About Mail Order Mystery

I am a writer and Mom living in Toronto and I founded Mail Order Mystery in late 2015. My kids were heading into their tweens at the time, and anyone with tweens in their lives knows how hard they are to buy for. They don’t want more toys and they can’t get enough devices, video games and screens. So I began to contemplate a personal and professional challenge: could I create an experience gift so engaging that it could compete directly with screens, at least for awhile?

Yes, that's a photo of me in a bigfoot costume as we were getting ready for the launch of our bigfoot mystery

With my kids as my greatest inspiration (and greatest critics) I set out to create an extraordinary, story-based experience. Even kids who love to read are not always excited to pick up a book, so I wanted to make Mail Order Mystery about more than just reading.

There would be ciphers to crack and clues to solve. There would be objects to examine and hold: necklaces, keys, old pirate maps, fingerprint files, magnifying cards, photographs and more. The stories would unfold over time, through a series of letters, and the final installment of every Mail Order Mystery would contain an artifact or collection of keepsakes that kids could cherish as a memento of their Mail Order Mystery experience. 

And so Mail Order Mystery came to be. To date, there are five mysteries to choose from. The pirate themed Treasure Hunt! and fairy-tale themed Enchanted Slumber are designed for kids between 8 and 13. The espionage themed Spies, Lies and Serious Bad Guys and detective whodunnit The Case of the Missing Bigfoot are best for kids between 9 and 13. And our time travel misadventure Escape the Master Loop is fun for the whole family, and great for older kids and adults.

The letters are written directly to kids from the characters in the story. These characters have problems to solve, missions to complete and mysteries to unravel, and they can’t succeed without the help of your kids. That means that your kids are not just a part of a story, they are the heroes of a story.