Does anyone remember these?

Thanks for replying Patrick. This was the northeast(upstate ny). At the time I considered these books somewhat similar to like the Choose Your Own Adventure series, though those books were for younger kids(I think). These, I believe, were geared toward like middle school to high school age. Also they weren't interactive like those, they were just short books that you read through. But they were all part of like the same series(although each book was a completely different story by different authors, etc.) But they all had the puzzle pieces, I want to say like in the upper left hand corner.. or down the side too. I don't remember, I just remember puzzle pieces on all the covers. I wish I could remember the name of the series. Driving me mad trying to find these books again lol. I really enjoyed them at the time. 

I don't suppose you are talking about "Goosebumps".

It's The Case of the Missing Ear That Fell Off or Something Like That.

I spent some time looking, and while I came up with various mystery/ crime/ detective/ thriller type books with puzzle pieces worked into the cover art, none that seemed to match your paperbook series description. I'm guessing by the length and from what you've written that these were aimed at young adults or kids?

You might want to try this site for help, if you haven't already:
http://www.librarything.com/groups/namethatbook

And this: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/306738-resources-to-find-books---please-try-before-posting

Obviously the more details/ clues you can think of the better.

I know this isn't what you're looking for, but I'm just posting this because it's such a "fantastic" magazine cover.



I used to collect the Three Investigators novels when I was a kid (with Jupiter Jones, in case anyone remembers that, and I had the Hardy Boys ones).

Edited by Logan - September 12 2019 at 22:07

There's one with a cat called The Case of the Cat with the Missing Ear.

I did come across one earlier called an Ear For Trouble from the Crimebusters series which came out in 1989, but that series came out in 1989 and 1990, which may be a little too new even if you found it in 1989, and I don't think they had puzzle pieces on the cover.   Those novellas would be mostly aimed at tweens, I think.

The closest thing I can find that is called "The Ear" from that time period is a book by Anita Jackson published in 1979 by Fearon-Pitman in the U.S. (57 pages) and in 1976 by Hutchinson in the U.K. (47 pages)

^That's great! I'm glad I could be of some assistance.