Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective (gamebook)

Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective is a reasoning game for one to six players, first released in 1982 by Sleuth Publications. It draws on the world of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. The game earned a Charles S. Roberts Award and was nominated for the Spiel des Jahres, and has seen many expansions and reprints in various languages.

In the game, each player acts as one of Holmes’s Baker Street Irregulars, solving mysteries while Holmes himself is unavailable. Players receive a short introduction, then gather clues by visiting locations around Victorian London. The goal is to solve the case by visiting as few places as possible.

The game includes a map of London and a reproduction of *The Times* filled with clues. A London Directory booklet tells players which location to visit to speak with a specific person. Each location, listed in the Clue Book, provides one or more clues. After visiting enough locations, a player may decide they have enough information to answer questions from the Quiz Book. Points are awarded for correct answers, but deducted for each location visited. In competitive play, the highest score wins. In solitaire or cooperative play, players compare their score to Holmes’s own.

The original set contains ten scenarios: “The Case of the Munitions Magnate,” “The Case of the Mystified Murderess,” “The Case of the Lionized Lions,” “The Case of the Cryptic Corpse,” “The Case of the Mummy’s Curse,” “The Case of the Banker’s Quietus,” “The Thames Murders,” “The Case of the Tin Soldier,” “The Case of the Solicitous Solicitor,” and “The Case of the Pilfered Paintings.”

Sleuth Publications released the game in 1982 as a boxed set with three booklets (London Directory, Case Book, and Quiz Book), a map, and a replica of *The Times*. A deluxe edition came in a leatherette binder. The game sold over 500,000 copies and was licensed to publishers worldwide, including Ben Sanders Co. (U.K.), KOSMOS (German), Futami Shobo (Japanese), Jeux Descartes (French), International Team (Italian), Äventyrsspel (Swedish), Edge Entertainment (Spanish), Kaissa Chess & Games (Greek), CrowD Games (Russian), Angry Lion Games (Korean), Galápagos Jogos (Portuguese), Rawstone (Chinese), and Lord of Boards (Ukrainian).