James Patterson: Women's Murder Club - Twice in a Blue Moon

A serial killer starts to recreate in detail the murders of famous old cases like The Boston Strangler and Jack the Ripper, leaving behind a series of notes with riddles and puzzles about his/her identity and the next victim. A group of women investigators starts to search for the murderer, piecing together all the clues with their individual skills to track down and uncover the culprit.

Women's Murder Club: Twice in a Blue Moon is the third entry in a series of hidden object games written and designed by Jane Jensen, the designer behind classic adventure titles like King's Quest VI and Gabriel Knight. The plot is developed through comic book cutscenes shown between each chapter.

As in the previous entries, the game has a combination of adventure and hidden object gameplay mechanics. In the hidden object sections, the objective is to find and click on all the items listed at the left side of the screen, on locations filled with assorted and scattered paraphernalia. In some places, the list is replaced by the silhouettes of the required objects.

Adventure puzzles appear on several scenes, where the player has to use tools or interact with the scenery. Some mini-games take place on a separate screen, where a mechanism of some sort has to be manipulated directly to solve a puzzle. For example, in the course of the game the player has to redirect the flux of a pipeline by turning valves, solve anagrams, reassemble a jigsaw puzzle made of CDs and other similar challenges. In one recurring puzzle, the goal is to decipher and follow a list of clues to cross out streets and avenues on a map with a ruler and a marker, until only the correct location is left out. All the puzzles can be skipped by clicking on the solve button.

When the body of a victim is examined by the forensic character, the cursor becomes one of the available tools, like the ultra-violet light stick, and the player has to use them to uncover all the clues left on the corpse. All the evidence is stored on file folders and journals that can be accessed at any time in the game to review the case. The hint button has five charges per chapter, and shows the exact position of one of the required items.