Channel Your Inner Sherlock With These 98 Detective Riddles

A man was found dead in his study. He was slumped over his desk and a gun was in his hand. There was a cassette recorder on his desk. When the police entered the room and pressed the play button on the tape recorder they heard: “I can’t go on. I have nothing to live for.” Then there was the sound of a gunshot. How did the detective immediately know that the man had been murdered and it wasn’t a suicide? 

At the scene of a heinous crime, five suspects, one of whom is the guilty party, are being interrogated by a detective. Each of the suspects gives one statement and it later transpires that just three of these statements are correct. These are the statements: Uncle Jack: "Uncle Jim committed the murder" Aunt Mary: "I did not do it" Cousin Stewart: "It was not Cousin Margaret" Uncle Jim: "Uncle Jack is lying when he says I did it" Cousin Margaret: "Aunt Mary is telling the truth" Who committed the murder? 

Lucretia Borgia invited a prospective victim to lunch. They ate a hearty meal of roast venison, with a selection of fresh vegetables, all washed down with the finest wine imported from Bordeaux in France. After the meal, they finished off with figs and grapes freshly picked. “Just one apple left”, said Lucretia, “I insist you have that." “No”, said the guest, “I couldn’t”. “Tell you what”, said Lucretia, “we will share it”, and promptly sliced it neatly in two with her sharpest knife. The guest and Lucretia started to eat their respective halves when suddenly the guest’s eyes rolled towards the ceiling and he keeled over backward stone dead. “Another victim successfully despatched,” thought Lucretia. Why was Lucretia not poisoned after eating the apple? 

Two girls ate dinner together. They both ordered iced tea. One girl drank them very fast and had finished five in the time it took the other to drink just one. The girl who drank one died while the other survived. However, all of the drinks that were served turned out to contain poison. How did the girl who drank the most survive? 

There was a plane crash every single person died. Who survived? 

After Andrew had been sick for a week, he asked his best friend Jesse to get his books out of his locker. Instead of telling Jesse the three-number combination, Andrew said he kept a small piece of paper with the combination under his locker door. After school, Jesse went to Andrew’s locker and pulled the paper. On the paper was written: 24 24 22 9 9 9 9 22 24 22 9 9. Thinking this would be easy but a little tedious, Jesse entered every arrangement of 24, 22, and 9 there was without the lock opening. Realizing there was something behind these numbers that he wasn’t noticing, Jesse sat down for a few minutes to think it out. After ten minutes of intense thinking, Jesse went to the locker, entered the combination into the lock and it opened. What was the combination?

A man entered his house and was about to hang up his coat when he heard his wife shout; "No John! Don’t do it!" There was a shot and he could hear his wife fall down. When he entered the kitchen he saw his wife and the gun lying on the floor. There was a police officer, a doctor, and a lawyer standing next to her. Peter immediately knew that the police officer had shot her. But how did he come to know? 

It was a man's birthday. He lay dead in the lounge room of his house. Next to his body was a note, written in pencil. The note read 'Happy Birthday, Friend'. The victim had a girlfriend and the police suspected her ex-boyfriend. They could find no obvious evidence. While searching the ex-boyfriend's car, the police saw an envelope with the girlfriend's address written on it. They thought they would get the handwriting checked against the note. The scientist in charge came in early to work the next day; it was 7 am. He looked out his window which faced east and stared at the rising sun and it was then that he realised how to prove the ex-boyfriend killed the man, even though the girlfriend's address was not written in the same handwriting. How did he do it? 

A man was shot in the heart. Nobody tries to save him and it doesn't kill him. What happened? 

A murderer is condemned to death. He has to choose between three rooms. – The first is full of raging fires – The second is full of assassins with loaded guns – The third is full of lions that haven't eaten in 3 years. Which room is safest for him? 

What mass murderer never goes to jail because he is innocent of any crime?

You are walking down a dark alley at night. Suddenly, a man jumps out of the shadows with a gun. He tells you "I am here to kill you. Tell me one wish. I will not fulfill it, but I will kill you. If you say the right thing, you will be saved." What do you say? 

Acting on an anonymous phone call, the police raid a house to arrest a suspected murderer. They don't know what he looks like but they know his name is John and that he is inside the house. The police bust in on a carpenter, a lorry driver, a mechanic, and a fireman playing cards. Without hesitation or communication of any kind, they immediately arrest the fireman. How do they know they've got their man? 

A man lay dead in a room with 51 bicycles around him. What happened? 

A dead female body lies at the bottom of a multistory building. It looks as though she committed suicide by jumping from one of the floors. When the detective arrives, he goes to the first floor of the building, opens the closed window, and flips a coin towards the floor. He goes to the second floor and does the exact same thing. He continues to do this until he gets to the top floor of the building. When he comes back down, he states that it was a murder and not a suicide. How does he know that? 

A serial killer kidnapped five different people and sat them down each with two pills in their hand and a glass of water. He told them each to take one pill but warned them that one was poisonous and the other was harmless. Whichever pill the victim didn’t take, the serial killer would take. Every victim somehow chose the poisonous pill and died. How did the serial killer get them all to take the poisonous pill? 

A killer told a detective that he would commit his next crime in the only place in Paris where you couldn’t see the Eiffel Tower. How did the detective end up catching him? 

Why was the detective’s wife furious when he arrived home at 9:30 when he said he’d arrive home at 9:30?

How did the lady know exactly who the man was who had just started working at her office without ever meeting him before? 

Two chickens were found dead on the farm. What does the detective suspect?