by Bryn Donovan
Grisly events happen after the arrival of a hypnotist in Victorian London.
An author’s fictional villain stalks him.
Fraternity hazing goes way too far.
It always happens when he’s alone in the car.
A patient in a mental hospital encounters a malevolent ghost, but nobody believes her.
A mother’s young child may or may not be a changeling.
Swarms of insects appear in various places in a town, always followed by an untimely death.
The ghost at the movie theater wants everyone to watch one particular snippet of film.
A child’s imaginary friend starts to cause real trouble.
When putting together a slide show for a wedding or funeral, someone notices that for decades, the same man, dressed in the same fashion, has been appearing in the background of photographs taken in public places.
A politician, religious leader, or celebrity exerts mind control over the will of his or her followers.
The fairy godmother isn’t the good kind of fairy.
Right before his wedding, a man’s future in-laws try to welcome him into the family in a terrifying way.
An evil person outfits an ice cream truck for a nefarious purpose.
It’s a ghost town because long ago, all of the inhabitants abandoned it on the same night, and no one’s sure why.
From the time he was born, his family raised him in secret away from the rest of the world because of what he was.
No matter how many times she leaves the town, she always wakes up in it again.
When they drained the swamp, they found dozens of skeletons.
She gets texts from a dead loved one.
In the middle of the night, this church holds bizarre secret services.
A parent or spouse is descending into madness.
What is the dog barking at? There’s nothing there…
Always a bridesmaid, even after death.
The home security camera records something alarming.
The toddler is using words that no one taught him.
When he woke up, he found a word carved into his arm.
From the bottom of the well, a face stares up.
This is no ordinary medical trial.
The weapon is a curse to its owner.
A graffiti symbol or image appearing in various places around the city turns out to have a ghastly significance.
She receives an unexpected package from another country. The contents freak her out.
For weeks, she felt like someone was watching her. Then she found out why.
A previously unknown sea creature emerges from the deep.
Halfway through the meal, he realizes he is actually eating.
Formations in the rocky cliffs look like faces. Out of the corner of her eye, one of them moves.
He knows he’s a soldier, but doesn’t know he’s a ghost.
The hikers assumed that the name Devil’s Canyon wasn’t literal.
The dead manipulate her into taking care of their unfinished business.
It was stored in the freezer.
An evil spirit or demon causes several cases of spontaneous combustion.
She feels the hand of an invisible small child take hold of hers.
Victorian mourning jewelry incorporated hair from the deceased loved one. In this case, the dead person’s soul is attached to the hair.
It keeps happening in that one particular room in the hotel.
Nobody knows that at this site, an instance of starvation and cannibalism happened centuries ago.
Brothers who communicate only with one another in a language only they understand (cryptophasia) behave in increasingly erratic ways.
At a remote filming location, the celebrated movie director insists on increasingly real special effects.
No one is on board the ship.
The ghost of her husband’s late wife is insanely jealous of her.
In this city, always after nightfall, ordinary people begin committing shocking crimes.
He delivers pizza to what appears to be an abandoned mansion, and it turns out to be the strangest night of his life.
After what she saw, she never wants to look into a mirror again.
The minotaur is not just a myth.
The body goes missing from its coffin before they can bury it.
The plants in the greenhouse seem to have wills of their own.
It’s not actually possible to upload a soul to a computer…or is it?
A study of old gravestones leads to an unfortunate discovery.
The painting looked different the last time she viewed it.
An up-and-coming executive at a successful corporation discovers their true source of income.
Two spirits fight for the possession of a child.
They’re a classic posse in the Wild West, but the outlaw they want to bring to justice is a supernatural being.
The room had a door when she entered, but now there is no door by which to escape.
What happened in Vegas did not stay in Vegas.
The person she’s exchanging letters or emails with is much different than she’s been led to believe.
The entries in this old diary sometimes change.
It’s surprisingly difficult to tell if she’s really dead.
Turning the ghost town into a tourist destination was a terrible idea.
The doll’s eyes aren’t supposed to open when the doll is lying down.
The story he told around the campfire was more than a story.
A thief cracks the safe open and discovers something unexpected.
Sacred texts inspire a psychopath.
This B&B host seems incredibly nice.
The man she chatted with on the airplane shows up in her hotel room.
This object should’ve never been put in a museum.
After working late, he finds that he’s been locked into the office building alone.
The feeling of being watched has become almost constant.
The plastic surgeon is renowned for achieving amazing results.
The dead body in the bed was surrounded by dozens of writhing venomous snakes.
The magician’s secret goes far beyond smoke, mirrors, or sleight of hand.
She starts hearing everything, even the sound of an ant crawling across the floor.
The TV turns itself to a different channel.
The man was executed for a crime he didn’t commit.
People’s dreams come true after hearing this preacher or motivational speaker, but there’s a high price to pay.
She finds a painting in a thrift store that appears to be a portrait of her.
This person seems like his long-lost soulmate, but other people who talk about her seem to be describing a completely different person.
The spider problem is only getting worse.
It doesn’t have any eyes.
The monkeys are screeching at the zoo tonight.
This kid draws the creepiest things in crayon.
She keeps seeing a woman around town who looks exactly like a doll she owned as a child.
Random details and lines of dialogue from his nightmares show up in his everyday life.
The orphanage was the only safe place for them.
The building site has more than one freak accident.
Some people in town start loathing one another for no clear reason.
Every day, he notices that one or two small facts of his life have changed…or is he remembering things incorrectly?
The trapdoor leads to a small space where, apparently, someone’s been living all along.
Ev
er since he played the videogame, things have been off.
Why did miners abandon the mine so long ago? There’s still gold in it.
Doctors believe the parasites are a delusion.
This is the real story behind the “Bloody Mary” legend.
He predicted he would die and take everyone with him…and after his death, the disaster hit.
Who left this gift at the door, and how did they know it’s something he wanted?
At first, everyone in the theater thought it was part of the act.
Blood drips and spatters on the lilies.
The roots break through the foundation; the branches break through the walls.
The amusement park’s been abandoned for thirty years.
She can’t remember anything about her dental appointment.
His fiancé swears that he visited last night. He didn’t.
No one else remembers her friend being at the party.
He lives alone in a rural area, and the browser history on his computer is filled with websites he didn’t visit.
Both doors to the room slam shut at the same time.
One by one, the stars wink out of the sky.
He’s been isolated for decades and has lost his remaining shreds of humanity.
150 Mystery Prompts
The mystery genre is diverse, including kind-hearted amateur sleuths in adorable small-town settings, hardened private eyes with questionable morals, police procedurals, historical and literary stories, and more. Any good mystery, though, sprinkles enough clues and plausible false leads to guide the reader along in trying to solve the puzzle. This genre in particular tends to be published in series, rather than individual books, so a main character who readers can root for—or at least stay interested in—is key.
A woman asks a writer to write the story of her life. Then she goes missing.
Murder victims are found buried with some of their wordly goods, Viking style.
Three people close to the murder victim have confessed. Each of them swears they acted alone.
Notes and gifts from her “Secret Santa” at work take a strange turn.
It’s going to be a beautiful wedding at a beautiful destination, but two people in the wedding party have been murdered.
The creator of a high-tech prototype that will change an industry has gone missing.
Her parents believe her to be their biological child, but they all learn otherwise.
The dead woman’s wedding ring is found in a ditch forty miles away.
A museum conservator is restoring an old painting, and an X-ray reveals something shocking or mysterious painted or written in the layer beneath.
A sorority sister who bullied prospective pledges is found dead.
As a man researches his genealogy, he finds that ancestors from a few different generations and a few different countries made visits to the same remote place.
Someone replaced the woman’s contact lens solution with a damaging liquid.
He’s always been a faithful husband, but someone has planted false evidence of his having an affair.
A detective is hired for a high price to find a thief who stole something that doesn’t appear to have any real value.
Every unmarried lady at the ball wanted to dance with the duke, so it’s too bad he was found stabbed in the garden.
In the middle of a wilderness, someone finds an abandoned bunker with security cameras, powered by a generator.
The graves of historic figures are being robbed.
Clues to the mystery come to him in dreams, but nobody believes him.
Serial murders in cities in two different countries are very similar.
A man she didn’t know left her a valuable and unusual item in his will.
A writer researching his biography of a Golden Age movie star comes across something that makes him suspect that contrary to the official story, she was a murder victim.
The accidental death of this investigative reporter seems a little too convenient.
The murders all relate to common fears, such as public speaking, flying, and heights.
A woman wakes up with a headache and goes in to work, only to learn that she’s been missing for a month.
Writers are being murdered at the mystery writers’ convention.
The painting must have been stolen from the museum in broad daylight, but the security cameras malfunctioned and no witnesses have come forward.
Three different guests at the Air BnB died later under mysterious circumstances.
A practicing witch or voodoo priestess is accused of murder.
The murders are re-enactments of famous murders in novels or movies.
He claims to be the rich man who was lost at sea two decades ago.
The inspector’s friend is murdered while he is talking on the phone to the inspector.
A dead body is found in an unclaimed piece of luggage at the airport.
He was murdered on his honeymoon on a cruise ship, and his new, much-younger bride was the only one on board who even knew him.
A woman who didn’t know she was adopted meets her twin sister, who gives her a dire warning.
One of the pies submitted to the state fair contest was poisoned.
The report of a celebrity’s death is false, but he dies soon after.
The murder victims all have the same tailor.
Who would kill the guest of honor at their 100th birthday party?
A woman accuses a maid of stealing valuable items from the attic. Her husband secretly sold the items, not wanting to tell his wife they were in difficult financial straits.
A wife arranges a romantic “scavenger hunt” for her husband, but someone else changes a few of the clues.
The thief who steals rare books always leaves a sonnet behind.
The wrong body is in the casket at the visitation. No one knows who it is, or where the other body is.
The murders were definitely committed by a human, but resemble the attacks of wild animals.
After the woman returned the lost wallet, someone began stalking her.
The book she’s reading seems to be telling the story of her own life, though she doesn’t think she’s ever met the author.
A man who faked his own death must be found in time.
Someone in a villain costume and mask attempts to kill an actor at a fan convention. The actor is saved by a fan dressed as a superhero.
An Egyptian mummy, or what appears to be one, is found in an unlikely place.
The man is murdered following an argument with several people on social media.
A body is found in the organic vegetable garden at a hippie commune.
A woman finds notes in her apartment, in handwriting she doesn’t recognize, reminding her of errands and appointments.
An Easter egg hunt leads to a startling discovery.
Someone goes missing after a city-wide blackout.
Someone begins investigating a suspicious death while she’s on vacation, much to the annoyance of her partner or spouse.
A beauty pageant contestant is murdered, but not for a reason anyone expects.
Someone mistakes his spouse or family member for an intruder and shoots...but was it really a mistake?
The victim was seen getting onto an elevator, but nobody saw him exit it.
A tragic fire may have been started to kill just one person.
The murder victim made a video soon before she died that contains a clue to the identity of her killer.
The kidnapping was faked to cover up something else.
A priest at a church embroiled in scandal is found dead.
After her twin sister dies unexpectedly, she gets threatening notes.
Who would want to destroy his taco truck?
The mysterious attempt on the pop star’s life actually revived his career.
The murderer has offered him a challenge: correctly solve the case in one week, or become the next victim.
A woman claims that a hypnotist forced her to commit the crime.
A cop who went undercover with a biker gang is the prime suspect.
A murdered gang member turns out to be an undercover cop.
The murder of a member of the royal family leads to accusations that throw the whole country into turmoil.
Wolves at the wolf sanctuary are turning up dead.
A movie reviewer who angered many people by criticizing sexism in popular movies has disappeared.
The bride didn’t get cold feet—she was abducted on the way to her wedding.
The dead man dumped at the veterans’ cemetery was not a veteran.
The famous motivational speaker is being blackmailed by an anonymous person.
Two senators who are political rivals are found dead in the same hotel room.
A photographer obsessed with abandoned tunnels beneath Chicago—freight tunnels, cable car tunnels, and more—goes missing.
A professor is murdered by a group of his students.
Somebody poured gasoline all over the pumpkin patch and set it on fire, ruining the farm’s fall tourist season.
The railway “accident” benefitted several people in the city.
A baby is stolen from the hospital.
The symphony conductor was found murdered in an ironic fashion.
The prime murder suspect is a flighty, ditzy woman.
An ex-con tries to start a new life in a small town, but is soon suspected of a robbery.
The body of the woman found in a deep freezer matches no ID records.
Someone discovers that an abandoned warehouse or barn contains hundreds of homemade bombs and rocket-propelled grenades.
A self-proclaimed psychic and Tarot card reader is murdered.
A boy investigates the disappearance of two of his fellow students at a boarding school.
All of the bottled water in the company fridge was replaced with vodka. Who did it?
A man jumped from a cliff near the beach, hit his head on rocks, and drowned. More than one person in the village swears that they’ve seen a mermaid.