"The Tale of the Disappearing Beauty" - Cooperative Sherlock Mystery Game

Excellent my wife and I spent a brilliant night pondering over the case following clues going up dead ends a really great and entertaining experience for two Homes nuts.

As someone who loves Sherlock Holmes, I was thrilled to get The Disappearing Beauty for my Birthday. Just two of us deduced what happend for a date night. It was well put together, some clues are more obvious than others but lots to look at and read to keep you guessing. We really enjoyed it and will definitely get another.

The increased interest in escape rooms and puzzle solving leads to items like these. At the price point they have set the materials are adequate, the level of acting in both voice overs do leave a little to be desired. As for the level of difficulty, medium at best. If you have never experienced a detective game before, this is a good introduction. If you are experienced, this will not tax you too highly.

It was me, the wife, who bought this. I was looking for something fun to do with the husband on a Friday night. He was totally not bothered and had a couldn't arsed attitude. This changed within minutes of opening the first envelope.... he was hooked, as was I. Great way to spend an evening. Can't wait to try the other ones now.

Much like any other day here at Bucket List HQ, the rattling of the letterbox around dinner time today signified the arrival of the friendly village postie.

However, when I wandered to the porch to investigate which selection of bills and pizza flyers had been deposited today, I found a most curious package waiting for me!

Inside was a mystery in 5 Parts; The Tale of the Disappearing Beauty!

With Halloween just around the corner I enlisted the help of Burgie the Raven and together we set about reading the opening letter from none other than Mr John Watson himself… the game was afoot!

‘The Tale of the Disappearing Beauty’ is the debut cooperative mystery game from Sherlock Investigates, a UK based publisher with a love for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Canon of Sherlock Holmes.

Players are tasked with matching the speed and brilliance of 221b Baker Street’s most prolific resident, sifting through a plethora of high-quality evidence provided by Holmes right-hand man, Dr Watson.

Burgy and I are still working on the case, but what do we think to ‘The Tale of the Disappearing Beauty’ so far?

Firstly, the components are great, all high quality and with a really professional finish to each piece of evidence we have cast our investigative eyes over so far. A few of the pages could have been made double sided to cut back on paper and costs, but I suspect this was done so they can be shared around the group quicker when initially kicking off the game - if so this is a nice touch, especially when there is an impatient player in your group.

Unfortunately I can’t show more in the pictures, as I don’t want to ruin anything, but believe me this is nicely put together!

Where Sherlock Investigates really steals the show is in its prose. Written as closely as they could get it to Doyle’s work, the text flows and immediately immerses you in the situation. Short of having someone with an old-timey British accent reading it out to me with a classical score accompanying them in the background, I don’t think this element could have been improved.

The puzzles, at least the ones we’ve cracked so far, are challenging but not impossible to work out- no moon logic or huge leaps of faith required here. It is also made clear in the opening paragraphs that Sherlock knows his stuff, and if he has said something you can take it as absolute, which thematically makes it clear what is cold hard fact as you continue your investigations.

Each part requires the player to make a grand deduction, the correct answer residing in the next envelope along. However, if at any point the investigation looks to be hitting a brick wall, a handy QR code is provided to supply hints. This is obviously a little harder for Watson to explain away, but he does a good job of it none the less.

The closest comparison to what Sherlock Investigates have done here would be the fantastic Detective Society boxes, especially as they come in around the same price point (or at least they would if you could still purchase The Detective Society boxes separately.)

‘The Tale of the Disappearing Beauty’ rivals the quality of those boxes in my opinion. The Detective Society may have all the ‘bells and whistles’ of actual texts, emails and phone calls, but this doesn’t NEED them to feel just as immersive, the writing and theme does that adequately well.

Plus it means you can play it with your more technophobic friends and relatives and still have a bloody good time!

Anyway, Burgy and I better get our deerstalkers back on and crack on with the case, but we can’t wait to see what is next from Sherlock Investigates!