Official 5 Minute Mystery author

Laird Long

@lairdo
Writing for us since 2009

Long pounds out fiction in all genres. Big guy, sense of humor. Writing credits include: Blue Murder Magazine, Orchard Press Mysteries, Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine, Plots With Guns, Hardboiled, Thriller UK, Bullet, Robot, The Dark Krypt, Albedo One, Baen's Universe, Sniplits, and stories in the anthologies Amazing Heroes, The Mammoth Book of New Comic Fantasy, The Mammoth Book of Jacobean Whodunits, and The Mammoth Book of Perfect Crimes and Impossible Mysteries.

Read the latest All authors

18mysteries published

34,190readers have tried them

49%of readers named the culprit

These numbers are about readers: other members solving Laird Long’s mysteries, counting each reader’s first try only.

Thin Ice

TJ was up at the crack of dawn the following morning, anxious to see the new ice on the new rink. He listened to the sportscast on the radio as he threw on his clothes, cheering when he heard that his beloved Moose had…

Published January 8, 2010 · 5,110 readers have tried it

Latest

Canada Day

Glen pushed back the floppy brim of his Tilley hat and mopped his forehead, promising himself a hot dog and cold soda for lunch with the money he’d found. He was up by the entrance to the beach, and as he bent his head…

Published September 7, 2026 · 1,528 readers have tried it

The case files

Every mystery by Laird Long

Medium

All Washed Up

“That is exactly the wrong course of action, sir. I know these waters and these currents. To try to row to safety in the lifeboat would be…

1,741 readers · 48% solved it

Hard

Canada Day

Glen pushed back the floppy brim of his Tilley hat and mopped his forehead, promising himself a hot dog and cold soda for lunch with the mo…

1,528 readers · 37% solved it

Medium

Chow, Baby!

I was sleeping the little sleep – napping – when a tall, blonde ankled into my office. “Well, my lunch was stolen again today!” he bleated…

1,879 readers · 58% solved it

Medium

Everything’s Not Just Ducky

He was just brushing the grass off the knees of his sweatpants when Connor returned. Connor shook his head and grinned at his friend, then…

1,357 readers · 45% solved it

Medium

Flouted

Highway 59 and Groven Road was rural bus driver Ed Tuttle’s last stop to pick up kids before he entered the city. As usual, five middle-yea…

2,279 readers · 48% solved it

Easy

For the Birds

He rushed down to the edge of the pond to welcome his first billed guests. But they quickly duck-paddled away from him, over to the other s…

1,395 readers · 49% solved it

Easy

Get the Lead Out

Steve Clairborne stretched his long arms up over his head and yawned. Another morning of tedious audit work had at last gone by the wayside…

1,710 readers · 60% solved it

Medium

Hound of the Buskerville

Kinnair explained to the amateur sleuth how just three days earlier he had allowed a traveling troupe of four buskers to camp in a corner o…

1,102 readers · 37% solved it

Medium

House of the Rising Pumpkin

Half an hour later, we all skidded to a stop where the route and the sidewalk ended. Beyond was the old Mitchelson house, a boarded-up Vict…

1,341 readers · 34% solved it

Medium

POPPING A WHEELIE

“I wanna ride your new bike!” Mark whined. Matthew didn’t even bother glancing away from the video game he was playing with his friend, Str…

2,520 readers · 62% solved it

Easy

Raiding Cane

When Merv Weiss called me in on the Great Candy Cane Caper, I wasn’t exactly striped with enthusiasm. His sons, the Weiss boys, or the Thre…

1,037 readers · 45% solved it

Medium

Shoot-out at Splithead Canyon

Special Agent-in-charge Sam Connors looked over the four men standing before him in the pouring rain. Their grim faces were lit up by the j…

1,785 readers · 26% solved it

Hard

Sky Jack

Sergeant Saunders of Scotland Yard hung up the telephone and turned to his superior who was studying a map of the world tacked to one wall…

1,158 readers · 43% solved it

Medium

The Card Shark

The driver cracked the reins and the horses whinnied jerking the stage to a start. The long, rough trip across the plains to St. Joseph, Mi…

1,332 readers · 48% solved it

Medium

The Root of All Evil

Corporal James Prescott of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police leaned back in his chair and looked out the window of his tiny office, located…

1,882 readers · 52% solved it

Easy

Thin Ice

TJ was up at the crack of dawn the following morning, anxious to see the new ice on the new rink. He listened to the sportscast on the radi…

5,110 readers · 58% solved it

Medium

Turkey Cull

Turkeys have excellent hearing. On the first Tuesday of October, when the five-bird flock was out pecking around in the yard behind Farmer…

1,050 readers · 44% solved it

Medium

Who Let the Frogs Out

Mr. Womback’s first clue that something was wrong the next morning was when he spotted two frogs sitting in a puddle in the teachers’ parki…

3,984 readers · 48% solved it

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