Hi. Barb here, feeling nostalgic about mystery games.
It was not until I was a grown-up with kids of my own that I discovered the ultimate mystery game: Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective. When our kids were small, Bill and I used to vacation with another couple, and once we had wrestled the three, and later four kids to bed, we played this game every single night.
The game, which was published in 1981, had the best game board ever. A map of London. To this day, huge swaths of my London geography knowledge hark back to what I learned playing this game.
The players take turns moving around London and collecting clues. You might start at the scene of the crime, or go Scotland Yard to find out what they’ll tell you. You interview witnesses, who lead you to others with information and suspects. There’s a newspaper for each day of the case, where you can read reports of what’s happened, but also check the advertisements, personal ads and articles that at first seem unrelated. If you are stuck and suspect has an international angle, you might consult with Mycroft. Or maybe hang around the Inns of Court and hear what the gossip is.
We would play for hours, often interrupted by encore appearances by our offspring. One memorable night the five-year-old appeared on the balcony ringing the two story living room to announce, “Mom! Dad! My heart’s stopped beating!” Reassured that his heart had certainly not stopped beating, he was led off again to bed.
Together the players decide when they are ready to name the suspect and provide their theory of the case. Then you answer eight to ten questions, comparing your solution to Sherlock’s. The trick is to know when enough is enough, when you have enough clues to make the intuitive leaps required to construct the right solution.
The game later had extensions, additional cases and boards. Even later, it became a video game, but we never followed it there. To me, it’s just happy memories of long summer nights, relaxing with good friends.
Do you have a favorite mystery game? Any other Sherlock players out there?
There’s a game I played when I was visiting relatives, but unfortunately I can’t remember the name, only that it took place on an island, and one of the players was committing the murders and the others had to figure out which one it was. As I recall, the murderer had to kill a certain number of people, then succeed in getting off the island before the others figured it out.
Ooh, Sandra, that sounds intriguing. I wonder if we can figure it out. Readers-does this game sound familiar?
Barb,
The Sherlock Holmes games sounds fascinating. Not that I’d be any good at it. Monopoly is about as complex as I get. On the other hand . . . there’s a map.
I think I had a Nancy Drew game once. I don’t remember much about it, though.
Kathy/Kaitlyn
I have a vague memory of a Nancy Drew game, too, Kaitlyn.
I have to say that now that the kids are grown, it’s mostly Scrabble, poker and Monopoly.
Hi Barb,
I never heard of this game before, but it sounds like one that I would have loved playing with family and friends! I wish I had a copy of it now. It would be great for holiday get-togethers, especially for a group of mystery, and especially Sherlock, lovers like us.
Sadly, Reine, it is out-of-print, though still frequently available on Ebay, Amazon and the like.
Awww…