Are You Ready for a New Mystery Photo Game?

No object is mysterious. The mystery is your eye. ~Elizabeth Bowen

My new book, In the Shadow of the River, came out on May 9th. Some of you even got the book before that date as a few flew out to readers early. Always fun to have a new story out on the shelves to sell and in the hands of people to read. Plus, I promised a new mystery photo game when the book released.

I’ve been slow getting this game started. I was busy writing my next book. But I was looking at this and looking at that to see if I could come up with something that might be a little mysterious. I never know which of my mystery pictures will be harder to figure out than others. Sometimes the ones I think you won’t know, you know right away and the ones I think you’ll guess right away, most of you don’t. I’ve done this several times in the last few years and have had two or maybe three major stumpers that hardly anyone figured out.  If I wasn’t the one who was making the mystery photo, I’d be stumped more times than any of you.

I started the mystery games when my first Hidden Springs mystery, Murder at the Courthouse, was published and kept it up through the other two Hidden Springs mysteries, Murder Comes by Mail and Murder Is No Accident. Those books still find readers whenever I do a book signing. Then I just kept going with the game.

Many readers love mysteries. I do too. That’s why I often include a mystery thread in my historical stories. I even had a bit of mystery in a couple of my Shaker books, expecially in The Innocent. You have to admit that’s a great title to suggest a bit of mystery.

I didn’t just include a bit of mystery in In the Shadow of the River. Plenty of mystery shows up in the shadows along the river of that story with some suspense thrown in as well. Will Jacci find the answers she needs before someone hides those answers forever?

But back to our mystery game here that isn’t a dangerous mystery at all. Only a fun one. If you haven’t tried to figure out these pictures in past games, here’s what you do. Before you read any other comments, you add your comment of what you think the picture might be. It’s more fun that way because you might be influenced by someone’s wrong guess or perhaps their right one. 🙂 After you do your comment, reading the other comments to see if you think they are right can be fun.

As always, playing the game gets your name in a giveaway chance to win your choice of one of my books. I’ll try to come up with five mystery photos, counting this one. That’s going to strain my brain! I’ll post a new one in the next four posts here on One Writer’s Journal.  Each time you guess on a new mystery puzzle – or maybe it won’t be a guess, it’ll be a know – you get an entry in the giveaway. Deadline to enter is June 5, 2023 at midnight EST. I’ll pick three winners by random on June 6th and notify them via email and announce the winners (first names only) on my post on June 6th. You have to be at least 18 years old to enter, but feel free to let your kids help you figure out the mysteries. Other than the fun of making a guess, nothing is required to enter. The comments you make on the posts are your entries.

Winning isn’t really what this game is about. It’s more about using our imaginations and mystery solving skills and having fun.

So what do you think the picture up top is? 

I’m crossing my fingers and hoping I’ll trick a few of you.  LOL.