Board Game Review: Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: Case 4: The Lionized lions
Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective is a solo or co-op board game that is ideally played by 1-4 players. It takes place in Victorian London (the 1880s-1890s) and you are trying to solve mysteries alongside Sherlock Holmes and his faithful companion, Dr. Watson. The goal is supposedly to beat Holmes – solve the mystery with fewer clues than he does – but the real fun is if you follow all the clues, and get a picture of the entire mystery, including the parts Holmes doesn’t touch upon.
I previously reviewed the first three cases in this collection: The Munitions Magnate, The Tin Soldier and The Mystified Murderess.
The fourth case is called The Lionized Lions.
The Lionized Lions starts off differently from the other cases, meaning that there is no case you are presented with. All you get is a cryptic note from Sherlock Holmes himself telling you to check The Times for a potentially interesting case.
When checking The Times, several cases sounded interesting, but the title of the case already spoiled for us that we should look for something related to lions. As it follows, and this is a spoiler so don’t continue on if you don’t want to read any spoilers, two lions were killed in Hyde Park. And that’s where the mystery begins.
To some people, this is one of their favorite cases, as I determined while browsing through forums about this board game. For me, it was far from it – in fact, while I liked the content of the case and the guesswork, what really annoyed me endlessly is that for one of the side quests / secondary characters, there is no resolution.
Fair warning: don’t read on if you haven’t played this game and don’t want any spoilers. Spoilers ahead.
Into spoiler territory now, but what about the dead seaman, Stephen Dirks? Who killed him? I don’t mind running around chasing a false lead – as I at first thought the two cases were related; turns out they’re not, which is fine – but I do want a resolution at the end. If not something I can figure out myself, then maybe Sherlock can shed some light on the case.
Alas, when I came to the end and found no answer, I was extremely frustrated. I had hopes that the solution would be in a future article in The Times for one of the next cases (maybe there would be a follow-up article indicating who had murdered the unfortunate seaman) but unfortunately, this was not the case. There are some fellow sleuths who took a stab at solving this mysterious murder, but although plausible, none of the answers are definitive.
Although proving a nice challenge and with a good storyline that lets you connect the dots between several different threads, ultimately this case falls short because of its inability to bring a satisfying conclusion to the abovementioned mystery – as if it doesn’t matter! While it may not matter to the great Sherlock Holmes, it certainly did to me as I spent over an hour trying to solve it.
If you like Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, then I recommend…
A Study in Shifters (The Adventures of Marisol Holmes Book 1)
Seventeen-year-old Marisol Holmes wants to live up to the family legacy; after all, she is the great-great-great granddaughter of Sherlock Holmes. What’s more Holmesian than a grisly murder? The Conclave, an underground organization of detectives solving supernatural cases, is giving her just one chance to catch a killer and join them. After all, as a half-blood jaguar shifter, Marisol is uniquely qualified to solve this murder—since every scrap of evidence points toward the culprit being a fellow jaguar shifter.
“There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.”
There’s more to this than just evidence. Is one of her own people really involved, or is this all a ploy to kick Marisol’s mother off the shifter throne?
When Marisol discovers her handsome best friend, Roan, is missing, she realizes Roan may be the killer’s next target. The stakes just got higher than political intrigue.
“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
Just when things couldn’t get worse, Marisol’s ex-boyfriend-turned-nemesis, Mannix, starts leaving sinister clues for her. In her last case, Mannix broke her heart and ruined her case, and Marisol isn’t sure which is worse. Marisol fears this case too might be far more personal than she could’ve imagined.
“Elementary.”
It’s time for Marisol to prove her worth, or her people could fall into chaos while her best friend loses his life.
This book is perfect for fans of: shapeshifters, steampunk, paranormal, high school drama, teen romance, Sherlock Holmes and deadly intrigue.
Purchase from Amazon.