After Strand Cup, we split into two groups of three and my group tried out the new Days of Wonder game, Mystery Express. This is a clever deduction game in the style of Cluedo but rather than searching for just three elements of the crime, this time you need to discover who, how, why, where and when. The first four of these are determined by moving cards around between the players, with there being two of each possible suspect, modus operandi, motive and location apart from the right possibility only having one card. The time of the crime worked differently, with there being three cards of each of eight possible times (except only two of the right time). Then there were three brief occasions when the full deck of 23 cards were displayed and using memory and elimination, you needed to work out the right time. After four of the five rounds, everyone gets to send a telegram with their suspicions to be used as a tie-break and after the final round, players reveal their conclusions and whoever has the most elements of the crime correctly identified is the winner.

This was quite fun although it did take a while for us to get into the swing of what we could do in each of the carriages. I even went into the wrong carriage on my last turn as I'd mistaken which carriage gave me the action I really needed. Steve and I seemed to cope with the "time" rounds a bit better than Mark W and we both reckoned we had it worked out after the second of these. However, we both were missing information to be certain of two elements and Steve's telegram was pathetic with only two of his four suspicions proving correct whereas all three of mine were on the money. However, Mark W surprised everyone by declaring all five elements correctly, even the time (which I think may have been more guess-work than judgment). Steve and I both got four elements correct but I had the better telegram result. Well played, Mark.