The Deadbolt Mystery Society – Sleight of Hand (Review)

Location: Your Home!

Players:  We recommend 1-4

Price: $24.99 per box, plus $4.99 shipping

Follow the spirits!

Theme:

From the Deadbolt Mystery Society website:

When The Amazing Silverstone died, his Last Will and Testament was a source of much controversy due to a personalized note he left with his lawyer.  It read:

“To my dearest son, Peter.  If you are reading this particular draft then it means my unknown nemesis murdered me.  They will have gone to great lengths to cover their tracks, but I know the truth.  In time, hopefully, you will too.  There have been lots of unusual happenings at Silverstone Manor over the past few weeks.  Some of them I could have chalked up to simple coincidence, but the sheer number of strange occurrences has cast a sinister cloud overhead that has been too overwhelming to ignore.  Your reading of this will proves that I wasn’t paranoid or crazy.  I was right all along about the threat on my life.  That brings me to your involvement in this cryptic business.  In addition to my estate and the considerable wealth that goes with it, I am leaving you the contents of my safe which, I believe, contains the identity of the one who took my life.   Over the course of my life I have made many enemies, both personally and professionally, and I believe one of these is to blame for my untimely demise.  Determine the identity of my killer and bring them to justice.  I have the utmost confidence in you, my son.”

Although he had acquired considerable sleight of hand skills from years of apprenticing under his father, Peter Silverstone had no idea where to start with the investigation of his father’s murder.  As a result, he has brought the contents of his father’s safe to you at the Will Street Detective Agency and hired you to help solve the mystery surrounding the death of The Amazing Silverstone.

First Impressions:

While we were previously disappointed with the lighter story within The Wrath of Nero, we are always excited to see a new Deadbolt experience release. With Sleight of Hand, we were enthused to see the theme would lend itself more to the story based mysteries we’ve become accustomed to with The Deadbolt Mystery Society. The box featured a snazzy new design, and evoked a sense of mystical wonder, setting the tone for our next case perfectly!

Prepare yourselves for magic and mystery!

High Points:

Sleight of Hand is an excellent return to form for Deadbolt, bringing back a heavy emphasis on delivering a deep story that slowly unravels as the players solve codes and hidden messages. Online interactions requiring passwords found through clever puzzling make a welcome return, and the box as a whole allows for incremental solving in a very satisfying way. The cast of suspects are all very interesting in their own right, though I think that the witch was my personal favorite, as I’d love to know more about this possibly mystical character! Like Asylum, this motley crew was so fantastic and I’d love to see more of them in the future! We were kept guessing by the enigmas up to the end, when everything came together in a logical, yet challenging, way. Although suspects were not eliminated in as clear cut ways as they were in Murder in 3B or Asylum, there were more connections to make that would lead to logical conclusions regarding the murder, culminating in a highly satisfying solve. Props and information included are top quality as always, and poring over the information and putting all the pieces together made for an enjoyable evening of puzzling.

Low Points:

The experience was great at capturing a magical aura and staying true to that vibe throughout, though it would’ve been interesting to have a few puzzles that were directly related to magic itself, rather than mostly code-breaking.

Verdict:

Sleight of Hand is everything that we love about Deadbolt, tied up in a lovely, magical package! The Deadbolt Mystery Society is definitely one of the best at delivering intricately woven mysteries to your door, and this box is another must buy for us! We cannot wait to see what’s in store next month with their new experience, Ransom! Join the Deadbolt Mystery Society here! Right now, you can get 30% off your first box with the Promo Code ESCAPE30! You can also see the rest of our Deadbolt Mystery Society reviews here!

9/10 (Excellent)

Full Disclosure: The Deadbolt Mystery Society provided a complementary box.