Thread by @jasoncordova6

We recently held a mystery writing contest for Brindlewood Bay and I’m going to do capsule reviews for each entry!

This thread is for the Murder Mysteries. There’s another thread for the Sweeps Week Mysteries.

If you want to follow along, the mysteries can be found in this folder: drive.google.com/drive/folders/…

I’m going to focus on the things I liked in each mystery. The judges have finished their work, so there’s no longer need to maintain anonymity; you are free to comment or share as you wish, or reveal yourself as the author of a particular entry.

A KILLER AFTER HER OWN HEART

This mystery takes place in and around RomCONclave, a gathering of elite romance novelists. The group’s petty squabbling is disrupted when author Karen-Susanna Tesdall is found dead in her hotel room, a letter opener piercing her heart!

The thing that stands out most to me in this entry is that the author has a distinct point of view. The mystery deftly captures the toxic elements that spring up around creative communities, especially *very online* creative communities.

The wars that are famous in, say, the YA community or the comic book community are very prevalent here.

I also like that the mystery has a good sense of the Brindlewood Bay setting, and how this mystery functions as the romance novel equivalent to BBay’s mystery book focus.

A book store called The Deep Reader figures prominently (BBay fans will immediately get the reference) and it even has a romance novel custom move that parallels the Gold Crown Mysteries Move and Cut to Commercial.

The Keeper has a list of trope-y romance novel prompts and if the player narrates a romance novel blurb, short scene, or book cover, they get a bonus on their die roll, a la Cut to Commercial. It’s very clever.

There are other great details here. I like that each Suspect is listed with their most famous book. Some examples: Countless Shades of Crimson, Enchanted by the Rakish Duke, and Galactic Heat Wave. It’s very amusing, and shows the author understands the community being lampooned.

The Clues and Void Clues are also pretty fantastic.

Overall, a really excellent mystery—great sense of humor and a fun way to play with the assumptions of the setting.

A KNIGHT TO REMEMBER

The actor playing Lancelot is killed during a jousting exhibition at a Brindlewood Bay ren faire.

This entry is delightful. Like an actual ren faire, there’s something fun to see, play with, or roll your eyes at around every corner. The characters are quirky and winsome, and the locations are very colorful.

The author here demonstrates a really keen understanding of how Brindlewood Bay works on a mechanical level, which I really appreciate. I like, for example, how there are special Paint the Scene questions for characters who have marked certain aspects of the Crown of the Void.

Depending on what you have marked on your Crown, you experience in the faire in a different way, even seeing supernatural or magical things that others can’t experience. It’s very cool.

There’s also a custom move here that is central to the experience—it’s essentially a brand-new Crown—but it’s done so it doesn’t take away from the core mystery-solving of the game. This is a late-campaign mystery, and the author shows they know what that means, structurally.

This mystery is also richly-textured, and manages to pack in a lot of its own lore. The author has used their word count to create a micro-setting within the setting, and it’s done beautifully—none of it feels forced, because it’s presented through the game’s existing structure.

Overall, an outstanding mystery. I would run this.

A ROAST BREWED DARKLY

The Mavens are wrapping up a book club meeting when a barista is found dead at the Busy Bean Cafe, a coffee shop next door to the Candlelight Booksellers.

At the start, I like that the mystery asks each player to say what their Maven’s drink order is. Little details like that are a great way of reinforcing the cozy vibe while also telling you something about the Mavens themselves. It’s a simple thing, but I like it.

Something the mystery does that’s very interesting is it’s presented in a really wide open way. For example, you are asked, as players, to fill in a lot of the Suspects’ motives or to fill in details that might speak to means.

It’s not how Brindlewood Bay normally works, and so I can’t really speak to how well this approach would go without playtesting it, but it’s certainly interesting.

There are some nice Clues here, such as: “An employee harassment report that was never filed,” “A stern letter about missing invoices” and “Financial report for the cafe with inconsistent totals.”

They hint at something really nefarious going on at the coffee shop, which is fun

I do think the mystery is a bit short. I’d like to see what the author could do fleshing it out a bit and making “coffee” a more prominent theme. But very solid overall.

A SNAKE IN THE BLUEGRASS

A bluegrass legend is found shot through the heart mere moments before she was supposed to take the stage at a concert…

My overall impression is that this mystery is well-structured and highly playable—you could pick it up right now and run it for your group. It’s also understands something really fundamental to a BBay mystery: every space is a chance to tell the story of the scenario.

The Presentation is excellent, giving you a brief history of the bluegrass legend in question, dropping little hints at what might be going on, tells you about the murder, and then ends with an Establishing Question that gives the players a chance to shape the investigation.

The Suspects are all very fun and varied, with nice descriptions, hints of motive, and terrific quotes. Again, just a terrific use of space—you’re learning so much about this scenario via these Suspect entries.

The Clues are fairly simple, but functional. Nothing too inspiring, if I’m being honest, but I can see them being very easy to use and adapt on the fly for the Keeper, and so they’re successful in that way.

The Void Clues are excellent, and have a lot of fun with the theme.

Some examples:

“Snakes crawl out of everywhere, in the grass, under the stage, from holes in instruments, strings turn to snakes “

“There are no sounds, not even breathing, or the wind, for 4 minutes and 44 seconds precisely”

Overall, a really terrific mystery. I would run this.

BLOOD & BLACK GLOVES

A photographer is found dead behind the alley of the Candlelight Booksellers. The Mavens investigate whether there’s a connection to Claudia Oro, author of the Black Glove Mysteries, in this David Lynch-inspired scenario.

I love this mystery, and if I was a judge (I’m not) it would probably place very high. The author of the mystery has deftly woven a very seductive, noir-ish horror, a la David Lynch, into the fabric of Brindlewood Bay, and it’s terrific.

The writing is impressive, and shows a really good grasp of what Brindlewood Bay is as both a game and a setting. The Black Glove Mysteries, which are central to the story, are sort of like a dark mirror held up to the Gold Crown Mysteries.

The Suspects are fantastic. They have an oddness and a dreaminess that is very appealing. I especially like the drag queen Flagrante Delicto and the monstrous author of the Black Glove Mysteries, Claudia Oro. The characters are all well-described and have fantastic quotes.

This Claudia quote is money:

“People love to ask me, ‘Claudia, why do you write about a man? Why is it always the women who die?’ I’ll tell you why: I learned a lot working in fashion all those years ago…

… I saw that in the real world, it is men like my Enzo who are the protagonists, while the women around them are sacrifices and conquests. Robin’s books, cozy and lovely as they are, are fantasies. My work reflects reality.”

It tells you *everything* you need to know about her.

The locations are also nice, with great Paint the Scene questions (and some terrific Lynch references).

Even the Clues are nicely textured and help sell this little dark underbelly of BBay. Such as: “A hidden collection of identical, glossy blond wigs.” So, so Lynch.

There’s even a nice little easter egg Suspect for Mavens with The Chariot marked.

Overall, a really excellent mystery.

COLD CASE

A cold case involving the disappearance of a local lawyer in the ‘80s begins to thaw when the lawyer’s mummified corpse turns up in a cold storage bin washed ashore…

This mystery attempts to do something genuinely new in the Brindlewood Bay mystery space: a grounded, gritty cold case mystery. It’s a staple of the mystery genre, but it’s not something that’s really been done in Brindlewood Bay because BBay has a winking archness to it.

I think the author has succeeded. These cases are always about going into the past, talking to people who may not remember the details well anymore, and just generally contending with the fact that so much time has passed.

The Suspects in this mystery have moved on, but they’re deeply affected by the victim disappearance all those years ago. The places you investigate have almost ghostly memories of what it was like when he was there.

It’s all very well done, and done within the confines of the BBay mystery structure, which is impressive.

I just like how these Suspects and locations are written. A lot of care has been taken to express them in ways that ground them in the trauma of these circumstances.

The Clues are interesting. I can’t decide if they are too open ended or just right in terms of how much they give the Keeper to work with. The issue, of course, is that this is a cold case, so almost by definition, there aren’t any good clues to be had.

I think these clues reflect the idea of “you don’t have much to work with” pretty well. The Mavens will be making a stab in the dark.

The Void Clues I’m less thrilled with. I guess they fit thematically, but I’m wondering if this wouldn’t be better as a sweeps week mystery.

I also think an extra paragraph in the presentation explaining how to reveal the Suspects to the players would be helpful.

Otherwise, an extremely well done mystery. It tries something very different and largely succeeds.

THE MAVENS STOP A PRESIDENTIAL ASSASSINATION
A premonition from a resident at an old folks’ home makes the Mavens think presidential candidate Tucker Sinclair is going to be killed when he pays a visit to the bingo hall that day.

I initially thought this should be a Sweeps Week mystery and not a murder mystery because 1) the victim is not dead and 2) it involves psychic phenomena. I was later convinced by the Void Clues it might work as a mystery for the main campaign, but I’ll get to that later.

The presentation of the mystery is really solid given the strange setup—it’s actually very much like a presentation in The Between in the way it front loads the idea that, yes, this premonition might actually be true, and no, don’t question it. It works well.

The Mavens have just enough reason to stick around for bingo to see if this premonition about a presidential candidate being killed might be coming true.

A thing I really like about this mystery is how deeply cynical most of the characters are, haha.

If you’re a political junkie like me who is twisted up about our current state of political affairs, you’ll find a lot to like in this mystery’s unflattering portrayal. The characters are smarmy, self-serving monsters. And they’re very well presented.

The mystery has a really good sense of humor, and really plays with your expectations. I like that one character is given the title “the obvious suspect.” The candidate in question is a gay man with a deeply amoral partner pushing him to succeed—it’s a fun inversion of the trope.

The best part of this mystery is the Clues. They don’t leave any possibility that the murder *won’t* happen, which I think is important with a set up like this. They’re also just well written and have a nice variety.

So now those Void Clues…

The Void Clues make this work as part of the broader campaign because they make connections to the Midwives’ plot. They directly tie Tucker Sinclair’s death to what the Mavens are trying to accomplish. They really ground all of this in the setting of the game.

Overall, a really great mystery with some fun angles.

CTRL ALT DECEASED

The leader of the Code Coven computer club is found dead, apparently from an electric shock, but the Mavens suspect foul play…

This mystery is a lot of fun. My favorite thing about it is that it has an impeccable vibe. First of all, that title is perfect. But also, the mystery feels like a love letter to a really particular kind of computer culture, one that maybe doesn’t exist anymore?

These characters feel like they come from the hippy dippy, “working in a garage” type of computer culture that you would have found in the ‘70s and ’80s. This mystery is very much an old Macintosh, if that makes sense, haha.

The details here are just so good. I like that the victim is seen around town with her fanny pack bulging with tools and dongles. The Code Coven, in the spirit of its name, has almost a lowkey relgious/cult vibe which is great.

The sort of hippy boomer aesthetic is punctuated nicely by a young person who declares Code Coven “slaps.” Like, it’s just so, so good in terms of its atmosphere and details.

It also interprets the theme of computers really well in a mechanical way.

The presentation plays with the cozy vignette in a fun way, where the Mavens have to narrate their experience with a computer, and the vignette is either cozy or frustrating. Depending on how that goes, it has an affect on a later custom move involving computers. It’s neat.

This mystery has a really impressive use of space. There isn’t a single line wasted here—every part of it is teaching you the setting, teaching you the characters, teaching you the vibe. I would feel very well supported if I was going to run this.

This is one to read if you want to see how much you can do with Brindlewood Bay’s (and The Between’s) scenario format.

Overall, I really love this one, and will likely run it soon.

DEATH’S A DRAG

A drag queen, Alotta XS, is found dead during a performance, a stiletto heel sticking out of her neck. The Mavens are on the case…

I’ve been waiting for someone to write a drag queen-themed mystery! (Something many people won’t remember is that the second regular episode of Murder, She Wrote took place at a drag revue.) I actually had one planned for the initial release of the game, but never finished it.

To start off, it’s sometimes nice when a mystery takes some time to luxuriate in its subject matter before the actual investigation begins (my own mysteries Exit Stage Death and The GBBBO do this).

That’s what we get here: a night at a local drag show, with protesters outside, the trappings of a vintage theater, and three dramatic acts. You get to meet the Suspects and when the actual kill takes place, it’s *very* dramatic. I imagine it would be pretty shocking in play.

The characters and details here are pretty great, and all the drag names are terrific—Diamonté Shard, Robyn Hearts, Glinda Ghast (and one time Glinda Ghoul). The Suspects all have great motives or a reason to otherwise be around when the murder took place.

The right-wing protest group is called Keep Our Bay Safe, or KOBS for short, which made me laugh out loud.

There’s also a lot of affection for drag and drag culture baked into this one, which I really appreciate. Many of the Clues, for example, like a razor blade in a corset.

Or foundation powder laced with glass dust.

The Void Clues are great and also really nail the theme. I particularly like “A lipstick falls open to reveal a dark red, squirming larvae inside the tube.”

Overall, a really great mystery with a fantastic opening scene and lots of fabulous details.

DRAW TWO, MURDER!

The reigning Sorcery: The Coalescence champion is found dead at a tournament being held in Brindlewood Bay. The Mavens, casual fans of the game, are on the scene…

This is a really terrific mystery. The creator weaves in a lot of tropes and details related to M:tG, but it’s done in a way that is funny but never mean-spirited. I don’t know much about M:tG, but I was having a good time with all Sorcery: the Coalescence jokes.

For example, some of the Mavens might be participating in the tournament and, if so, they are asked to name the deck they brought to play with (using a color, a creature, and a verb if they need some help coming up with something). It’s a lot of fun.

The Suspects are an interesting bunch. They’re either suspicious weirdos or they have clear motives for wanting to kill the champion. I feel like I know a lot of these characters from my time spend in fandom, and so I think I know how to play them well, haha.

The Suspects are also listed with the name of their deck, which is great. Some examples: Blockchain Control, Legacy Fat-Cats, and Well-Seasoned Angels. I don’t know what any of that means, and that’s the point and it’s great, haha.

The Clues could stand to be a little more fleshed out. They’re not bad, but they feel a bit generic given the very strong theming going on throughout the rest of the mystery. The Void Clues, however, are terrific.

One of the Void Clues has a monster on a card come to life, which is pretty wild. Or this one: “A digital life counter winds to 0, and keeps plummeting into the negatives.” Good stuff.

Overall, a really solid mystery with a fun premise and setting, and lots of great references to a very particular fandom. I’d definitely run it.

GRAVE CONSEQUENCES

The owner of a local pawn shop is found dead, trapped in a coffin in a freshly dug grave…

First of all, the name of the pawn shop the victim owned is great: Once A-Pawn a Time (I will note that it was a bit of a missed opportunity to not call the mystery “Once A-Pawn a Crime”, but that’s neither here nor there).

I like the Suspects in this mystery. They have good descriptive details and connect up to one another and to the victim well. I would have liked a little more Keeper support in the presentation of the mystery to show how the Mavens would know these particular people are suspects.

I don’t think it would be very hard for that to just come out naturally in the gameplay, but a bit of guidance would be helpful, I think.

The Clues are really terrific. There’s a good mix of pawn shop things, Clues that point in a particular direction, and Clues that are more adaptable to any situation. I like to have a list of Clues where you have options like that. Some examples:

“Letters dictating the sale of the pawnshop to an out of towner"

“An appeal for a raise”

“A request to return stolen rings that were sold to the shop”

Overall, a solid, straightforward mystery. I think it would benefit from a more detailed presentation and leaning into the pawn shop theme more heavily (and just discarding the grave theme altogether, tbh) but it’s very nearly there. I’d play it.

HIVE GOT MY EYES ON YOU

The Murder Mavens have to crack the case when a local florist is found impaled on the stinger of a giant bee statue.

The setting is the Brindlewood Bay Honey Festival, which is the perfect kind of cozy mystery scenario. I like the shocking way the victim is introduced. After a lovely afternoon of flowers and baked goods, this guy is just straight up impaled. It’s ghoulish in all the right ways.

The Suspects are a lot of fun. Margaret Hughes, the victim’s florist rival, is such a Hyacinth Bucket type character. Fussy and pristine and envious. She’d be a lot of fun for the Keeper to play.

One of the Suspects has an interesting aspect to where if your Maven has marked the Pomegranate Kernel on the Crown of the Void, you can try to bring them into your way of thinking. It has almost a body snatchers/hive mind vibe, which is perfect for the theme of the mystery.

The Clues have nice detail and a lot of variety.

The mystery also features Moments, which is something we stole from The Between for the new edition of BBay. It wasn’t required for the contest, but they’re pretty good.

The Void Clues are interesting and very on-theme. I particularly like this one:

“A statue of Aristaeus, god of beekeeping, is found in an odd place leaking honey from its eyes.”

It leans into the Greek mystery cult aspect of the game nicely.

My only real question about this one was one of the Suspects, which is a bee mascot. The text seems to indicate that other Suspects can put the mascot suit on and interact with the scenario in different ways, but I’m not quite sure how it’s supposed to work.

It probably needed a separate Special Rules section or something.

Overall, though, an excellent mystery. Great setting and cozy vibes, but with a good sense of humor and horror.

KNIT ONE, KILL ONE

A craft fair turns deadly when the owner of the local yarn shop turns up dead in a church tower, a ball of yarn wrapped tightly around her neck.

This one is a little on the short side, but it has all the right elements to make a good cozy murder mystery. That’s actually what I like best about this one: it really nails that cozy feel (and actually has the feeling of an episode of Keeping Up Appearances gone terribly wrong)

This question, posed early in the mystery, does a good job establishing that tone: “Describe a stall and what you brought from it. What special occasion are you purchasing the item for?”

It’s the perfect kind of starter question because it tells us something about the environment the mystery is taking place in, as well as further exploring the lives of the Murder Mavens.

The Establishing Question is great, too: Pearl Darrington was considered a controversial figure on the Brindlewood Bay Small Business Committee. What change did she push through that you were impressed by?

It shows that the victim was a complicated character, and it gets players in the theorizing head space early—they start thinking about *why* someone might have done it and, importantly, why the Mavens should care. It’s a good approach (and one that I used in Jingle Bell Shock).

There’s a good collection of Suspects here, each of a type that you might find at a craft fair, and with some good possible motives sprinkled throughout.

There are only three locations, but they have great Paint the Scene questions that help flesh out the spaces a lot.

The Clues are solid—a bit too open-ended, possibly, but a good mix of types. I think the Void Clues could have been more fleshed out to emphasize the horror, but this one is great: “A painting that used to show St. Brendan on a ship now shows him drowning in a pitch black ocean.”

Overall, it’s a solid mystery. I would probably have used a bit more word count to give the Clues/Void Clues a bit more focus and flavor, and also to explain why the chosen Suspects are the only people at the craft fair who could have done it. Otherwise, it’s highly playable.

LIGHTS! CAMERA! MURDER?
The Mavens are touring the set of a big-budge film adaptation of a Gold Crown Mysteries book when a heavy stage light falls on the director, killing him instantly. The Mavens suspect foul play…

At the outset, I’ll say that I enjoyed reading this one a lot. The premise is deliciously meta. If you were a long-time watcher of the Brindlewood Bay TV show, you’d be delighted to see the Gold Crown Mysteries being referenced in this way.

I’m impressed that this particular mystery uses a lot of the structure of The Between’s Threats in order to set up the scenario, which is a thing we’ve done for the Kickstarter version of the game. If I had to guess, I’d say the author has played The Between.

For example, it has a series of optional events that are just like Moments in The Between. It also has an Establishing Question that forecloses the possibility of the director’s death being an accident, which is *very* The Between. Overall, it’s a well-structured presentation.

The Suspects here are a lot of fun. Great quotes, very evocatively described, and quite distinct from one another, which is what you want in a game like this. I love this quote from a veteran actress:

“Don’t you worry about me, honey. If I could handle Jack Palance begging at my door at 3:00am on St. Patrick’s Day with an acoustic guitar and a revolver, I can handle this.”

(Also: I’m pretty sure one of these characters is based on Bash from GLOW?)

The Paint the Scene questions are all quite good (and, again, suggests the author has experience with the system). I’ll highlight this one:

“What gossip do you overhear about Kincaide’s mistreatment of the cast and crew?”

This a great PtS because it does double duty: it explores an idea—that Kincaide was abusive—but also suggests motive, and will almost certainly factor into the final solution to the mystery. Not every PtS in BBay has to be like that, but I appreciate that this one is.

My only real criticism is that the Clues are a bit too open-ended. I would have liked to see some of them fleshed out a bit. The Void Clues, on the other hand, are great. I especially like this one:

“Everyone on set bursts into a spontaneous song and dance number. They lose all memory of the incident immediately afterwards."

Good stuff.

Overall, a really outstanding mystery. I’d run it.

LUXURY CONDO, BLOODSHED INCLUDED

We talked about this one on the results video, so I’ll just refer you to that for this one.

MURDER IS THE DUMPS

The body of a local pharmacist is found inside a garbage can during a garbage truck’s regular rounds. The Mavens are on the case…

There’s a lot I like about the setup of this one. It exists in a mundane, grimy part of the Brindlewood Bay experience—local trash pickup—which makes it stand out from a lot of other mysteries. The manner in which the body is found is also kind of shocking—very police procedural.

I do think there’s a bit of a playability issue with the setup, which is this: the Suspects are mostly people who live nearby where the body was found. I’m not sure why the Mavens should suspect this particular group of people, or why the body was disposed of so close by.

It’s not an impossible thing to explain, but I would have used some word count to make that much clearer and easier for the Keeper.

That small playability issue aside, I think there is a lot to like here. I particularly like this collection of Suspects.

It’s the right mix of eccentric weirdos and established people in the community. One of the characters is a call back to Etienne Beauregard from Dad Overboard, which is fun, and another has this terrific detail:

“There is a tiny reliquary for an obscure Catholic saint built into one of the tool panels of her pickup truck – it contains a statue, a fingerbone in a glass case, and a faded scrap of cloth or leather."

Good stuff.

The Clues are also excellent in this one. Some examples:

“A stuffed toy elephant, cut open, with something hidden inside."

“Betting logs from an out of town horse racing track."

“A spinet/upright piano that’s been meticulously cut up, divided, and stashed or thrown away in various pieces/places.”

The Void Clues are creepy. Examples:

“A busted diorama of one of the Maven’s cozy places - complete with handmade Maven figurines.”

“Someone living in a compost bin – they are always there & are twisted and contorted to fit. How do they get out of there? How’d they get in?”

That’s Twin Peaks shit and I love it.

Overall, it’s a good mystery that I think would benefit from a little more word count to flesh out some parts of it. What’s here, though, is great.

MURDER MOST FOWL

A bird trainer is found gruesomely murdered during a national bird show. The Mavens are on the case...

I’ll note that we’re actually publishing this mystery in a future Codex. Below is the artwork we commissioned from Marcus Jimenez.

Ok. The thing you have to know about this mystery is the author committed to the bird theme 110%. Every description, every quote, nearly every paragraph of text, contains a bird pun or a bird-related saying. It’s equal parts absurd and impressive.

Some examples of what I mean...

A Suspect protects their reputation “like a hen with one egg.”

Another is a “cock of the walk” while another “swoops in” on people.

And this doesn’t really do it justice. The bird puns and sayings achieve something mad and transcendent, haha.

Substantively, the mystery is quite good (which you might have surmised from the fact we’re going to publish it). It has some interesting special rules related to bird-related Cozy Activities, which is a great way of mechanically enforcing the theme.

The Suspects are all delightful weirdos. It’s like a bunch of characters from a Christopher Guest movie, like Best in Show dog enthusiasts, except here it’s birds. Brindlewood Bay excels in a setting like this: people taking a very unserious thing extremely seriously.

The Clues are great. Some examples (note the bird references):

“Graffiti that says ‘a little birdie told me what you did.’”

“News of a substantial nest egg gone missing”

“A plague doctor mask painted like a blue-jay”

The Void Clues are nice and creepy, and tie-in the game’s overarching themes.

Overall, an outstanding mystery. Coming soon to an issue of Codex!

ONE TRICK PEONY

The owner of Nettle Point is found floating facedown in a pool during an annual secret garden tour of the estate. Luckily, the Mavens are on-hand…

A strong central theme is always a good jumping off point for a Brindlewood Bay mystery, and this one does a nice job centering flowers. The setting has a very English cozy murder mystery vibe, which makes it a good fit for the setting, but also sets it apart.

There’s an interesting question in the presentation where the Mavens say what plant they’re trying to find on the tour, and how it relates to someone from their past. I love stuff like this because it helps ground the story in the location while also exploring the characters.

The Suspects are interesting and diverse. I particularly like this quote from the Head Gardener at Nettle Point Estate:

“A weed is a plant that has mastered every survive skill except for learning how to grow in rows”

Some of the Suspect descriptions are very dense with information, which I found interesting. An example of what I mean:

“Intelligent, observant & humble. Speaks with Afrikaans accent, has over 500 birds on her life list.; always seen with a pair of binoculars…

... Third year PhD Grad student at Ferrand College in Phytochemistry (the chemical products in plants). Works PT in a CBD boutique store.”

I enjoyed the Clues in this one. There’s a good mix of solid evidence and weird threads to follow. Some examples:

“Certification notice of a rare plant on site”

“Torn pages from Poisonous Plants: A Handbook for Drs & Toxicologists”

“Open packets of sugar” (I would add “found in an unusual place”, but I like it because it suggests something sinister without being inherently sinister).

The Void Clues definitely need to be punched up a bit—I found them a bit unexciting—but the mystery is solid overall. Good theme, interesting locale.

PANIC! AT THE BINGO

The Mavens reluctantly attend bingo at the local nursing home, lured by the presence of a celebrity bingo caller. Foul play is suspected when the nursing home administrator drops dead at the shout of “bingo!”

I found this mystery fascinating because it takes place at a nursing home. The whole thing about Brindlewood Bay is that the Murder Mavens are seniors who live radically independent lives, and so for a mystery to take place at a nursing home, it has to *mean something.*

The mystery has to find a way to acknowledge the tension between what it means to be living in a nursing home and what it means to be as independent as the Mavens are. I think the author has done a good job on that score. The setting of this mystery feels oppressive at times.

Some of the Suspects feel almost condemned because they’re in the home, and the presentation makes clear that the Mavens view Looming Horizons (the nursing home) as a place to be avoided, a special kind of hell.

And yet, it’s not all bad. There are other times when the players have to acknowledge that the nursing home may not be so bad, and that genuine companionship and meaning can be found there.

It’s a fascinating tension, and I’m glad it didn’t go unremarked by the author.

The strongest part of the mystery is just how well-realized the nursing home is. The residents, the employees, the various locations—a terrific picture is painted throughout. You kind of hate it and you kind of love it.

Other things...

The Clues are ok. I think they are a bit too open-ended. Open-ended-ness is not necessarily a bad thing, but I would have liked to see some of them a bit more detailed.

The Void Clues are nice and creepy, though again, I would have liked more detail.

Overall, a great mystery with a really challenging setting that almost feels intrusive.

PARKS AND WRECK

An official from the parks department turns up dead during a crowded summer day at the park. The Mavens interrupt their nearby picnic to figure out what happened…

At the outset, I’ll say this mystery has a starting scenario that is really fun. Essentially, the park is massively overbooked. Disc golfers, scrapbookers, geocachers, dog trainers, and players of a Pokemon Go-style game called Elf Seeker (!) are all jostling for space.

It’s a hilarious, chaotic set up, and I think players will have a good time with it, especially since the Mavens are also trying to have a picnic in the middle of all that, and oh yeah, there’s a murder.

The fun set up does present a small playability problem, though:

How do we know *these* Suspects are the people we need to worry about when there are presumably dozens of people at the park? Fortunately, it’s an easy fix—the author just needs to use some word count in the introduction to explain why that is the case.

That playability issue aside, there are lots of other things to like here. My sense is there are some Parks & Rec references here (I’ve never watched the show, but I’m pretty sure that’s a thing that’s happening here). The Suspects are pretty fun down the line.

I particularly like the Elf Seeker Tyler Williams. This description of his love for Elf Seeker sends me: “He started playing the hit GPS phone game “Elf Seeker Now!” several years back…

…He admits it's not like the console Elf Seeker games of his youth, but it's really fun in a different way….He’s organized most of the local players online for maximum Elf Seeking efficiency. There is a very rare Elf hiding in the park today."

The Clues are pretty simple, but they’re varied and effective. The Void Clues are fantastic (and funny). I’ll give you some examples:

“While looking at a GPS device, the screen goes blank, then returns giving your location as 666° 66' 66.6"

“The Elf Seeker Now app has glitched out. The Elf has been replaced by a blocky monolith made from squares of twitching virtual flesh of many different Elves. It lets out a horrible high pitched mechanical whine… The phone suddenly goes totally dead.”

Overall, it’s a really fun mystery. The presentation needs to be expanded a bit to account for the Suspects, and I think the Paint the Scene questions are not quite right, but those are easy fixes. I’d run it.

PAWS FOR MURDER
An event hosted by the Brindlewood Bay Corgi Coalition (!) is brought to a standstill when the owner of champion corgi Lord Fluffington is found dead, her prize pooch missing. The Mavens are on the case…

The mystery is about a corgi-specific dog show. I’m not sure what else you need me to say, haha. The scenario is an absurd delight (kind of like corgis themselves!). The cast of Suspects are a group of corgi-obsessed weirdos, and the people who encourage them.

I mean, this description of one of the Suspects is pitch-perfect:

“She is the owner of Tiger, who is on track to possibly become the top corgi in the nation this year.”

Love it

Paint the Scene questions are pretty good. I particularly like this one about the grooming/crating area, which explores an interesting aspect of the Mavens’ lives:

“What do you see that reminds you of a beloved pet, or that reminds you why you never had a pet?”

The Clues are *excellent.* Good variety and detail, and laser-focused on the theme. Some examples:

“Lord Fluffington's collar”

“A collection of old articles about some past scandal in the dog world”

“A partially-completed forgery of a pedigree”

I’m less thrilled about the Void Clues. A couple are enjoyably gross, but the Void Clues are a chance for the author to really go in and give us horrific/creepy/shocking details. These are a bit flat.

Overall, though, a fantastic mystery. This one would actually be really fun if you were doing a campaign from the new BBay book focused on the angry British royalists, because, you know, corgis.

(Also: I think it would be great if a Void Clue involved zombie QEII, haha)

PET SHOP BOYS

The mayor of Brindlewood Bay collapses dead in front of a pet shop he’s just frantically run out of. The Mavens are on the case…

This mystery has a cute gimmick that is a joke about the name of the ‘80s band Pet Shop Boys. It takes place in and around a pet shop, involves characters whose names are inspired by the band members (plus some other ‘80s-era music cameos), and importantly, focuses on music.

The author created a Spotify playlist (linked in the mystery text) containing songs you play at key moments during the mystery. For example, when Mayor Tom is found dead, you play “Major Tom.”

When one of the English pet shop owners talks about how they crossed the Atlantic to reach Brindlewood Bay, you play “Go West.” A song by The Cure features prominently when talking to a Suspect called Robert Smithers. And so forth.

It’s a neat little gimmick, and I suspect players will want to press deeper into the investigation just to see which songs unlock, especially if you are well-versed in throwback music. It’s all slightly absurd and very meta, which isn’t a bad fit for Brindlewood Bay.

There’s a small part of me that wishes all the music references were just Pet Shop Boys references. I think that would have elevated it a bit—it's like saying, "This is the joke and we're *really* going for it." That said, it's funny and cool the way it is.

Other things…

The Clues are pretty good, laced with pop music references, some of them quite deep cuts, but also stuff connected to pet shops.

I really like the Void Clues. They have a lot of cosmic weirdness that I appreciate. Some examples:

“A tiny aquarium tank in a corner, that is clearly bigger on the inside since you can see a giant squid hiding in the shadows."

“A greek tortoise in a slow soft voice prophesying you a horrible death in the next few weeks.”

Overall, a solid mystery with a fun gimmick.

PLAY DEAD

It’s a lovely day at the park when a well-known TV pitchman is found dead, a dog leash wrapped around his neck (and his black lab Gizmo missing). Sheriff Dalrymple approaches the Mavens for their help…

This scenario has a very classic mystery genre feel. It has an interesting cast of Suspects, each with plausible motives for wanting to kill the victim. They are described pretty well and the quotes are great. There is an issue that has popped up a few times during these reviews:

It’s not entirely clear from the presentation why the Mavens (or Sheriff Dalrymple, in this specific case) should have narrowed it down to this group of people. They all have good motives, but the details of how the body was found makes the list of possible Suspects much bigger.

Fortunately, it’s a really easy fix: the author just needs to expand the presentation a bit to more sharply narrow in on this group of people. Maybe they had all visited the victim in the last 24 hours, or maybe they were also in the park that same day for some reason.

That said, there’s a lot to like here. The Paint the Scene questions are outstanding. They do a good job of physically exploring the space while also exploring ideas and interiority. Some examples:

The victim’s home: “As you look around in Daniel’s home, what do you see that confirms that Daniel Nichols was in the midst of a midlife crisis?”

TV studio: “Even though the operation is small, how does it feel to have a big company establishing itself in your cozy little town?”

The Clues are also very good. They have a very rich, on-genre feel, and have enough variety to make it easy for the Keeper to find something to work in the moment. Examples:

“An engagement ring with a few specks of dry blood on it.”

“A Suspect has a bite mark on their forearm.”

“[The victim’s] sports car has been keyed with the word LIAR across the hood.”

“Two Suspects are seen arguing with each other, from a distance. Words can't be made out but an envelope is passed between them.”

I’m a little less enthusiastic about the Void Clues. They’re very good, but they do seem like riffs on the Dad Overboard Void Clues. That may have been an intentional homage, but it feels like a slightly missed opportunity to make them stand out.

But overall, this is a great mystery. It feels like it’s straight out of an episode of Murder, She Wrote. With just a few presentational tweaks, I’d run it.

POCKET FULL OF SKY

A family of wealthy eccentrics is thrown into turmoil when rumors begin swirling about the death of one of their members. The Mavens are invited to their Gothic estate to help them get to the bottom of things…

I had a lot of fun reading this mystery. The real stand out feature here is that it almost feels like a miniature setting within the broader setting. Blackbird Nest, the grand estate where it takes place, is a place dripping with Gothic horror details.

It starts with a variation of the “Sing a Song of Sixpence” nursery rhyme, one that is more ominous, being sung by a children’s choir. It’s a great way to start the mystery and set the tone. The author has also done a great job anchoring this scenario in family history.

The presentation takes the time to unpack the dark, troubled history of the Majors family (the family at the heart of all this). It would have been easy to gloss over these details, but it instead some time is spent showing all the threads.

It makes for a more complex mystery, but one that I think would be very satisfying to sink your teeth into.

The Suspects are terrific. It’s a great cast of Gothic horror archetypes—scheming sons, brooding youths, nosy help, dutiful and doting lovers.

The descriptions and quotes are great. Just a really fun bunch.

The Paint the Scene questions paint the hell out of the scenes. The author uses the tools of the game to build the setting, and it’s very effective. I particularly like this one:

The Aviary: “The Aviary is a gilded cage, a place where people of means stash their elderly relatives so they can keep up appearances without being bothered by mundanities. What interior furnishings are unsuitable for the elderly residents?”

It’s really rich, juicy stuff.

The Void Clues are also noteworthy here. They are more strange and unsettling than they are outright horrific, which I think is a good approach for the Gothic horror vibe.

Overall, a really outstanding mystery.