, my parents bought me a boxed set of volumes six through ten. But this one was missing (someone reallllly wanted it, picked it out of the box and bought it individually). So the store let them substitute #13 in its place. What should have been one of the first ones I read then became one that I didn't get to until much, much later. show less

I know who killed Harlowe Thrombey (but I'm not telling).