100 mystery writing prompts

100 mystery writing prompts

Unexplained events, complex puzzles, suspicious characters, hidden clues… A compelling mystery grabs readers’ attention and whisks them away on an entertaining quest for the truth. But coming up with that next great premise can often be a mystery itself!

Luckily, I’ve gathered 100 mystery writing prompts to ignite your creativity. These story ideas present you with suspicious scenarios ranging from the supernatural to murder mysteries, unsolved crimes, family secrets, missing persons, treasure hunts, and more shadowy what-ifs ripe for exploration.

The prompts offer unique launch points to send an amateur sleuth or unwitting hero chasing leads, cracking codes, unraveling complex conspiracies, catching criminals, or solving historical puzzles. Settings that lend themselves well to mysteries make an appearance too – remote archeological sites, secret passages, eccentric strangers, abandoned asylums, hidden artifacts in attics, strange symbols, and bumps in the night.

With so many premise options, you’re sure uncover story twists and turns to challenge Sherlock himself! So grab your metaphorical magnifying glass and pick a plot that speaks to you. Where might these story ideas lead? The truth is out there in the pages you’ll write as you follow the clues to these 100 mystery writing prompts.  Happy sleuthing!

100 mystery writing prompts

1. A wealthy family’s prized show dog goes missing before a big competition, and you’re hired to find it.
2. You find a secret trap door in the floor of your bedroom that leads to a series of underground tunnels. Where do they go?
3. A popular local bakery is ransacked overnight. The thief left everything except the secret recipe for their famous chocolate chip cookies.
4. 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?
5. 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.
6. A archaeologist vanishes while searching for the lost tomb of an ancient king said to be protected by a deadly curse.
7. Flowers start mysteriously appearing on the grave of someone who passed away years ago. No one knows who’s leaving them there.
8. You’re hiking and come across what looks like human bones buried in a shallow grave in the woods. What happened here?
9. 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.
10. An important businessmen doesn’t show up for a big meeting. Hours later, his car is found abandoned on an isolated dirt road.
11. 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.
12. A frail old woman begs you to retrieve her stolen poodle. But when you find the poodle, it leads you somewhere unexpected.
13. 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.
14. A teenager goes missing after school. The only clue left behind is a coded message scribbled in his notebook. Can you crack it?
15. You’re exploring the woods behind your house when you find a torn, bloody t-shirt hanging from a tree branch. What happened here?
16. An antique dealer vanishes from his shop overnight. The only things missing are a few pieces of old nautical equipment.
17. You discover a cryptex – an ancient puzzle box that can only be unlocked with a complex series of clues. Where will they lead you?
18. Strange symbols have been appearing overnight on sidewalks all over your hometown. The graffiti seems to be spreading. But what does it mean?
19. An elderly man asks you to find his wife who went missing years ago. But records show the man was never married.
20. 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?
21. 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.
22. 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.
23. You start getting anonymous letters in the mail that seem to indicate someone is stalking you and knows your routine. Who could it be?
24. 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.
25. 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.
26. 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.
27. 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?
28. 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.
29. 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.
30. 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.
31. A beloved local bakery owner goes missing. The only clue is a half-eaten pastry left behind with a mysterious symbol frosted on top.
32. 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.
33. 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…
34. 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…
35. 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.
36. A mysterious loner moves into the abandoned mansion down your street. One night, you witness strange occult rituals being performed in the solarium.
37. 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.
38. 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?
39. 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.
40. 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.
41. 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.
42. 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?
43. 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.
44. 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.
45. 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.
46. 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.
47. 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.
48. 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?
49. 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.
50. 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?
51. 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.
52. Renovating your home, you find a trapdoor under decades of dust leading into a bunker containing surveillance equipment still mysteriously active and watching you.
53. 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.
54. 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.
55. 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.
56. 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.
57. 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.
58. 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.
59. 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.
60. 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.
61. 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.
62. 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.
63. 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.
64. 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.
65. 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.
66. 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.
67. 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.
68. 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.
69. 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.
70. 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?
71. 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…
72. 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.
73. 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.
74. 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.”
75. 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.
76. 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.
77. 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?
78. 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.
79. 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.
80. 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.
81. 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.
82. 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.
83. 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.
84. 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?
85. 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.
86. 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.
87. 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.
88. 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.
89. 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.
90. 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?
91. 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.
92. The 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.
93. You find an old sea chest hidden in your grandfather’s attic containing his captain’s uniform and charts showing the route to a mysterious uncharted island. At the center, he marked a large red “X.”
94. 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.
95. 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.
96. 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.
97. 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.
98. 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.
99. 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.
100. 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?

We hope these 100 mystery writing prompts have helped you create something amazing. We have many other writing prompts on our site you may enjoy. Please leave us a comment if you have any questions or concerns or if you want to share your creation.