A mystery game for two

A new episode opens for every player at the same time, so you can start together. Each of you has your own free account, notebook, timeline and answers, and each of you files your own answers and gets your own score. There is no shared notebook and no team mode. You compare in person, on a call or in a message thread.

Episode 1 is free for both of you. To read past it, each of you needs a Case Pass, which belongs to the account that buys it.

Once you have filed your answers, the last step offers Invite an investigator. It sends a friend the case and only the case: not your suspect, your theory or your score. It is a good way to bring a partner in after you have started.

• Read apart, then meet. Each of you reads the episode alone and makes marks. Then trade the one mark you each think matters most.
• Write your suspect down first. Tell somebody who you think did it and all they can do is agree. Write it on paper, then compare.
• Argue the timeline. Lay your timelines side by side. Did one of you mark a time as recorded where the other marked it remembered? Where is the longest gap?
• Swap sides. Spend five minutes each defending the other person’s theory. It shows you where your own is thin.
• Pick a night. A standing evening each week, a pot of coffee and the next episode makes a good habit. A book club can do the same, with everybody bringing their notebook.

Answers are final once filed, and they close when the next episode opens. Decide as a pair whether you will talk before filing or after.

Talking first is more of a team effort. Filing first keeps your scores honest, because neither of you can borrow the other’s reasoning, and you can still argue it all out afterwards. Either works. Pick one so nobody feels ambushed.

Nobody is behind. A Case Pass opens every episode already released the moment it is bought, so a late starter can catch up in an evening and join the next episode on time.