There's loads of puzzle games that are great for this! Off the top of my head, check out Lorelei and the Laser eyes, the recent Monkey Island, Case of the Golden Monkey, the two Talos Principle games, maybe The Witness?
I am not sure how well a non gamer would take it. I recall some tricky platforming or timing sections which would be too much.
As a matter of fact, I recall I had to cheat to lookup the solution to a puzzle or two, only to discover I had the right idea, but was executing it too poorly to work.
I'd add Chants of Sennaar to this list. It's similar to Case of the Golden Idol/Obra Dinn in that the entire game is about making deductions about the game world, but in this case it's about decoding fantasy languages.
