Jessica Fletcher is an elderly novelist who writes crime mystery books and solves cases in her spare time, using her powers of observation to investigate and uncover the truth.

As Jessica, the player searches several locations for items listed on the left side of the screen. The entries are incomplete, and missing letters are scattered through the scenery as typewriter keys that must be collected to fill the gaps. Some entries are instructions rather than object names, and some scene objects can be dragged and dropped to complete a required action.

Some entries are marked blue, indicating that the item can only be retrieved after an extra step. Mini-games appear on a separate screen from time to time, with logic puzzles and other similar challenges. They can be skipped, but doing so incurs a thirty minutes penalty.

The hint button is Jessica’s typewriter below the list, which shows the position of one required item when activated. Extra hints can be found on the scenes as ink ribbons for the machine.