Many of us have enjoyed word games since we were children. Here at BellaOnline we provide you with the opportunity to relax a few minutes, grab your favorite beverage, and try your hand at hangman, word scramble, or word search.

We offer several games and quizes geared specificially to the mystery books genre. If you are a mystery fan, you will find many familiar words. If you happened upon this site and are not a fan of mysteries, you will be pleasantly surprised at how many words you do recognize, and you will still have a great time.

Here are several fun games for you to try out...

Mystery Books Hangman
Hangman is an interactive game using mystery and detective crime fiction related words. You have ten chances to guess at the letters in the word. Each time you fail, a body part is added to the hangman figure. If you reach 10 misses, you lose.

Mystery Books WordScramble
Word scramble is made up of words related to the mystery genre. The word is shown with the letters out of order. You have to guess what the word is by putting the letters in the correct order.

Mystery Books WordSearch
Word Search mingles mystery-related words among random letters in a classic word search grid. Feel free to print out the word search puzzle and circle your answers as you find them.

An interesting tidbit about the creation of the word search puzzle was found at Wikipedia. A man by the name of Norman E. Gibat designed and published the puzzle in the Selenby Digest on March 1, 1968 in Norman, Oklahoma. The Digest was 8.5 by 5.5 inches, and contained want-ad listings distributed free at area stores.

The puzzle became very popular locally and a few teachers in the Norman schools started using reprints in their classes as a teaching tool. Someone apparantly sent copies around the country to fellow teachers. There was no mention as to who sold the idea to a syndicator, but word search books and puzzles abound today.

If you have any suggestions for words to add to any of the games, please email me through the BellaOnline Mystery Books site. I look forward to your feedback!