Mysterious Murders Contest rules

Our Entry Rules 2026

Please read our rules of entry before entering the competition. 

• Our 2026 Mysterious Murders Short Story competition will be open to entries from midnight on 1st June 2026. We close to entries at midnight on 30th September 2026. If you are entering from overseas, please note the competition opening and closing times are based on GMT (UK) time.

• Your entry must be your own original work and not: (i) copied from any other person; and/or (ii) created using any artificial intelligence or other similar technology. By entering this competition, you are agreeing that we may check your work for copying and/or the use of artificial intelligence in its creation.

• The competition is open to writers over the age of eighteen, of any nationality and resident in any country. However, all entries must be written in English. Please note we only accept word documents (.dox) and not PDF’s. 

• The Mysterious Murders Short Story Competition is open to any authors including those who are unpublished, self-published or traditionally (including digitally first and hybrid etc) published.

• The short story you submit for the 2026 Mysterious Murders Competition must not have been published anywhere else including on social media, your own website or blog, or in any anthology.

• The theme of your short story must be "Locked Room" Murder Mystery.

• Entrants keep full copyright of their work. However, by entering the competition, the writer gives Mysterious Murders Short Story Competition permission to post all shortlisted entries on our website, 

• Stories must be the entrant’s own original work and no more than 3000 words. 

• Entries may not be altered after submission.

• Please format your work in a word document only. Please submit only through the submission’s portal on the Mysterious Mysteries Website. Please only write your story title on the word document - do not write your name on the word document as this allows the judges to blind read the submissions. Any submissions that have the authors name on the word document will not be reviewed by the judges.

• Long-listed participants will be announced on 15th November 2026. If you haven’t heard from us by this date, then you haven’t been successful in reaching the longlist. We thank you for participating and encourage you to take part next year

• Shortlisted participants will be announced on 1st December 2026. If you haven’t been successful, congratulations on reaching the long list, you will receive an email confirming you haven’t reached the shortlist on this occasion. We thank you for taking part and encourage to take part next year.

• If you are long-listed or shortlisted, we will send you an email shortly before the announcement on our website and other social media. 

• The winning entries will be announced on 20th December 2026. The overall competition winner will be awarded £3000. 1st runner up will be awarded £1500 and 2nd runner up will be awarded £500. 

• We will post the winners names on our website with interviews and excerpts and on our social media.

• The Mysterious Mysteries Competition may ask you to take part in interviews for the website and publicity for the competition.

• Unfortunately, we cannot enter into any correspondence as to why your entry was unsuccessful. 

• Any writers entering a document by mistake can contact us within 12 hours of submission and we can help you to submit the correct documents. If there is a technical fault on our website and you cannot submit before the deadline, please send us timed screenshots and an email and we will help you to submit. Your email must be dated and timed before we close at midnight on 30th September 2026. Please email us at info@mysteriousmurders.com

• The judge’s decision is final, and no further correspondence can be entered into.