Bingo 5: G square (first noun of the title is “Game”)
Clue the concept and experience is best executed first by the movie (all hail Tim Curry), second by the board game, and very distant thirdly by the novel The Game is Murder. The story takes a family tragedy in 1920s England (the age of the Great Detective) that the family feels is not satisfactorily solved. Lord John Verreman is accused of murdering the nanny having mistaken her for his wife (they had a rocky relationship). There are a variety of witnesses, both investigator and character. The novel starts off as a murder mystery dinner party, with the detective played by the narrator. It then shifts into another presentation of the case involving only two people directly (Max Enigma the detective, and someone else who shall go unnamed to void spoilers), and then the third version is a recasting of members of the participant pool as a court case. Occasionally the narrative is interrupted by a pair of mysterious voices who provide metacommentary about the nature of murder mystery stories. Eventually all versions of most things are brought together into some kind of sort of conclusion. But of course, not all questions are answered, including who is Daniel? Is he real or not? Is anyone/anything?
Maybe it was just my mood, but this one just did not grab me. I appreciate murder mysteries, meta-ness, literary history, Clue, and cleverness. However, those things are just not combined very well for me. The transitions don’t work very well, the characters a relatively flat, the details of the mystery aren’t all that interesting, and the meta-stuff gets too obvious too soon. The further mystery/sequel (a disappearance) suggested at the end almost has more promise than the “answered” one of the murder.
When the appendices and logic game worksheets used by the investigator figure in places are some of the best bits, and it’s set up like a “choose your own adventure” like the original Clue but really is not, that’s probably not the bestest ever indication of a fun-smart read that I was hoping for.