How to play

Stuck? Read our 7 detective tips.

The goal

Every day, a new case: a murder, a burglary, a scam, an escape… The file has three tabs:

• People (20 cards): suspect or innocent, accomplice or not… depending on the case;
• Places (10 cards, on the map of the setting): traces, or nothing;
• Objects or Vehicles (10 cards): were they used, or not?

You have to find the status of every card in the three tabs.

The cases take place in France: French names, French towns and villages, translated into English.

No guessing allowed

Tap a card, then choose. The game refuses until the clues in the notebook let you prove it (“not enough information”): every move is a real deduction. If you get it wrong when it could be proven, it counts as a mistake.

Every solved card reveals a new clue, which is added to the notebook. Some clues talk about a single tab, others cross two of them: that's the whole fun of the game.

The areas

• People: a grid of 4 columns (A to D) and 5 rows (1 to 5). The words “column” and “row” only ever refer to People.
• Places: a map whose areas have a name (floors, streets, paths… depending on the case). Every area of the map exists, even if no clue mentions it. Each case's initial report lists them.
• Objects: no area. They are located by their owner or by the place where they were found.

The words of the clues

• Neighbors: the cards that touch each other, diagonals included (for people as on the map of places).
• Above / below: in the same column. Left / right: in the same row.
• Side by side: with no gap between them in the row or the column.
• Every person has a usual place (📍), every object an owner (its icon sits on their face) and a place where it was found.
• In the notebook, tap a clue to highlight the cards it talks about; a badge on the tabs tells you how many cards are concerned elsewhere.

The files

The i button of a card opens its file: each person's statement (true or false, you will find out by solving their card), the description of the places and objects. At the end, the files reveal everyone's secrets and the red herrings.

Investigation tools (bonuses)

• 🗣️ Interrogation: a person of your choice confesses everything.
• 🧪 Lab analysis: the same for an object or a vehicle.
• 🔦 Search: the same for a place.
• 👃 Hunch: shows a card that the clues can already prove (up to you to find out how).
• ☕ Coffee break: erases a mistake.

You earn them by closing cases: one bonus per case, one more with no mistakes, and one more Hunch if you used none. The shared result tells how many bonuses you used.

Levels, ranks and medals

Every closed case gives you XP (less with mistakes, refusals or bonuses). Your level never goes down, and your rank depends on your level. At first, it goes up fast: about one level per closed case. The ranks are those of the French national police.

Every closed file gives a medal: 🥇 no mistakes and no bonus, 🥈 no mistakes, 🥉 closed. By replaying a case, you can improve your medal (without earning XP again). Achievements also reward milestones (10 files, 5 types of crime…): it's all in My casebook.

Famous cases

Real cases, as close to the facts as possible: 📚 marks a documented fact, 🔎 a guess made by the game. The positions in the grid are drawn at random. See the famous cases.

Your progress

It is kept in your browser, along with your game in progress (you can close the page and come back). To find it on all your devices: save it with an e-mail address. Your progress is the same in French and in English.