Murder Mystery Party Case File Puzzles: The Art of Murder

I own the german version by kosmos.

I'm usually more into "proper" boardgames, and my wife and I love the murder mystery ones in particular (SHCD, Chronicles of Crime, Watson & Holmes) so our expectation was not super-high when we opened the box. But we do like a good puzzle too so a one-time case that's re-giftable sounded like a no-brainer. 1- the puzzle(s): good production quality, no dust, well packaged, good thickness, clips well. The small ones are an easy task to bang out when you need a quick break from your schedule. The big one is a banger, definitely on the harder side in part because all the borders are virtually the same.... but at the same time every element on the image is classifiable by color/style/font/graininess so while it took some time, it was quite enjoyable a challenge. 2- the mystery: good difficulty level, makes you think and go over the clues multiple times but you can definitely reach the solution (I did, my wife lost focus and didn't). I still missed a couple clues that cleared 2 suspects definitely, so you may have to go with storytelling instincts a bit but the culprit is clear once you see it. I should add that the website portion is fairly basic but has a good and progressive hint system which was a pleasure to peruse afterwards for the added context.

Regarding the content rating: it's for adults, and it concerns a graphic death in the NYC art scene. Specifically during an art exhibit with Murder as the theme. I don't see it as "controversial" really, but know what you're getting.

My friend and I were initially excited by the concept of a murder mystery puzzle. The puzzles themselves were definitely entertaining, forming a clue board and evidence made the anticipation even greater! There were no quality issues with the product whatsoever, loved that particular part. It was super charming in concept. We put in a lot of effort, created a large timeline on paper charting the comings and goings of characters, googling UNHOMOGENISED MILK (its a sore spot) and using google maps to gauge real travel times in New York! The game specifically told us to use google for helping to solve in game myseries, it felt good, overall we got a lot of laughs and fun little jokes. Unfortunately, our passion turned to confusion and dismay as we approached the end of our sleuthing journey. MAJOR spoilers from here on out, so if you'd like to do this yourself pls go do that. But also don't. I'm not your dad, live your dreams.

The Issues:

Evidence puzzle #3 was a total headache. You couldn't understand what you were actually looking at. I even sent a picture to my partner with no context, asking what he thought it was. He had n o idea. We tried different angles, lighting, everything. Only reading the solutions told you what they were: HANDCUFFS. Apparently we were meant to infer who they were used on, and come to the asinine conclusion that Fillipo, a suspect, got locked up in them in a storage closet by the victim pre-death, and therefore was not where he said he was at the time of the murder, despite there being literally no supporting evidence ANYWHERE in the story that that happened. This meant he did not have an alibi, naturally making him more suspicious, but not having anything to suggest it was a red herring either. You could only find that out in the solution. The biggest hint we could find was that we suspected said character and the dead man were lovers, and the corpse had a bruise on his wrist that c o u l d have been from handcuffs. Or, yknow, the murder that just happened where physical violence had been inflicted on him. If you're confused about what that sentence actually said, sorry, that's how we felt. At no point are you ever given a n y reason to even speculate that the evidence are handcuffs. We thought they were made of wood, maybe a bizarre door hinge padlocked to a shelf???

• This particular gripe is to do with the aforementioned unhomogenised milk (shaking crying throwing up) relating to a Keri, another suspect, who does death latte art (no I will not elaborate). Apparently, we were meant to know the specific milk Keri uses for their latte art to rule out their being the murderer, because they were driving all the way to New F*cking Jersey?? The MILK that was initially ordered was wrong, but in the characters OWN POLICE STATEMENT they say they were given the wrong COFFEE, NOT MILK. IN THE ACTUAL ART GUIDE BOOK, it does NOT mention the correct milk a t all. The website provided on the games instructions for hints even directed us to the milk delivery evidence, saying the milk was important. But the company name Happy Farms and any information about that milk being what Keri uses, and that they had to go get it themselves just... wasn't anywhere. No one else's statement, no other evidence at all. We were just magically supposed to know this as it only turned up in the solutions. As you can imagine, this left us on a goose chase, for 15 minutes, staring at the evidence puzzle, wondering what we had missed and googling anything to do with unhomogenised milk (even double checked AFTER we finished, there is no Happy Farms in New Jersey) New Jersey and literally anything we could figure out that would link the milk to the mystery, and came up short. We would have been more understanding if there was mention of the other milk brand literally ANYWHERE other than the solutions. The game wanted us to do all this to rule out Keri, despite ruling them out for other extremely obvious reasons. You can't push someone through a solid wall to impale them on an art piece on the other side, Sharon.

• Honestly, we weren't actually given enough to hone in on one certain person. With the exception of 3 characters (Keri, Daisy and Larry), the others were all people you practically had to go on "vibes" for. Fillipo because of the shocking lack of alibi, which the game prefaced us to look for for all characters, only to blindside you with the handcuffs stitchup literally never mentioned throughout the case. Roger, a deliberately elusive snob who wants to be implicated but not locked up, as stated by himself in his own interview, needs you to know he went to business school, is vague and annoying, giving you absolutely nothing, and then berates you for following very reasonable logic like having a motive (gaining loads of money for his death themed art and being angry about a contract being changed) being in the right place at (potentially) the right time, (standing in the entrance IN FRONT of the statue) and the having means to kill Augustus (us being led to believe from a photo he would have the ability to do so). Maybe because it was too obvious? Regardless, it was annoying and didn't feel like it merited beinf chastised, especially with crucial evidence being revealed only in the solutions.

• Maybe a little petty, but Irma was practically disregarded in her interview, and had a very strong false alibi (which was actually great). We did miss the detail of a fake food delievery company on a paper food bag that undid her whole story, that was on us. However, the pettiness stems from a receipt on the major corkboard, ripped off the paper food bag which simply said take away, no implication of an actual delivery like you would see on a proper uber eats receipt. The only evidence was a lazy security guard saying: "we received 3 deliveries today". It's yet another situation you're left to simply infer vs getting proper, tangible evidence for. I even used google maps to chart the travel time and rule out Irma as the killer, which seemed to be what the game had wanted us to do at the start??

There is too much speculation required, and a red herring disguised as a piece of vital evidence with zilch to lead you to it is solely frustrating. You essentially get sucked in to figuring out the wrong things, but theyre framed as actual important pieces of the "puzzle". Crossing my fingers and hoping the next one won't be as strange as this one!