The Hunt a Killer series released a new table top mystery game featuring our favorite fictional sleuth! Nancy Drew: Mystery at Magnolia Gardens became available on Amazon.com (affiliate link) on September 2021. Their is additional information on mysteryatmagnolia.com but they link back to Amazon where they sell the game.
Check out the spoiler-free unboxing video!
My review:
When I played through this table-top mystery game, I went solo. I took my time to read through everything, often re-visiting papers to look for clues. The game is not linear, which makes solving the mystery very fun. Since there are many pieces of papers to read, I can see how playing with others could work: everyone take a suspect card and read their statements, adding hand-written notes to help create a shared timeline.
In this story, Nancy Drew asks you, the player(s) to help solve the mystery, as she is in the hospital recovering from a poisoning. Nancy had gathered statements (the character cards) and all important evidence, and writes in a letter to the player(s) what is going on, giving a a starting point.
Included with the cards and papers is a metal tin, which is locked with three number dials. On top of the tin is a sticky note for solving for the combination. I found this to be a really creative puzzle. Inside the tin are more clues and puzzles – but I will not spoil the contents.
Some very believable brochures are among the contents, which make for some added investigations – you must decipher what is important and what are red herrings. I will admit, the flower illustration through me off in where I needed to solve another puzzle, and I found this a bit tricky to understand at first.
Once I wrote out my timeline and suspects and clues, I made a guess (it really came down to two suspects, for me), and opened the Solution envelope. The answers inside explained the culprit, but not every puzzle and how to solve it. I think an additional sheet with explanations may have been a nice feature, but overall, this was a very fun experience where I felt like I was helping Nancy solve the mystery.
Enough reading, now go solve the mystery for yourself! Enjoy!
