Frequently asked questions
Everything worth knowing
before opening the file.
The questions readers ask most often, from the first element to the secret file. If yours is not here, it belongs in our postbox.
Before you begin
The book, a pen and a little quiet time. The register of suspects is printed in the book: that is where most of the investigation happens.
Count three to six hours of reading and deduction, spread out however you like. Nothing is timed: you can close the book and pick it up days later, your progress is kept.
Yes, and it is rather good fun: one person reads, another keeps the register. The companion follows a single progress, the table's.
During the investigation
You tell it. The timeline of the case follows the hours of the book: you pick the moment where your reading stopped, and everything else adjusts.
They are the pauses the book plans between two elements: the moment to go back to the register and check your eliminations. Some checkpoints also offer an extra element, entirely optional.
Open the moment that blocks you in the timeline: help comes in two stages, first a simple nudge, then the full explanation of the step. Stop at the first stage if that is enough.
As many as you like, at any moment of the night. A check only tells you whether a file still fits what you have read; it never crosses anything out for you.
After the verdict
Nothing irreversible: we tell you, you go back over your eliminations and return when you are ready.
A bonus challenge that opens after the verdict: the murderer was not alone, and an accomplice is left to identify in a small group, against the clock. The timer is a bonus, not a punishment.
You can read it again, but the solution is unique and you will know it. Better to lend the book: every copy carries the same register, so the same investigation for the next reader.
Account and data
Only what is needed: the moment you have reached, your checks and your results. Without an account, everything stays in your browser. The details are in the privacy policy.
If you play as a guest, clearing the site data in your browser is enough. If you have an account, write to us from the Contact page: deletion is done within the month.
Write to the author from the Contact page: readers' questions are read one by one, and the best ones end up on this page.
A question left over
Write to the author.
A dead end, a typo, an idea for a case: it all lands in the right place, and the best questions end up on this page.