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Small-Town Secrets
How it works

The police have their evidence. What do you see?

Small-Town Secrets is a crime-fiction case told one week at a time, and you work it yourself. Each week’s episode is the evidence the investigators have. You read it, mark what matters in your own words, and put the night back together from what you found.

A player opens the vehicle recovery report on the desk, presses Mark, boxes the line that says when the car was found, writes it in their own words, puts it on their timeline and stars it as a key event.

Three steps, every episode

  1. The desk open on a police vehicle recovery report, with a row of exhibit tabs above it and the player’s notebook beside it.

    Open the exhibits.

    Each episode is a set of exhibits: police reports, witness statements, photographs and logs. Each one opens full screen on the desk, the screen where you read and take notes. Move between them with the tabs, zoom in on small print, and read a typed copy where one exists.

  2. A box being drawn round one paragraph of a police CCTV evidence log, with Mark a line switched on above it.

    Mark what matters.

    Press Mark a line, then draw a box around the line that matters. Write what it tells you in your own words, as a fact, an assumption or a question. Nothing is filled in for you: what you notice is yours.

  3. A timeline of one Saturday evening: three moments in order, each with the mark it came from and a note in the player’s words.

    Build your timeline.

    Give anything you marked the time the exhibit shows. Then say how you know it: a clock recorded it, someone remembers it, or you worked it out. It goes on your timeline in order. Star the moments your theory rests on, then look hard at the gaps between them.

New evidence every Sunday.

Start Episode 1 free.

A week on the case

Each Sunday a new episode opens, with a few questions about it. Answer them before the next episode opens, name the exhibits that prove your answers, and write down what you think happened so far. Nothing tells you whether your theory is right: finding that out is the case.

Episode 1 is free in every case. You don’t need an account to read it. Answer as you go, and create a free account to file your answers. A short briefing walks you through your first two marks on real exhibits.

Episode 1 is free. The complete case is $8.99 with code FIRSTSHIFT until 25 Dec (usually $14.99), plus tax at checkout, paid once. No subscription. See pricing

Every control, one chapter at a time: How to Play.