Recently
dubbed “the man who can’t miss” by Time
magazine, James Patterson is one of today’s most popular and
prolific authors, releasing five or six books each year, most of which
make the New York Times bestseller list and enthrall millions
of fans. One of his most popular series chronicles the adventures
of the Women’s Murder Club, four female friends (think the Golden
Girls in their much younger days) solving crime through wit,
friendship, perseverance, and hard work: Lindsay Boxer, a detective
with the San Francisco Police Department; Cindy Thomas, reporter for
the San Francisco Chronicle; Claire Washburn, city Medical Examiner;
and Yuki Castellano, an ambitious district attorney. In this thrilling
new mystery penned by Patterson himself alongside master game designer
Jane Jensen, the foursome must use all of their sleuthing powers to
uncover the truth behind a suspicious death at the prestigious Jackson-Moore
Academy in Charleston, South Carolina, where a young military cadet’s
fatal morning jog leads to much more than an open-and-shut case…

Through
the course of ten investigations, you play as Lindsay, Cindy, or Claire.
As Lindsay, you do most of the grunt work: interviewing suspects,
collecting evidence, and searching rooms. As the game is in linear
fashion, you go location to location with specific objectives, which
are written in a panel on the left side of your screen. The game automatically
stores suspects, evidence, and clues in a subpanel that you can refer
to at any time. Most of the puzzles involve cracking codes, finding
items, matching clues, etc. Some of them are used merely to fill time
or make access to a particular clue or suspect more difficult, while
others fit neatly into the investigation. Some are mind-numbingly
simple, others more intricate. Overall, there is a good variety of
puzzle types that should keep you engaged throughout the several hours
of playing time.

The
plot takes some considerable twists and turns as the investigation
ensues. Patterson and Jensen certainly penned an interesting mystery
that takes the women across the country in search of a killer. Each
investigation is introduced by a comic-style cartoon vignette of the
foursome discussing the case and planning their next moves (sans voiceovers).
While these parts tend to move too slowly, they serve as good transitions
between investigations – and if you haven’t played the
game in awhile, they will remind you of what you know thus far.

The
artwork in the game is just beautiful. There are scenes in which you
can actually see dust particles dancing around in the light coming
in from an open window. The twenty-five different locations that the
game offers all look very detailed and realistic; even the small character
headshots that appear during dialogue are nicely drawn. Combined with
some haunting looped music in the background, the game has an appropriately
mysterious, yet comfortable feel to it. It doesn’t take long
to get used to the interface, which always sparkles to let you know
where the important clues are and keeps track via a point system of
your progress. If you do well, you will also gain hints and can even
bypass certain puzzles by letting the game solve them for you.

Ultimately, I had fun playing
detective for a day and trying to keep up with all the surprising
developments that the case had to offer. It’s not without minor
flaws, but it’s certainly a fun diversion that any mystery enthusiast
– woman or not! – will enjoy. This is a series that deserves
to continue and gain as loyal a legion of fans as Patterson himself
already has.

This review was based
on the retail version of the game – graciously provided by Highwater
Group – and not the online, downloadable version.

You can download
a free, trial version of Women’s
Murder Club: A Darker Shade of Grey at the online JA store.

System Requirements:

• OS: Windows XP/Vista
• CPU: 1.0 GHz
• RAM: 128 MB
• 300 MB Disk space
• DirectX: 9.0
• Hard Drive: 120 MB