Six Shooter Mystery Reading Challenge 2025

Today's highlighted author: Erle Stanley Gardner writer of the DA Doug Selby mystery series. Click Sylvia Owl to see is targeting this author and read some of The Mystillery's reviews !

Welcome to the Six Shooter Mystery Reading Challenge for 2025! Your goal is simple: shoot (read) six mysteries by the same target (author). That gives you a notch on your gun, and a perfect 1.000 score; and you can call it done. But wait, there's more! You get bonus points for each additional notch. Unlike many reading challenges, reading more books may not necessarily help your score. Scores are not based upon quantity, but rather focus in completing your target(s). No advance signup needed. This is a family friendly challenge - young series readers are encouraged to get some safe target practice here! Just read the General Information page and then take a shot to begin. R I C O C H E T S from the S H O O T I N G   G A L L E R Y: Dec 27: Linda B (Kentucky) carves notch #20 with author Agatha Christie! Dec 27: Participation in the 2025 Mystery Marathon is 99.9% complete, with just about everybody just sitting around the snack tent and eating all the goodies which we shelled out good money for. Therefore, for these last few days of 2025, any submissions for Mystery Marathon will be applied to your *2026* run. The annual Rollover is coming as we tidy up the shooting gallery! On January 1, all completed targets will be removed. Partially-completed targets will roll over into the 2026 challenge. If you have any partially-completed targets you wish removed, email the authors to your host and they will not roll over. This challenge will return for a fresh start in 2026! The web page address will change. You can preview and bookmark the 2026 version at this link. As usual, no advance signup needed.       Review previous challenges: 2019 • 2020 • 2021 • 2022 • 2023 • 2024

Shooting Gallery Annual Report for 2025

	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
Gunslingers	8	18	21	24	33	26	27
Total shots taken	192	619	1065	1421	1559	2076	?
Total notches carved	27	64	108	158	188	265	?
Average shots per gunslinger	24	34	50	50	47	79	?
Average notches per gunslinger	3.37	3.55	5.14	6.58	5.69	10.19	?

Who else took a shot at my book? Enter Author or Title:

SHOOTING GALLERY updated SUN DEC 28 2025 @ 6.00 PM EST
Gunslingers 2 7		Shots 1 2 7 3	Notches 1 7 1	TCP chart	+ bonus	= score	Targets	FMI
	Linda B Kentucky	111	20	1.081	1.900	2.981
	Karen A New Mexico	127	16	0.755	1.500	2.255
	Avid Series Reader New Mexico	54	11	1.222	1.000	2.222
	Rick Mills Maine	79	13	0.987	1.200	2.187
	SueC Utah	73	12	0.986	1.100	2.086
	Tina Hilbert Ohio	137	15	0.656	1.400	2.056		?
	batkat West Virginia	76	12	0.947	1.100	2.047
	Beth M North Carolina	58	10	1.034	0.900	1.934
	OutsmartYourShelf The United Kingdom	53	9	1.018	0.800	1.818
	Sanacrow Tennessee	30	6	1.200	0.500	1.700
Gunslinger		Shots	Notches	TCP	+ bonus	= score	Targets	FMI
	YalondaReads Germany	37	6	0.972	0.500	1.472
	Bev "Annie Oakley" Hankins Indiana	30	5	1.000	0.400	1.400
	Karen Baroness Texas	16	3	1.125	0.200	1.325
	JenneB Pennsylvania	34	5	0.882	0.400	1.282
	Colleen Illinois	62	7	0.677	0.600	1.277
	Jjean Texas	30	4	0.800	0.300	1.100
	Lynn Pennsylvania	6	1	1.000	0	1.000
	Tari Hann Ohio	7	1	0.857	0	0.857
	Terry M. Minnesota	29	3	0.620	0.200	0.820
	Vallery Louisiana	98	5	0.306	0.400	0.706
Gunslinger		Shots	Notches	TCP	+ bonus	= score	Targets	FMI
	Erika Morris California	22	2	0.545	0.100	0.645
	Shannon The Netherlands	24	2	0.500	0.100	0.600
	Traci L. Illinois	39	2	0.307	0.100	0.407
	Jen McFarren Texas	28	1	0.214	0	0.214
	Dianne Lebold Ontario	9	0	0	0	0
	Scott Nickels Georgia	4	0	0	0	0
	Morgan H Australia	1	0	0	0	0
Gunslinger		Shots	Notches	TCP	+ bonus	= score	Targets	FMI

    Ambiguous instructions and arbitrary rules are found on the General Information page.

Key to symbols
Notch	Sets of six books by one author completed
TCP	Target Completion Percentage. This is similar to a baseball batting average. Ratio of notches achieved to the number of shots taken. The formula is (notches/shots)*6. See the chart (PDF). Shots which complete a target will increase your TCP. Shots which do not complete a target will decrease your TCP. A perfect TCP is 1.000 or any multiple.
Shots	Number of books read
Bonus	Each notch (beyond the first one) directly adds a 0.100 bonus
Score	TCP + bonus
	Moved up
	New or updated today
	Update pending
	Goodreads librarian
	Perfect (1.000 or multiple)
	Sharpshooter level (score 1.000+ at some point)
	Booksniper level (score 2.000+ at some point)
	Ammonuensis level (score 3.000+ at some point)
	High column stat
	2nd place column stat
	Shooting Gallery
?	Tracker page
	Blog
	Goodreads profile
	Mystillery group on Goodreads
	Instagram
	Paperback Swap bookshelf

A Mystillery challenge hosted by Rick Mills rickmills9@gmail.com