RV’s AC’s Murder on the Orient Express by Ryan Veeder
A review in two parts. Part 2, JJMcC’s Dashiel Hammet’s Sam Spade’s “SPOILERS and Rotgut”
She’d entered my office in a blur of leg and lipstick. She left in swirl of stiletto and silk. “I expect your involvement ends here, Mr. Spade,” she said in a purr over steel. I let her leave without challenge. Solving someone else’s mystery, especially someone whose loafers could use some lead like H.P., is like courting a married dame. But something about this case just stuck, like gum behind a secretary’s ear. If I made a habit of listening to women like Femme IFCOMP I’d be a lot more sober and a lot less interesting.
I poured myself three fingers of coffin varnish and reviewed the case file. Something didn’t quite sit right. Was this the first case where the mystery outran the paycheck? Maybe. Yeah, I can’t change Femme IFCOMP’s 2hr assessment, but this case just refused to loosen its grip. Knocking back my best instincts with devil’s candy, I bent right back to it.
So I got back on the train, reconnected with Mr. Moustache. For a guy with a rap-me face, he could pound some pavement, I’ll give him that. Not shortchanged in the confidence department for sure. It took another 15 minutes to assemble a few more clues then accuse a suspect. Nailed it in one. Is what a clock-puncher with more confidence than imagination might say. HP seemed content with the result, but that was probably just the dessert tray talking. Me, the sweet was still too sour. Yeah, I hammered on another half hour. The puzzle and clue space had exhausted, 40-odd clues assembled, 5 mystery levers pulled. Because unpulled levers are like sparkly engenues - you don’t know who they are until you handle them. Then there was the matter of Door 50. Still out of reach.
Pride is a liability in the gumshoe game. It never got anyone anything but underestimated. Pride stopped being one of my poisons around the time I discovered whiskey. I knew where the Walkthrough was, and had already wrung it dry. Still short of 50 clues. You don’t get where I am in this business leaving Oz behind the curtain. If the Walkthrough clammed up, there was another snitch outside HP’s meaty grasp. Yeah, at 45 minutes I popped the cork on the Sourcecode.
Do I regret it? I regret a lot Dollface, but that ain’t one. I already knew the confessions were suspect. There were gonna be a lot of them and it’d be easy to get distracted. Everyone was having fun, the yucks kept coming, all that I knew. Still, cabin 50 and the levers dangled like a kid’s clacker ball and the source code exposed all of it. The answers lay in the source code, and I was just the flatfoot to extricate it. Boy, did that not disappoint. Cabin 50 showed HP had more flex to his rod than I gave him credit for. Good for him. And the shoe drop on the levers was an all timer.
Thing is, the machine kinda broke down on the way. Crucial details buried behind deceptive descriptions or magic uncued commands. In one case a lever’s presence only detectable through the source code. I’m not moaning, Fairness takes it on the chin every moment of every day. Yeah, I did expect more though. If I had one suggestion it would be to either alias SEARCH to LOOK UNDER or better cue search failure when more’s afoot. That one change woulda saved me so much shoe leather. Behind all that inadequate and missing text, it does feel like the endgame stuff got shortchanged.
Femme IFCOMP was crystal clear. None of my subsequent investigations were admissable. Yeah fine, but let’s play a little ‘what if?’. Would a 4 hour limit have changed anything? Not for me. There’s a BONUS point for sure in the crazy endings, somehow popping even against the white-knuckle red-faced initial investigation. There’s a pretty big penalty point there too. I’m not so sure any of that late stuff is even possible without my brand of tenacity. Yeah, I’m not the sharpest gumshoe out there. Got a mind for speak’n’spell and a face for radio. What I sometimes have, when it seems worth it, is just enough perversity and gumption to plod my way through, narrative be damned. This time, the effort was worth it. Now am-scray. My ticket’s punched for the Bottle-Bottom Express.
Played: 9/4/26
Playtime: first accuse at 2:15; 5 levers, 46 clues, opened source code at 2:45, finished at 3:45
Score: 8 (Engaging/mostly seamless)
Would Play After Comp?: Kinda already did.
rvacmooe_jjmcc.txt (354.3 KB)