Reporter's Challenge 2026

 

The Reporter's Challenge 2026 is sponsored by Ellie in The Challenge Factory on Goodreads.

My post in the challenge: HERE

Who? What? When? Where? Why?

How--In a cozy chair with a hot cup of cocoa and a box of bonbons!

I'll be going for the Columnist level (2 books from each basic category) and hoping to complete them all.

Cub Reporter: 5 books (one from each category): (Complete 2/3/26)

Columnist: 10 books (two from each): (Complete 3/7/26)

News Anchor: 15 books (three from each): (Complete 6/13/26)

Editor: 20 books (four from each): (Complete 9/7/26)

Newspaper Mogul: 25 books (all five from each): 

Bonus Category:

Pulitzer Prize Winner = Newspaper Mogul plus bonus categories (30 books):  

Extra Bonus Category

Nobel Prize for Literature = Pulitzer plus final bonus category (31 books):

WHO

Protagonist is a baker: A Catered Book Club Murder by Isis Crawford (8/3/26)

Any character is a dead person: High Marks for Murder by Rebecca Kent [ghost] (1/22/26)

Side character is kooky: Harriet Farewell by Margaret Erskine (4/8/26)

Protagonist is a mother or father: Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives by Sarah Weinman, ed (2/18/26)

Character who works with books/writes: The Avenging Chance by Anthony Berkeley [Roger Sheringham is an author] (2/28/26)

WHAT

Supernatural element in title: Spellbound by Francis Beeding (6/13/26)

Proper Name in title: Aristotle Detective by Margaret Doody (2/3/26)

Title starts with any letter in your last name: A Lady's Guide to Mischief & Mayhem by Manda Collins (3/7/26)

Holiday in title:

Title is a play on words: A Stitch in Crime by Ann Yost (9/2/26)

WHERE

Set in city that starts with D, P, or S: The Cat Who Could Read Backwards by Lilian Jackson Braun [fictional town of Pickax] (5/21/26)

Set in a small town: Death for a Double by E. X. Giroux (2/7/26)

Set in a New England state: Old Bones by Herman Petersen (1/20/26)

On vacation: Treasure of Hemlock Mountain by Virginia Frances Voight (4/11/26)

On foreign soil (NOT US/England): The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Great War by Simon Guerrier (2/7/26)

WHEN

During a holiday: Murder by Plum Pudding by Lee Strauss (4/22/26)

In the 1900s: Masterpieces of Mystery: Amateurs & Professionals selected by Ellery Queen (1/31/26)

During summer: Shadows Before by Dorothy Bowers (1/18/26)

During fall: Dead Man's Mirror by Agatha Christie (4/11/26)

During a snow storm: Tied Up in Tinsel by Ngaio Marsh (4/4/26)

HOW

Strangled: A Pocket Full of Rye by Agatha Christie (1/25/26)

Stabbed: Death on the Slopes by Norma Schier (1/9/26)

Shot: The Division Bell Mystery by Ellen Wilkinson (1/12/26)

Poisoned: Don Among the Dead Men by C. E. Vulliamy (1/7/26)

Blunt Instrument: A Case of Life & Limb by Sally Smith (6/11/26)

BONUS: Pulitzer Prize

WHO--Protagonist is married: Murder Enters the Picture by Willetta Ann Barber & R. F. Schablitz (3/20/26)

WHAT--Title is at least seven words: The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Great War by Simon Guerrier (2/7/26)

WHERE--Fictional place you'd love to live:

WHEN-- During a conference/convention:

HOW--Accident: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith (3/2/26)

EXTRA BONUS: Nobel Prize for Literature

Horoscope: Pick a horoscope from the  3rd of any month and read a book related to the horoscope