Last month, I had a lot of fun reading Antony Johnson’s Can You Solve This Murder? (I didn’t), and I looked forward to having more opportunities of playing armchair detective. One of my readers, Macon Leary, suggested I look into a game called Cryptic Killers. For twenty bucks, you can receive a case file containing all the evidence you need to solve a murder. There are about a dozen of these files available, and they are ranked in difficulty on a scale from 3 to 5. Macon warned me that the easier cases are, in his opinion, pretty “meh” and that the best experience happens if you don’t rush through the game. (The makers suggest that solving a case takes about three hours.

I chose Murder at Merivale Manor because 1) Macon informed me it is possibly the only case set in the Golden Age, and 2) it ranked as a “4” in difficulty – not too easy, not too hard. I set aside a Sunday (yesterday, in fact) to wallow in the experience and try to solve the 1927 murder of Astrid Pelham at a posh Long Island estate. This is actually a cold case that has been reopened by the great-grandson of the detective originally in charge of the investigation. The blurb on the back of the package promises that the file contains “photographs, statements, maps, and newspaper clippings”– all the evidence I will need!. 

“You will piece together the clues to finally solve the mystery of Astrid Pelham’s death. But be warned, as you delve deeper into the case, you’ll discover that not everyone is as innocent as they appear. Your mission is clear: read through the evidence, find alibis for the innocent suspects, and, through the process of elimination, find the killer!”

The file contains thirty pieces of physical evidence (the harder the case, the more evidence you have to sift through) – but that’s not all I’ll need! It turns out that there is an internet component to the game and that I’ll have to crack some sort of code to gain access to it and find further clues to consider. 

Acting on instructions, the first thing I did was lay out all the included evidence and match it against a checklist in the detective’s notes. (You are given a website where you can download any missing evidence.) I have to say I was impressed by the look of the game materials: there were cool photographs of the setting and the suspects, a glossy flyer all about Merivale Manor that contained Golden Age style maps of each floor, another map of the neighborhood, newspaper articles, telegrams, and lots of other cool material to study! As I would discover, each item contained information that would be helpful to me, either as a clue toward the killer’s identity and methods or as a means of eliminating another suspect.

I figured a good sleuth must be organized – while I adore Jane Marple, I figured her dithery approach only works when partnered with the by-the-book investigative style of Inspector Dermot Craddock! And so I began by reading the modern detective’s notes and then examining each piece of evidence as it was listed. What this meant was that I was starting with the barest bones of information: Astrid had fallen from the third-floor balcony of Merivale Manor during a 4^th of July family gathering in 1927 and had been impaled on the trident of a statue of Neptune in the courtyard. It’s a nice gruesome death, but it’s all the information I had to start with. And I guess that’s the same for any homicide detective approaching a new case: body found, now figure it all out! But it makes you think about how coddled we often are when we read a classic mystery: we meet all the suspects and get a head start on motives and alibis before the murder is even committed!

I checked the list, found all the evidence intact and decided to read each piece in order. Thus we begin with some spooky fun, as the creation of the manor in 1854 is surrounded by colorful history involving a duel of dubious merit, a missing corpse, and a vengeful spirit roaming the halls of the manor to exact revenge on the Merivale descendants.  This gave a little Carr-ian touch to the proceedings. Soon enough, we start getting information about the Merivale family and the significant guests who would become suspects on the fateful day. Reading the evidence in the order it was listed gave me the chance to shift my focus from one person to another and to gather bits of evidence and potential clues in a pleasing manner. There was no info dump or massive amounts of dry information to read; rather the sources I was given formed a fascinating mixture of documents that were fun to peruse.

Still, I took careful notes and a few interesting threads began to emerge. These helped me to find the solution. I will say this, however: there were all kinds of clues, and I managed to solve the case by utilizing the evidence that dealt with human drama, the sort of stuff that appeals to me when I read a mystery, rather than the dryer forms of evidence, such as timetables. (You know I prefer Christie to Crofts, folks!) What I sometimes didn’t notice were carefully planted bits of information that helped eliminate innocent suspects. I got some of it but certainly not all. A much better detective than I will no doubt find these. I guess I’m more of a Miss Marple than I thought – and it’s nice to know that there are avenues to success for all types of armchair detectives.

The creators supply a way for a stymied player to obtain hints, and I must confess that I needed to make use of this – but only once when I was trying to come up with the password to let me access the hidden online documents. This password required three pieces of information, and while I found two of them easily, I failed to notice a sentence that would have allowed me to do the math and find a significant date. I’m glad I availed myself of this hint because the hidden documents were necessary for me to solve the case. (Perhaps they make solving the murder too easy – but I still got my three hours+ of fun.)

Cryptic Killers can be played alone, but frankly sitting here all day reading the file left me with a certain feeling of exhaustion from having spent the whole time by myself indoors. I think that would have been mitigated by having some fellow sleuths with whom to explore the case and bounce off ideas. So I would love to try playing another case file as a group.Also, this isn’t a game you can really play again, so another lucky soul will be receiving this as a gift from me at some point. 

I owe a debt of gratitude to Macon Leary for steering me in the direction of another enjoyable solve-it-yourself mystery opportunity. If any of you know about other great games, let me know!

I also want to remind you that I’m looking for YOUR feedback as to who you think are the best detectives in all of crime fiction. Sergio Angelini, Nick Cardillo and I will be drafting the TOP TWENTY DETECTIVES in mid-March, and TWO of those selections will be yours. Please drop your favorite in the comments section linked here, or e-mail your choice to me at ahsweetmysteryblog@gmail.com.