Welcome to the Club

Women's Murder Club is based off of a series of novels by American author James Patterson. Patterson has been a very successful and prolific crime writer since 1992. In 2007, one of every fifteen hardcover novels sold was a James Patterson title. He is most famous for his novels featuring forensic psychologist Alex Cross, two of which have been made into films starring Morgan Freeman in the lead role: Kiss the Girls and Along Came a Spider

The Women's Murder Club stories follow a group of women who join together to solve murders around San Francisco. In the game, you'll play as three of the women - Lindsay, the main star and a homicide investigator for the San Francisco Police Department; Claire, a top notch Medical Examiner; and Cindy, an up-and-coming crime reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. You'll be aided on your cases by Jacobi, Lindsay's detective friend, as well as a few other characters.

A Killer is on the Loose

Our adventure kicks off when a jogger discovers a dead body underneath the Golden Gate Bridge. Lindsay is woken up by a phone call from Jacobi and then it's off to work. Your first stop is the crime scene. This is where things get interesting.

At its core, Women's Murder Club is a hidden objects game, but it's also so much more. You'll spend a lot of your time looking for clues, but also examining bodies and doing lab work as Claire. There are also smaller puzzles to solve throughout certain levels. In the first stage, I had to trap a crab - yes, a crab - to recover the piece of evidence that it was squeezing in its claw. It was a nice detour from the usual searching gameplay.

Some of the items that you will find will be marked as useful objects and will come into play later. For example, I had to use a few objects that I had found to get a hold of the crab I mentioned above. When you're playing as Claire, you'll have to find the right equipment in the lab before you can run your tests.

You'll also spend a good amount of time at Lindsay's police computer looking up information. If you find a Jane or John Doe, you'll have to use whatever fingerprints Claire can get for you to try to identify the body. If that fails, you'll have to search the missing persons database. There is a lot of gameplay here and it just goes deeper and deeper as you progress. I was amazed at the level of detail.

A Chilling Mystery

Women's Murder Club is a fantastic hidden objects game that is made even better by great visuals, haunting music, and an entertaining, nail-biting story. For fans of the book series, I doubt you've actually made it this far in my review without picking the game up. For those looking for a great crime story or just a few sleepless nights, you'll find a whole lot of fun to be had here.