Case File 023 · Interrogation and Detective Games

Best Detective Games for Mobile

Detective and mystery games with confirmed iOS and Android versions, compared by how you investigate and which stores carry them.

By Murder Book Editorial TeamPublished 16 September 2026Updated 16 September 2026

The best detective games for mobile are the ones built around tapping, reading and reasoning, so nothing is lost on a small screen. Strong picks with confirmed iOS and Android versions:

The Case of the Golden Idol and The Rise of the Golden Idol: deduce what happened from frozen scenes.
Criminal Case: a free hidden-object detective game with crime scenes, lab work and suspects.
Duskwood: investigate a disappearance through a messenger-style chat app.
Her Story: search a police database of video interviews.
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc: murder investigations followed by tense class trials.
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective: a ghost investigates his own death.
Interrogation: Deceived: question suspects in dialogue puzzles.
Jenny LeClue – Detectivú: a young detective tries to clear her mother of murder.
SIMULACRA: search a missing woman's phone.

Coming later, Murder Book is an upcoming interrogation game planned for mobile and PC, with cases designed for 5–10-minute sessions.

Key takeaways

Every main pick below has an iOS listing on the App Store and an Android listing on Google Play, checked in September 2026.
Mobile suits detective games that rely on reading, tapping and thinking rather than fast controls.
Some games are free to download, while others are premium ports of PC and console games.
Several good mysteries are currently confirmed on iOS only, so check your store before planning around them.
Murder Book is an upcoming interrogation game with short cases, planned for PC (Steam) and mobile.

What makes a detective game work on mobile?

A detective game plays well on a phone or tablet when its core actions translate naturally to touch: selecting clues, choosing words, reading messages and dragging answers into place. Games that fake a phone interface, such as Duskwood and SIMULACRA, go one step further and use the device itself as part of the fiction.

Session length matters too. Games split into cases, episodes or chapters are easier to fit into a commute than a single long investigation. For more on that, see Detective Games You Can Play in Short Sessions.

For this list, a game only counts as available on a platform if an official App Store or Google Play listing, or the developer's own site, confirmed it. Platforms change, so check the store in your region before buying.

Best detective games for mobile at a glance

Game	Developer	What you do	iOS	Android
The Case of the Golden Idol	Color Gray Games	Examine frozen scenes of deaths and reconstruct what happened	Yes	Yes
The Rise of the Golden Idol	Color Gray Games	Collect key words from scenes and testimony to fill in deductions	Yes	Yes
Criminal Case	Pretty Simple	Search crime scenes, analyse evidence, question suspects	Yes	Yes
Duskwood	Everbyte	Investigate a disappearance through chats, photos and calls	Yes	Yes
Her Story	Sam Barlow	Search a 1990s police database of interview clips	Yes	Yes
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc	Spike Chunsoft	Investigate murders, then expose lies in class trials	Yes	Yes
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective	Capcom	Possess objects and rewind time to uncover who killed you	Yes	Yes
Interrogation: Deceived	Critique Gaming	Question suspects through dialogue puzzles	Yes	Yes
Jenny LeClue – Detectivú	Mografi	Explore a town and make deductions to clear your mother	Yes	Yes
SIMULACRA	Kaigan Games	Search a missing woman's phone for what happened	Yes	Yes

The Case of the Golden Idol and The Rise of the Golden Idol

The Case of the Golden Idol (Color Gray Games, Playstack, 2022) presents a series of deaths as frozen scenes. You examine each one for clues, then fill in names, motives and events to explain what happened. The official site describes 12 murders. On the App Store it is free to try, with one purchase unlocking "12 scenarios and 6 bonus cases".

The Rise of the Golden Idol (2024) keeps the same format with a new set of cases. You gather key words from what you observe and from witness testimony, then use them to complete deductions about who did what and why. Steam and the official site describe 20 cases.

Because each scene is a self-contained puzzle, both games suit short play sessions well.

Best for: players who enjoy pure deduction. See Games Like The Case of the Golden Idol.

Criminal Case

Criminal Case (Pretty Simple) is a free-to-download hidden-object detective game set in the fictional city of Grimsborough. Its App Store description lays out the loop: search crime scenes for hidden objects and clues against the clock, send findings to the lab, bring suspects in for questioning, and arrest the killer once the evidence is solid. The same listing says the city hides 56 murder cases.

The timed searches make it more arcade-like than the other picks here, but it offers a lot of cases.

Best for: players who want a long-running, casual case-solving game.

Duskwood

Duskwood (Everbyte, 2019) is told through a messenger-style chat app. A woman named Hannah has disappeared, and you exchange messages with her friends, reviewing photos, voice messages and video calls as you try to work out what happened. Its App Store listing notes that the game is released in episodes.

It is one of the clearest examples of a mystery designed for the phone rather than ported to it.

Best for: players who like story-driven mysteries in short bursts. See Games Like Duskwood.

Her Story

Her Story (Sam Barlow, 2015) puts you in front of a 1990s police computer. You type search terms and watch clips from seven interviews with a British woman about her missing husband. The official site lists iPad, iPhone and Android alongside PC and Mac.

Searching and watching work comfortably on a touchscreen, and a tablet makes the video easier to study.

Best for: players who like to interpret testimony at their own pace.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (Spike Chunsoft) traps a group of students in a school turned into a prison. When murders happen, you investigate, collect clues and talk to classmates. Then, in class trials, you pick apart suspects' statements and fire their words back at them to expose lies. Steam notes that trials use timing and reflex-based systems, so it is not entirely slow-paced.

Best for: players who want investigations that build to dramatic trial scenes.

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective (Capcom; HD version 2023) casts you as Sissel, a ghost trying to uncover who killed him. You possess and manipulate objects and rewind time to solve puzzles. It leans towards puzzle-solving rather than questioning, but the whole story is a mystery about a death.

Best for: players who enjoy inventive puzzles inside a murder mystery.

Interrogation: Deceived

On mobile, Interrogation: You will be deceived (Critique Gaming, published by Assemble Entertainment) appears under the title Interrogation: Deceived. You play a detective hunting a terrorist group, questioning suspects in dialogue puzzles while managing your team. The PC version's Steam content notes mention symbolic, non-graphic depictions of torture among the methods available.

Best for: players who want interrogation as a strategic puzzle. For more questioning-focused picks, see Best Interrogation Games for PC.

Jenny LeClue – Detectivú

Jenny LeClue – Detectivú (Mografi, 2019 on Steam) follows a young detective in the town of Arthurton whose mother is accused of murder. You explore, examine people during conversations for visible clues and make deductions to clear her name.

Best for: players who want a lighter, illustrated adventure with a real mystery at its centre.

SIMULACRA

SIMULACRA (Kaigan Games, 2017) is played entirely through the interface of a phone that belongs to a missing woman. You read her messages, emails and gallery, recover corrupted data and solve decryption puzzles. Steam describes it as an interactive horror experience with 5 possible endings, and the App Store notes that characters are played by live actors.

Best for: players who want a tense mystery that uses the phone as the crime scene.

Which mobile detective games are currently confirmed on iOS only?

Some well-known mysteries have a confirmed App Store listing but no Android listing that we could verify:

Tangle Tower (SFB Games): a point-and-click murder mystery in a mansion. The Google Play link on its official site returned an error when checked.
Detective Grimoire (SFB Games): a murder investigation at a swamp tourist attraction. Its Google Play link also returned an error.
Lacuna – A Sci-Fi Noir Adventure (DigiTales Interactive): a branching noir investigation where wrong answers are not undone.
Sara Is Missing (Kaigan Games): a free found-phone mystery from the studio behind SIMULACRA.

Two games covered elsewhere on the Casebook are also confirmed on both iOS and Android: Papers, Please, where you inspect documents at a border checkpoint, and Overboard!, a reverse whodunnit where you play the killer.

How do you choose a detective game for your phone?

You want something free to start: Criminal Case, Duskwood, or the free trial of The Case of the Golden Idol.
You want pure deduction: the Golden Idol games.
You want a story told through your phone: Duskwood or SIMULACRA.
You want to question suspects: Interrogation: Deceived or Danganronpa.
You only have a few minutes at a time: look for games split into short scenes or cases, such as the Golden Idol games.

Is there an upcoming detective game for mobile with short cases?

Yes. Murder Book: The Art of Interrogation is an upcoming narrative interrogation game from Gungrounds, an independent studio founded in 2016 in Zagreb, Croatia. It is being built for exactly the kind of play this list is about: cases are designed for focused 5–10-minute sessions, so you can start and finish one in a single sitting.

Instead of searching scenes, you examine a suspect's story. Development screenshots show an in-game casebook of behaviours such as Avoidance, Stress Response and Fabrication, and an evidence board for linking statements that do not fit together. Cases branch, and a case map tracks endings and completion, which gives short cases a reason to be replayed.

Murder Book is in development for PC (Steam) and mobile, with release currently planned for the end of Q2 2027. Read Why Murder Book Cases Are Designed for 5–10-Minute Sessions.