Sleuth Kings – Case 009: Part-Time Thieves (Review)

Location: Your Home!

Players:  We recommend 1-4

Price: $29.95 per box

Criminal Cliques

Theme:

Rei Yukimura has been hard at work organizing the Dayton Asian Festival, poring blood, sweat, and tears into making this the event of the year! Things soured, however, when Rei’s daughter Asuna learned that a ring of would-be thieves had formed at her high school, hired by one of the vendors to steal from other stalls during the festival! Worried that these kids will ruin the Festival, Rei has hired Sullivan to discreetly find out who hired the clique. Unable to keep a low profile skulking around a high school, Sullivan will be assisted by Asuna to crack the case!

First Impressions:

I happened to be home when I saw the postwoman drop off our Sleuth Kings box for the month, and I was instantly excited to see what was inside! I was good and waited for my partner in (solving) crimes before I began poring through the box, and it was, as always, worth the wait! The theme this month was different from what we were used to, and though the stakes were lower, it was exciting nonetheless!

I never get tired of opening up these case files! (Especially if Pugicorns are going to be involved!)

High Points:

As always, Sleuth Kings delivered yet another finely woven, puzzle laden case to our door! The stakes were quite a bit lower than usual with this case, but this was a good change of pace after taking down a serial killer two months running (Cases 007 and 008.) The light-hearted nature of the story brought a bit of levity to the mystery, and we really enjoyed working with our new partner for the case, Asuna. The daughter of our client was written in a believable and humorous way, all teenage bravado and eagerness to take down the high school crime ring! I’m really hoping we get to work with her on cases in the future, she was such a fantastic character! The puzzles were well implemented within the theme and highly believable to be made by a high school clique and their Queen Bee leader. In fact, some parts of the story infused me with a bit of nostalgia. Props were excellent, and wonderfully varied; we specifically enjoyed the adorable nature of the invitation to do crimes put out by the Queen Bee villain. There were several instances where we received side notes and other things to read that weren’t strictly part of the case, but added to the entertainment value and kept us laughing, bolstering the light heartedness of the adventure. I really need more Chugbear in my life, just saying. Can we have Case 011: The Hunt for the Chugbear? Or at least the rest of the story? (This will make so much more sense when you buy this case. Which you should. Right now. Go on.) The epilogue letter we received was also wonderful, and included a small present from our favorite character from the case! We noted that this letter marked our fourth solved mystery, and as promised on the website and in this letter, we’d be receiving a special bonus case tying into the meta-story of Sleuth Kings soon! That review coming in a couple weeks!

Oh the antici… pation!

Low Points:

Only a couple things to note here, as Sleuth Kings continues to prove why they’re the top dog in the Mystery Subscription Box game! One of the clues included instructions for assembly, but unfortunately, part of the instructions had it backwards, leading us to need to redo it. They worked for the most part, however, so this wasn’t a big deal, but might accidentally trip up those that aren’t familiar with this sort of assembly. The only other thing was that this was by far the quickest and easiest main case we’d done with Sleuth Kings, taking our group only an hour to solve. This is a great entry point for beginners, though, so it’s not much of a complaint. Veteran Sleuths should expect a less difficult mystery, but the case is very much worth it for the story and characters presented!

Verdict:

Another excellent case from Sleuth Kings! You can’t go wrong with these guys, and I highly recommend checking out any of their cases and subscribing today! Over the months we’ve been reviewing these sorts of experiences, Sleuth Kings has by far been the box we’re most excited to see at our door! Case 009 is a great place to start, and you can use the promo code ESCAPEADVENTURE to get $5 off your subscription here!

9.5/10 (Excellent)

Full Disclosure: Sleuth Kings provided a complementary box.