100 Mystery Writing Prompts to Spark Your Imagination

This article was updated April 21, 2025.

Hello fellow mystery writers! Whether you’re struggling with writer’s block or simply looking for fresh inspiration, this collection of 100 mystery prompts is designed to get your creative juices flowing immediately.

These quick scenarios drop you right into the action—no lengthy setup required. Each prompt places you or your character at the center of an intriguing mystery that begs to be solved. While written in second-person perspective for immediacy, you can easily adapt them to third-person characters of your own creation.

I’ve organized these prompts into ten distinct categories to help you find exactly the type of mystery you’re in the mood to write. From missing persons and hidden treasures to coded messages and supernatural occurrences, there’s something here for writers of every experience level and interest.

Whether you’re a seasoned mystery author looking to try something new or a beginner taking your first steps into the genre, these prompts provide the perfect starting point for your next thrilling tale. Use them as written or let them inspire something entirely your own—the mystery is yours to solve!

Now, grab your notebook, sharpen your detective skills, and dive into these ten collections of mysterious scenarios…

Understanding Mystery: Core Elements and Conventions

Mystery at its heart is a puzzle wrapped in a story. Unlike other genres that might focus primarily on character development or world-building, mystery revolves around a central question that drives both the plot and the reader’s engagement: “What really happened?”

When crafting your mystery story, remember these essential conventions:

The Central Mystery: Every good mystery needs a compelling question at its core—typically involving a crime, disappearance, or unexplained event. This puzzle should be complex enough to sustain interest but not so convoluted that it feels unsolvable.

Red Herrings: Effective mysteries include false leads that appear significant but ultimately distract from the truth. These keep readers guessing and prevent the solution from being too obvious.

Clues and Foreshadowing: Fair mysteries provide readers with enough information to potentially solve the puzzle alongside the protagonist. Skillful writers plant subtle clues throughout the narrative without making them too obvious.

The Investigator: Whether an official detective, an amateur sleuth, or an ordinary person thrust into extraordinary circumstances, your protagonist needs keen observational skills and determination to uncover the truth.

The Reveal: The satisfying conclusion of a mystery comes when the solution is revealed—ideally in a way that surprises readers while still making perfect sense in retrospect.

Stakes and Tension: The best mysteries establish clear consequences for failure, creating genuine tension as the protagonist races against time, faces danger, or struggles against mounting obstacles.

Remember that while these elements form the backbone of the genre, the most memorable mysteries often subvert expectations or blend with other genres—from cozy mysteries set in small towns to noir tales in gritty urban settings, or even supernatural mysteries that incorporate elements of horror or fantasy.

As you work through these prompts, challenge yourself to honor these conventions while finding fresh ways to surprise your readers. After all, the best mysteries are the ones we never see coming!

How to Use These Mystery Prompts

This collection of mystery prompts is designed to be flexible and adaptable to writers of all experience levels. Here are some suggestions for making the most of this list:

Jump Right In: Each prompt is crafted to drop you into the middle of an intriguing scenario. Pick one that catches your attention and start writing immediately without overthinking it. Sometimes the best mysteries emerge when you surprise yourself.

Mix and Match: Don’t feel limited by the categories. Elements from different prompt types can be combined—perhaps a missing person case leads to hidden treasure, or a coded message relates to an unexplained death.

Change the Perspective: While these prompts use “you” as the protagonist, try rewriting them with a specific character in mind. How might a retired detective, curious teenager, or skeptical journalist approach the same mystery?

Set a Timer: Challenge yourself to write for just 15-30 minutes based on a prompt. This takes the pressure off creating a perfect story and focuses instead on generating ideas.

Use as Story Starters: These prompts aren’t just writing exercises—they can become the foundation for longer works. What begins as a quick writing session might evolve into a short story, novella, or even a novel.

Focus on Different Elements: For each prompt, try emphasizing different aspects of the mystery genre. One day, focus on creating memorable characters; another day, concentrate on crafting the perfect red herring or building atmosphere.

Keep a Mystery Journal: Work through these prompts systematically, dedicating a section of your writing notebook to each attempt. Over time, you’ll build a collection of mystery scenarios that could inspire future projects.

Remember, there are no rules when it comes to creative writing. These prompts are meant to spark your imagination, not constrain it. Whether you follow them closely or use them as loose inspiration, the goal is to get you writing and enjoying the process of crafting mysteries.

Now, dive into these ten collections and let the mysteries begin!

1. Missing Persons Mysteries

A wealthy family’s prized show dog goes missing before a big competition, and you’re hired to find it.
A archaeologist vanishes while searching for the lost tomb of an ancient king said to be protected by a deadly curse.
An important businessmen doesn’t show up for a big meeting. Hours later, his car is found abandoned on an isolated dirt road.
A teenager goes missing after school. The only clue left behind is a coded message scribbled in his notebook. Can you crack it?
An antique dealer vanishes from his shop overnight. The only things missing are a few pieces of old nautical equipment.
An elderly man asks you to find his wife who went missing years ago. But records show the man was never married.
A young ski resort heiress goes missing on the slopes. The only trace left behind are her snowboarding goggles resting in a tree. You find them.
Teenagers have been disappearing from your hometown at an alarming rate over the past year. The police have no leads. But you find a connection between the missing persons and start gathering clues.
A beloved local bakery owner goes missing. The only clue is a half-eaten pastry left behind with a mysterious symbol frosted on top.
For generations, teenagers have been dared to spend the night in your town’s old abandoned asylum on Halloween night. But this year, some teens who took the dare never came back out…

2. Hidden Treasures & Ancient Secrets

You discover a cryptex – an ancient puzzle box that can only be unlocked with a complex series of clues. Where will they lead you?
You inherit a house that belonged to your great grandfather who passed away. Inside is a complex model train set-up in the basement. Then you notice the trains seem to run on a sinister schedule.
You find a dusty old trunk in your attic full of strange artifacts – maps, notebooks, and a journal written in code. The first entry dates back over 100 years.
Your grandfather gifts you his elaborate model train set before passing away. But as you build and operate it, the trains seem to move and interact as if controlled by a sinister intelligence.
You volunteer at the archives in your ancestor’s castle overseas. But you keep finding inconsistencies in the records that make you suspect there are mysteries still hidden within the sprawling estate.
A puzzle maker vanishes, leaving behind an intricate locked box said to contain all his greatest designs and secrets. Can you solve the puzzles and find the key?
For generations, your family has passed down the tale of a hidden fortune somewhere on the old estate grounds. A recent clue indicates the eccentric ancestor’s claims may be true after all.
You are selected to decipher your eccentric aunt’s odd journal after she passes away. following a treasure map hidden in the text leads you to some large uncut gemstones and a dangerous secret.
Cleaning the attic, you find your late uncle’s chest of prized magic tricks and props. Hidden inside a false bottom is a weathered map leading to a spot in the wilderness marked “X.”
You inherit your uncle’s massive library of books on the occult. Hidden in one volume is an old dossier documenting an obscure secret society and detailing their examination rituals to gain membership and mysterious secrets.

3. Strange Inheritance & Family Secrets

You inherit a beautiful antique music box from your eccentric great aunt. But it only plays an ominous tune that you’ve never heard before. What is the meaning behind the song?
You wake up on the morning of your 18th birthday to find an old amulet on your nightstand. No one in your family knows where it came from.
Your eccentric aunt dies and leaves you a storage locker full of her possessions. But hidden among them is a valuable stolen painting that criminals are still hunting for.
Exploring a cave as a scout, you stumble upon a native burial site and ancient petroglyphs depicting strange rituals. Days later, town residents start sleepwalking into the hills.
Clearing out your parent’s old boxes from childhood, you find your mother’s diary which contains many detailed references to an imaginary friend named Clara. But you also find scattered hospital records for a Clara Ellington, a girl your mom’s age who died under mysterious circumstances.
Exploring the old abandoned asylum, you find patient rooms strangely preserved. An old photograph shows your father as one of the mysterious doctors there before it closed down. But he died years before your birth…
Your grandfather passes down his beaten-up 1973 Pontiac Firebird that has been in the family for generations. Rummaging through the trunk, you find tattered roadmaps leading you across the country to track his mysterious route.
Your grandfather’s closest friend pulls you aside after the funeral and says he must pass along an old wrong your grandfather regretted. He gives you a name, key, and bank account number, telling you that you’ll know what to fix.
Your grandfather’s wartime role as a code-breaker comes to light after finding his journals. Following the coded maps and messages, you stumble upon something he buried many years ago and hid from the rest of the family.
Exploring your uncle’s cabin after his death, you find a locked trapdoor leading underground. It contains elaborate models of towns spread across a vast map with strange markings indicating an unspecified threat.

4. Unexplained Phenomena & Supernatural Occurrences

You move into a new house and regularly hear creaking floorboards and other noises at night. One day you wake up to find a strange symbol carved into your front door.
Every night precisely at 3:33 am, your sleep is interrupted by the sound of footsteps creaking up your attic stairs. But you live alone.
On a school field trip, you and your friends sneak away to explore an off-limits area. There you find an elaborately carved stone whose markings have been worn away by time.
A mysterious loner moves into the abandoned mansion down your street. One night, you witness strange occult rituals being performed in the solarium.
Rocks with strange symbols painted on them keep appearing in your garden each night. The symbols match cave paintings you recently saw on a spelunking trip. What do they mean?
You inherit an ancient mechanical astrolabe that seems to predict future events and disasters. But foreseeing some tragedies only ends up causing them when you try to intervene.
You accidentally hit a button on your new antique typewriter and it types a mysterious response warning you not to investigate further. When you look at the paper, all the ink has vanished.
Your strange new neighbors only seem to enter and exit their house at specific intervals during the night. One evening you glimpse two figures in old-fashioned gas masks looking back out at you.
Your new house seems perfect except for the vintage creepy portrait in your bedroom. You eventually notice the subject’s eyes seem to follow you. Then they blink.
While browsing in a strange antique shop, the elderly owner tells you an odd jewelry box has been waiting for someone like you. Upon opening it, you find objects arranged to point toward landmarks in your hometown.

5. Coded Messages & Mysterious Communications

Strange symbols have been appearing overnight on sidewalks all over your hometown. The graffiti seems to be spreading. But what does it mean?
You start getting anonymous letters in the mail that seem to indicate someone is stalking you and knows your routine. Who could it be?
A masked man drops a encoded flash drive into your bag at the library. When you decode it, you uncover plans for a major heist taking place tonight.
You dig up an old class assignment from middle school to reminisce and find a cryptic note scrawled in the margins that seems to predict future events in your life so far with uncanny accuracy.
A prisoner risks his life to pass you a complex cipher through the jail’s visiting room glass. He claims to have been framed and that decoding it could reveal the real criminal.
A coded message arrives in your mailbox with your address written out in intricate symbols. It leads you to begin deciphering a conspiracy painted in graffiti across town linking major events in the past century.
You notice all of your houseplants have been subtly rearranged overnight. Then you find a strange coding system etched into their pots. It seems someone is trying to send you a secret message.
A retired detective swears he hears strange clicking noises coming from his study at night where he kept his case files. You help set up cameras and capture a coded transmission being sent through the vent.
You come across an old LP record titled simply “For D.S.” Dated 1949, the recording contains only the rattling of a factory machine. In the dead air, you detect a hidden coded message about espionage.
A coded message is slipped under your door with a time, date, and map coordinates. Arriving at the location, you find a shovel and dirt pile but no instructions. Do you start digging?

6. Mysterious Objects & Artifacts

A popular local bakery is ransacked overnight. The thief left everything except the secret recipe for their famous chocolate chip cookies.
A ring engraved with a mysterious insignia arrives in your mailbox with no note or return address. How did it get there? What group does it represent?
Using a metal detector on the beach, you find a tarnished locket half buried in the sand. Inside the locket is a faded picture of a couple from decades past along with a lock of hair and a grainy imprint of numbers.
Cleaning out your grandmother’s attic, you find a strange wooden box with arcane symbols. Inside is just a stack of old letters written in German and an old photograph of four men.
A stranger slips you a thumb drive and tells you to wait one week before opening the only file on it. Finally viewing it, you see plans for an impossible diamond heist taking place tonight.
The power goes out at the library right before closing. When it comes back on, the rare book you were researching is missing from its climate controlled case.
A new mounted fish trophy arrives at the taxidermist shop where you work. But hidden inside the fish is a waterproof bag stuffed with uncut diamonds. Who does it belong to?
A watchmaker has a heart attack and dies while working on an unusual custom piece – a watch that runs backward. His notes reference a client named Octavio who paid handsomely for it in untraceable antiquities.
Exploring your attic, you find an old trunk belonging to your great uncle who traveled the world. Inside is just one item – an intricate elephant idol holding a valuable jeweled stone in its trunk with clues leading to another relic.
An odd box arrives in the mail addressed to your deceased grandmother. Inside is just an old key, a ticket stub, and a note with longitude and latitude coordinates. Charting them leads to a remote island.

7. Crime Scenes & Investigation

You’re exploring the woods behind your house when you find a torn, bloody t-shirt hanging from a tree branch. What happened here?
You’re hiking and come across what looks like human bones buried in a shallow grave in the woods. What happened here?
As a new hire at the NSA, your first assignment is watching a Russian diplomat suspected of sending coded messages disguised as love letters to his “fiancé” overseas.
You arrive to work at the bank to find the vault empty and your coworkers drugged. Surveillance footage shows the seemingly impossible burglary unfold. Where did they go?
A museum thief escapes right before your night shift begins. You notice an odd discrepancy on the museum blueprints that leads you to the hidden painting.
A woman swears someone has been getting into her locked house while she’s away, but nothing is ever stolen. You set up cameras and catch the person red-handed. Who are they and why are they doing this?
For decades, a serial arsonist has been operating across your region. The fires always destroy old abandoned properties on significant dates. You find a pattern hidden in past police reports.
A family lawyerhandling your wealthy aunt’s will reveals she secretly changed it just before dying, leaving everything to her gardener who vanished quickly after. The maid reports seeing suspicious doctors frequent the house.
You notice a human-shaped dirt imprint in your yard, as if a body has been freshly buried and exhumed. Then you start finding strange microscopic chips and plastic shards in the grass roots. What’s going on?
You come upon a car crash in the woods. The driver is barely breathing and clutching a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist. He rasps out a code before passing away, leaving you with the case and key. What’s inside? What now?

8. Secret Passages & Hidden Places

You find a secret trap door in the floor of your bedroom that leads to a series of underground tunnels. Where do they go?
Renovating your home, you find a trapdoor under decades of dust leading into a bunker containing surveillance equipment still mysteriously active and watching you.
You pick up a cheap boat at a police auction of seized vehicles. But a hidden compartment inside leads you into the tangled dealings of a modern day pirate crew.
Hiking through the hills near your town, you stumble upon the wreckage of a small plane. The pilot’s remains are still at the controls, but his personal effects suggest he died over 60 years ago.
You choose a small, uninhabited island for your vacation getaway. But exploring your temporary home, you notice strange patterns of seashells by the water and heaps of bone fragments in the distant rocky caves.
You’re hired to investigate a 17th century shipwreck and find the captain’s log washed ashore. It describes a tiny island appearing where none should exist. Charting a course, you head to the same coordinates.
Cleaning out your new home, you find strange antique uncanny in the walls and floors. Studying the patterns and mechanisms reveals they form a bizarre scavenger hunt across town devised by the previous owner.
A scholar spends decades trying unsuccessfully to solve an ancient riddle leading to Alexander the Great’s lost tomb. He finally mails it to you before passing away. Do you take up the challenge?
During city excavation, workers unearth a complex network of concrete tunnels and rooms hidden under your neighborhood for decades. Studying the bunker more closely finds it hides an encrypted secret.
An archaeologist friend invites you on a trek into the jungle to locate a newly discovered Mayan temple site. But you arrive to find the excavation crew dead and primordial secrets awakening in the depths.

9. Unexplained Deaths & Disappearances

Flowers start mysteriously appearing on the grave of someone who passed away years ago. No one knows who’s leaving them there.
You decide to write to the prisoner convicted of swindling your eccentric aunt out of her fortune years ago. His cryptic responses make you suspect he may have been framed or was protecting someone else.
A magician performing on your cruise ship goes overboard during a storm. But the body that washes ashore the next morning clearly drowned days ago.
For decades, ships have been sinking with unusual precision along the old trade routes. Historical naval documents contain many references to rumors of a rogue submarine captain who turned mercenary.
A masked ball at an old Victorian mansion takes a sinister turn when the guests are locked inside and robbed by a thief in disguise on the prowl.
An abandoned car is found in the woods containing a screaming man trapped in the trunk. He has amnesia and can’t remember how he got there or who put him there.
A secret admirer has been leaving you small tokens of affection around your favorite places in town. The final gift is a locket that you discover belongs to a woman who went missing years ago…
For decades, your rural town has held a macabre living chess game with townsfolk acting out a life size match every 10 years. When you find diaries detailing the game’s origins, you uncover the unsettling ritual’s true purpose.
Entering your basement, you’re surprised to find a stranger placing items around a strange intricate symbol on the floor. He tells you he awaits the Sign and swiftly departs.
As a new hire at a cryonics firm, you discover the frozen head of an infamous mobster in storage. Divining the clues in his file leads you to the crime syndicate still operating today under a new front.

10. Trapped & Disoriented Scenarios

You wake up tied to a chair in an abandoned warehouse with no memory of how you got there. A mysterious voice over the intercom says you have one hour to escape…or else.
You wake up in a strange room next to a woman you’ve never seen before. Neither of you have any memory of how you got there.
You wake up in an abandoned psychiatric hospital strapped to a gurney. A voice over the intercom says you have one hour to escape your bonds or the poison gas will turn on.
Several major corporations have been hit with elaborate cyber heists lately. The only clue is a small pixelated symbol left behind on each company’s servers afterwards.
Exploring the woods behind your new cottage, you find an old campsite and photographs of people who don’t seem to have aged in 50 years. A few still live in your town under different names.
Attending a magic act, you are randomly invited on stage to inspect a spooky box. But after displaying your “ordinary” item to the crowd, the magician can no longer open the container. Backstage, he begs for your help.
A frail old woman begs you to retrieve her stolen poodle. But when you find the poodle, it leads you somewhere unexpected.
You arrive early for an interview and spot the CEO doing something suspicious. To keep you silent, he asks you to discreetly handle a sensitive matter for him, promising it will lead to your dream job. Do you comply?
A stranger at the county fair reads your fortune, telling you that you will soon come upon eternal life. Days later, a pharma CEO approaches you to trial a new pill that stops aging but also erases memories.
A stranger at the county fair reads your fortune, telling you that you will soon come upon eternal life. Days later, a pharma CEO approaches you to trial a new pill that stops aging but also erases memories.

In Conclusion: The Mystery Continues…

We hope this collection of 100 mystery writing prompts has sparked your imagination and given you plenty of starting points for your next thrilling tale! Whether you’re crafting a cozy mystery set in a quaint village, a hard-boiled detective story in rain-soaked city streets, or a supernatural puzzle that defies explanation, these prompts can help jumpstart your creative process.

The beauty of mystery as a genre is its endless capacity for reinvention while still honoring the traditions that make it so satisfying. From Agatha Christie to Tana French, Walter Mosley to Gillian Flynn, mystery writers continue to find new ways to surprise and engage readers.

What’s your favorite mystery novel or film? Drop a comment below and share the stories that have most captivated you—your recommendations might inspire fellow writers and readers alike! And if you use one of these prompts to create a story you’re proud of, we’d love to hear about that too.

Now pick a prompt, sharpen your pencil (or open that blank document), and start unraveling the mystery that only you can solve. Happy writing!

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Richard

Richard Everywriter (pen name) is the founder of EveryWriter and a 25-year veteran of the publishing industry. With degrees in Writing, Journalism, Technology, and Education, Richard has dedicated two decades to teaching writing and literature while championing emerging voices through EveryWriter's platform. His work focuses on making literary analysis accessible to readers at all levels while preserving the rich heritage of American literature. Connect with Richard on Twitter Bluesky Facebook or explore opportunities to share your own work on ourSubmissions page. For monthly insights on writing and publishing, subscribe to our Newsletter.