Cross Out Club

In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Eve Christie about her Cross Out Club series (Penguin Random House, 2026): British Manor Murder Mystery Puzzle, A Montana Ranch Murder Mystery Puzzle, and A Capri Cruise Murder Mystery Puzzle. This series is an exciting screen-free adventure for mystery lovers.

Combining logic grids, hidden-object discovery and immersive storytelling, Cross Out Club transforms readers into detectives in a one-of-a-kind murder mystery experience. Following the breakout success of the Murdle series and the growing appetite for interactive puzzle books, Cross Out Club offers a richer, more immersive deduction challenge for mystery lovers.

Cross Out Club turns the classic whodunit into an interactive puzzle experience. Rather than simply asking readers to identify the killer, each book challenges them to determine who committed the murder, how it was done, and where it took place. Working through fictional ledgers and logbooks containing 50,000 names, readers follow ten clues, search for five possible murder weapons and five potential crime scenes, and uncover three hidden leads before piecing together the entire case. 

In A British Manor Murder Mystery Puzzle, wealthy aristocrat Arthur Ashcroft announces a surprising change to his will during a lavish Midsummer party at his country estate—and is dead by morning. His estate ledger becomes the evidence in a mystery filled with inheritance, suspicious guests, and golden-age atmosphere. 

In A Montana Ranch Murder Mystery Puzzle, legendary cattleman Cole Cassidy is killed only hours before he is due to testify at a public hearing that could determine the future of his ranch, bringing Western noir and a bitter land dispute into the puzzle. 

A Capri Cruise Murder Mystery Puzzle raises the stakes at sea. During the annual voyage to Capri aboard The Grand Empress, Captain Calvin Cross witnesses a passenger being pushed overboard. Before he can reveal what he saw, he becomes the next victim, leaving readers to use his logbooks to solve two murders and identify the single killer behind them. 

Eve Christie is the creator of the Cross Out Club series of interactive murder mystery puzzle books. Born in Northampton, England, she grew up loving classic whodunits, inspired by evenings watching Murder, She Wrote with her mum. For more than twenty years, Christie has worked in consumer product development across toys, games, and publishing, creating products designed to entertain, engage, and challenge audiences. She brings that experience together with her passion for mystery fiction in Cross Out Club, combining deduction, logic puzzles, and immersive storytelling. She lives in Toronto.

Hollay Ghadery is an award-winning Iranian-Canadian multi-genre writer living in Ontario on Anishinaabe land. She has her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph. Fuse, her memoir of mixed-race identity and mental health, was released by Guernica Editions in 2021 and won the 2023 Canadian Bookclub Award for Nonfiction/Memoir. Her collection of poetry, Rebellion Box was released by Radiant Press in 2023, and her collection of short fiction, Widow Fantasies, was released with Gordon Hill Press in fall 2024 and was longlisted for the Toronto Book Award. Her debut novel, The Unraveling of Ou, was released with Palimpsest Press in 2026, and her children’s book, Being with the Birds, with Guernica Editions in 2027. Hollay is a host on The New Books Network, as well as a co-host on HOWL on CIUT 89.5 FM. She is also a book publicist, the Founder of River Street, and the co-chair of the League of Canadian Poets BIPOC committee, as well as the Poet Laureate of Scugog Township. She is also a member of The National Book Critics Circle, The Creative Nonfiction Collective, and The Writers Union of Canada. Hollay was also featured on the cover of issue 10 of The Ampersand Review. Learn more about Hollay here.