We all like to think we can solve a murder given the right clues. Heres a chance to use mathematics skills to identify whodunit for ages 12-14.

We all like to think we can solve a murder given the right clues. Here's another chance to use mathematics skills to identify "whodunnit" - following the great success of the first book in the series Mini Mathematical Murder Mysteries. The students are given the data or a diagram to solve a "problem" - which is always which of four characters is a murderer. To find out, the student must solve all or most of the questions on the sheet to identify wrong answers as well as correct ones. Problems are staged, so there is an element of suspense for the individual...and racing between students to solve the mystery. 12-14 years

Dr. Sophie Knowles is a math professor with a knack for creating complex puzzles that delight her students. But now, at the close of the academic year, she must solve a crime that doesn’t quite add up… At the math department’s graduation party, Sophie hears heated arguments coming from the graduates about Mayor Graves, the commencement speaker. Not the mayor’s biggest fan, Sophie is happy to escape the drama with an after-hours campus stroll accompanied by her helicopter-piloting boyfriend, Bruce Granville. However, their date is interrupted by the mayor himself—with a knife in his back. As it turns out, the knife is actually a Henley College letter opener—something that is gifted to every member of the graduating class. Sophie is led to a complicated puzzle of scandal and corruption, and it seems that Mayor Graves is at the apex of it all. When Sophie finds out that the mayor was seeking her help on the day he was murdered, she must use her top-notch logic to crack the puzzle and catch the killer running free on campus…

Kenneth Salter, chairman of the math department at Marcus Rome State University, isnt a well-liked man; in fact, most people despise him. Its not surprising, therefore, when he ends up dead, slumped over in his office chair. All the animosity directed toward the professor makes this a challenging case for homicide detective Tom Warren. His list of possible suspects is long. Much to his chagrin, Warren finds himself teamed up with some law enforcement outsiders. Jim Albright is a math professor and detective wannabe, while his wife, Donna, is a sexy psychologist. Elmo Sherwin is a loveable math genius, but hes as clumsy as he is eccentric. How can these novices help Warren solve his case? Hell soon learn it takes more than crime scene know-how to catch a killer. Its going to take interviews, deduction, and reasoning to make sense of Salters murder. Everyone sees things differently, and what one person observes could be missed by everyone else. Are you clever enough to follow the clues and construct the argument that points uniquely to the guilty party?

Heres a chance for students to turn detective and apply their mathematical knowledge to solve some murder mysteries.

Dr. Sophie Knowles teaches math at Henley College in Massachusetts, but when a colleague turns up dead, it's up to her to find the killer before someone else gets subtracted.