NOTE: Sleuth Kings allows people to purchase previous cases, and while I’ll try to remain as spoiler-free as possible in this review, going into some detail is unavoidable. READ THE BELOW TEXT AT YOUR OWN RISK IF YOU PLAN ON PURCHASING THIS SPECIFIC CASE IN THE FUTURE!
FOR THOSE NEW TO SLEUTH KINGS: Sleuth Kings is a subscription mystery package. You receive a package in the mail that contains a case file with all sorts of clues and documents. One of these documents directs you to a website, where you’ll send Sullivan a message to get things started. Within a minute or two you’ll get an email detailing the case, giving you your objective(s), and instructions on how emailing with Sullivan works. From there, you’ll read the documents and work the clues in order, although clues and documents often refer to one another as you go along. If you get stuck, you can also go to a special website (also provided in a document) or email Sullivan to get a hint about a clue. If this isn’t enough, you can get the “full” hint, which essentially gives you exactly what information you need from it.
Valentine’s Day is one of the few holidays I celebrate a year, and yet it’s the one that seems to get mocked the most by people. Sure it’s a made-up holiday, but as Thor would say, all holidays are made up! We don’t spend loads of money on each other or get super fancy reservations, but it’s nice to have an excuse to spend a day together with my gal and take some time off.
On the other hand, seeing people in love can be rough for single folks. So rough, in fact, that maybe they’d even snap. This is what happens with The Cupid Killer, a mystery person who plays games with couples that end in murder. Even worse, they’ve recently kidnapped Celest St. Claire and they’re after Sullivan – the man you work with on the Sleuth Kings cases – next. It’s up to you to figure out who the Cupid Killer is and where they’re holding Celest hostage before it’s too late.
Like Case 015: Fashionably Late, this case came with four thematic clues and a fair amount of documentation by way of a case summary from Sullivan and info from the City of Dayton Police Department. The clues are all pieces of evidence that Sullivan or Celest received from the Cupid Killer. These include a full-sized poster promoting a phony game show for couples, a box of chocolates (with the possibly-poisoned chocolates removed, of course), and various other items that attempted to get the couple’s attention.
Figuring out who the Cupid Killer is required diving into their world a bit. See, the Cupid Killer is a very shy, deranged person, and they want to befriend couples they see in public through a series of mysteries. Unfortunately, they also get incredibly mad when they’re ignored, mad enough to commit murder! They mistakenly took a meeting between Celest and Sullivan as a date, and now the two of them have become the Cupid Killer’s new target. When they didn’t play along by entering his fake game show, he snapped (again!) and took Celest hostage.
Solving the clues required working through the mail and packages that they received in order. First was a card from the killer (above) that held a secret message on the back to decipher. This led to the method to solve clue two, a door hanger, and so on until the case was solved. There were word puzzles galore in this case, which made me VERY happy I have my gal working beside me since she’s a pro at them.
While Case 015: Fashionably Late was very thematic, I found this case to be even more so. It was steeped with love and Valentine’s Day, and the ending was absolutely terrific. It had some added humor throughout the case this time as well, such as the inclusion of a piece of Celest’s art and one of Sullivan’s poems. Things also moved much smoother this time around, although I’m guessing a big part of that was due to having experience with Sullivan’s mysteries and puzzles as a whole. Even more than Fashionably Late, I felt like a genius as we moved from puzzle to puzzle, and completing the final piece of the puzzle was especially awesome.
A couple months ago I tackled Case 015: Fashionably Late, and when I did, I had to use a couple hints from Sullivan to solve the case. My gal (my co-detective!) and I decided that this time we wouldn’t use any hints unless absolutely, positively necessary. I’m pleased to report that, while we did use one, it was minimal and we still completed everything else ourselves. Hopefully, on our next case, we can complete the whole thing without help at all!
Out of the two packages we’ve worked on so far, this was definitely my favorite. The package contents were incredibly varied, the concept as a whole was incredibly unique and brilliant, and the execution was awesome all around. People who love (or even hate!) Valentine’s Day should really enjoy this one.
You can get a free postcard sample case from Sullivan here, and if you’re interested in subscribing you can do so directly from the Sleuth King’s website. You can even get $5 off with code REALOTAKU (this is NOT a referral code or link; Real Otaku Gamer received no money for this review and cannot receive any kind of compensation from Sleuth Kings no matter how many people sign up, what links are clicked, or what code is used on their website).
A review package was provided for this review.