Another Murder Mystery Detective Story (Part 1)

Hello folks and welcome to the podcast.

In this one I’m going to go through another online textadventure in order to try to solve a murder mystery set in Victorian London.

It’s been a while since I did one of these on the podcast.

Several times in the past I have read through onlinedetective adventure stories written by Peter Carlson and available attextadventures.co.uk

There were episodes 338 & 339 (A Murder MysteryDetective Story) and episodes 425 and 426 (Victorian Detectives) in whichI was joined by Amber in Paul. (links at the bottom)

These are based on stories and text adventures that you canfind at textadventures.co.uk I usually use the ones done by Peter Carlson andin fact after recording the first one, Peter got in touch with me to tell methat he liked the way I did it and was welcome to use his other stories. So,kudos to Peter for being behind us on this one.

In the first episode I read through the story entitledVictorian Detective, and then second one was the sequel “Victorian Detective 2”and now we are on to the third instalment of the series, that’s right it’s“Victorian Detective 3”.

So the idea behind these text adventures is that you readthrough some text on a webpage and there are certain words highlighted whichyou can click on for extra information and every now and then you have to makea decision which can affect the way the story turns out. Each decision relieson your observational skills and your reading of the information provided. Youhave to be like a Sherlock Holmes style detective, or a text detective if youwill, to work out the right choices based on the evidence you’ve read.

This sort of thing is great for learning English because youcan do tons of reading with very specific goals each time. It’s online so youcan check out new words when you come across them and the fact that you’re partof the story makes it extra engaging. You can also read along with me as I playthe game, or play it on your own later. And if you do that, consider leaving acomment or review at textadvantures.co.uk thanking Peter Carlson for his work.

You can check out loads of these games at textadventures.co.ukand I’ll let you explore them in your own time.

Right, so what about Victorian Detective 3?

In this series we play the part of a brilliant detective whohas skills similar to those of Sherlock Holmes. You have perfect memory,demonstrated by the fact that you can re-read any text so far. Your super fastdecision making ability is represented by the unlimited time we have to makeour choices in the game. And our vast knowledge is represented by the internetand we are encouraged to google any things we don’t know about.

As a detective we have a police partner that we work withcalled Mardler. He’s a bit like the Lestrade character in Sherlock Holmes inthat he is a police officer who often gets things wrong and is a bitcompetitive with you. So Mardler is our partner.

So here’s how it’s going to go.

I’ll read through each section and read all the otherperipheral info that you get by clicking on different words. I’ll explainthings as we go if I think it’s all getting complicated. I’ll invite you tothink about the right option each time and if you want you can read along withme by following the link on the website.

textadventures.co.uk/games/view/itwcu1_epk2b-azzulq6cw/victorian-detective-3

I have no idea how long this will take! It might be severalepisodes, we’ll see. I haven’t done the game before so I don’t know how long itwill last. In this episode I think I’ll go for about an hour and then I’ll finda good place to pause the story. Some kind of cliffhanger would be good.

Your task is just to try and keep up with the story, perhapsthink about each decision too. If I make a mistake at any point, jump into thecomment section and explain your thoughts.

But mainly, just try to follow the story and I hope you findit interesting and enjoyable as a way to learn English through listening.

I’m slightly concerned that my reading of texts mightdistance you from the story slightly. I really want you to concentrate onimagining the surroundings of each scene. It helps if you really visualise eachsituation as you listen to it. Use any descriptive language you can find tohelp you paint a visual image of what you’re hearing in the story. This canmake a big difference to your ability to keep up and to stay involved all theway through.

So for this story we’re in London in 1861. Victoria is onthe throne. The American Civil War is breaking out in the USA. London isprobably quite a dirty, smokey, foggy sort of place with some very upmarketareas and also some slums. People used horses and horse-drawn carriages to getaround and do things. It’s the world of Sherlock Holmes basically.

Right, so without any further ado, let’s begin the story.

There’s a little bit of chess at the beginning and I admitthat I’ve done this several times to get the right sequence of moves. QUEEN –PAWN – PAWN

Also, as we go through I’m picking up or losing points basedon my decisions. I think it’s not possible to die in the game, but the outcomemight be different and your score can be different each time.