Called Murdle, it sold 52,549 copies in the UK in the week ending 16 December to claim the number one spot in the last bestseller list to be published before Christmas Day, Nielsen BookData revealed.

GT Karber's mysteries have beaten a number of successful reads this year, including the latest in Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club series and Friends star Matthew Perry's memoir.

"Murdle has been a consistent top 10 bestseller since it was published this summer," Philip Stone, an analyst at Nielsen BookData said.

"However, its sales have really ramped up in recent weeks. Crime pays in the UK book market."

He said £125m had been spent on crime novels in the UK in 2023, with a further £5m spent on true crime non-fiction books.

Murdle has sold 204,000 copies in the UK since it hit the shelves in June.

Its sequel, Murdle: More Killer Puzzles, was published in October and has sold 21,000 copies to date.

A third collection, Murdle: Even More Killer Puzzles, is due to be published in May next year.

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The Guinness World Records book took the top spot last year. Other previous winners include The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman and The Beat of Buckingham Palace by David Walliams.

Here is the full list of this year's UK Top 10 bestsellers:

1. Murdle
2. Guinness World Records (Guinness)
3. The Last Devil to Die (Richard Osman)
4. Heartstopper Volume 5 (Alice Oseman)
5. Pinch of Nom: Express (Kay and Kate Allinson)
6. Private Eye Annual 2023 (Ian Hislop, ed.)
7. Politics on the Edge (Rory Stewart)
8. Impossible Creatures (Katherine Rundell)
9. Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing (Matthew Perry)
10. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (Gabrielle Zevin)