Greg T. Karber is an American writer, best known as author of the ''Murdle'' series of murder mystery puzzle books and its accompanying website.

Early life and education

Karber was raised in Arkansas, the son of a judge and a civil rights attorney. His maternal grandfather worked as an FBI agent in San Francisco in the 1960s. He earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics and English literature from the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States. It is the Flagship campus, flagship campus of the University of Arkan ...

, and an MFA from the

USC School of Cinematic Arts The USC School of Cinematic Arts is an academic unit of the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles. With a history that dates to the first years of Sound film, talkies, the school descends from America's first ...

Career

After graduating with his MFA, Karber remained in Los Angeles and worked adapting novels into screenplays. (As of 2013, he had written five unpublished novels.) He also began making comedic

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

videos. In 2013, he came across some 2006 comments by

Abercrombie & Fitch Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (A&F) is an American lifestyle store, lifestyle retailer, founded in 1892 which focuses on contemporary clothing targeting customers in their early 20's to mid 40's. Headquartered in New Albany, Ohio, the company operate ...

CEO Mike Jeffries: "In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids. Candidly, we go after the cool kids...A lot of people don't belong n our clothes and they can't belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely." Karber made a video excoriating Jeffries' comments titled "Fitch the Homeless," in which he handed out Abercrombie & Fitch clothing to

homeless people Homelessness, also known as houselessness or being unhoused or unsheltered, is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing. It includes living on the streets, moving between temporary accommodation with family or friends, liv ...

on Los Angeles'

Skid Row A skid row, also called skid road, is an impoverished area, typically urban, in English-speaking North America whose inhabitants are mostly poor people " on the skids". This specifically refers to people who are poor or homeless, considered disre ...

. The video became a viral hit, earning national media coverage. While many initially applauded the video, others saw it as "backwards-ass activism" and "as insensitive as the A&F chief he's targeting." Karber is a computer programmer. A mystery enthusiast, in 2022 he created Murdle, a web-based daily murder mystery game modeled on logic grid puzzles. The first two paperback volumes of ''Murdle'' were published in 2023, with the third volume published in March 2024. In December 2023, Karber undertook a U.K. bookshop tour, and appeared on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

's '' Start the Week''. For Christmas 2023, ''Murdle'' was the bestselling book in the U.K., making Karber only the third non-British person to achieve that distinction, following Dan Brown and Michelle Obama. In May of 2024, ''Murdle'' received the

British Book Award The British Book Awards or Nibbies are literary awards for the best UK writers and their works, administered by ''The Bookseller''. The awards have had several previous names, owners and sponsors since being launched in 1990, including the Na ...

for overall book of the year. In January 2025, Karber announced his next family of puzzles, Bordergrams, a "spy connection puzzle" set to debut in September 2025.

Personal life

Karber lives in Los Angeles.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karber, GT Living people University of Arkansas alumni Writers from Arkansas Crime fiction writers 21st-century American writers Puzzle designers USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni Year of birth missing (living people)