Virtually every scene has the requisite list of hidden objects to discover, of course, which represents the one glaring contradiction to the narrative. To the game's credit, you are required to look for evidence relevant to your case, but these are in addition to the standard random list of objects. So on the same screen, you'll feel like an investigator looking for poison on a corpse's lips, while moments later looking for a crab, the letter "Q", or an inconsequential ruler hidden in the rafters. But hey, adventure elements notwithstanding, it is firmly rooted in the hidden object formula, so be forewarned.

The nicely designed environments, from a ship's deck to the "Deadlines" café to a variety of Asian-accented locations, are not overly cluttered with extraneous junk to sift through. The objects themselves tend to be a little too small, however, and on more than one occasion I wished I had an in-game magnifying glass handy, which some casual games include. There are a handful of hints available if you're stuck (and by "hint" I mean "blatantly showing you where a missing item is"), or you can persevere on your own, because there is no time limit at all in Death in Scarlet, so you're free to take as long as you want. There's also no penalty for clicking on the wrong item if you resort to random guesswork.

Some of the objects you find will be stashed in a small inventory that gets used in that area, while at other times you'll enter a scene with a few basic tools you'll need. None of these inventory puzzles are at all difficult, but it's a bit more engaging than having everything done for you. That isn't always the case, though. At times Death in Scarlet seems to go out of its way to make the game easier. Many of the standalone puzzles with movable parts will lock correct pieces in place, which all but prevents you from failing, while others won't allow failure, period, like a tangled rope puzzle where you can do nothing at all except click on the next rope to pull free.

The most blatant of these silver platters comes during a repeated lab puzzle that is already easy to begin with, but could have been a diverting exercise if left alone. But it wasn't. Claire must test various liquids for colour and reaction that you'll need to select from a pre-defined list. Now, I'm pretty sure I could identify yellow and smoking from purple and boiling using my own keen senses and penetrating intellect, but just in case I couldn't, the game helps out by plastering a large-print "Purple boil" right over the experiment. Believe me, I'm all for user-friendly features and increased accessibility, but there's got to be a line drawn somewhere, and Death in Scarlet overshoots it a few times too often. At the very least, such help should be made optional, especially since it's possible to skip a puzzle altogether if you're stumped.

None of the other puzzles will pose much difficulty for even partially-experienced adventure gamers, but there's a nice mix to vary the gameplay, even if some seem ill-suited to a police investigation. Several are character-specific, like a bottle sequencing puzzle (C before E but not between A and D, etc.) that Claire must solve before getting to each of her self-solving experiments. Cindy, meanwhile, has to keep organizing her office by solving themed patterns or earning information by winning a hangman-styled minigame. Other puzzles scattered throughout the game involve keying basic search info into a computer, jigsaws, clue-matching exercises, and a fun overhead maze-like puzzle to strategically corner a suspect, to name a few.

With the challenge kept to a minimum, the game moves along at a snappy pace in a linear fashion. Characters communicate with each other automatically after completing their assignments, and stylish comic-like cutscenes progress the plot between chapters, giving the game an admirable depth for its limitations. I finished the game in well under five hours, but I felt like I'd come a long way in that short time. And had a darn good time doing it. I'd have gladly spent more time with the Women's Murder Club, but I fully expect to see Lindsay and the gang back in future adventures. Err… did I say "adventure"? I suppose I did, and not entirely by Freudian slip, though I meant it more in the literal sense than a genre interpretation.

For fans of casual games, Women's Murder Club: Death in Scarlet should provide several absorbing hours of entertainment, though probably not much more in terms of replayability, as the mystery isn’t randomized in any way. The game is budget priced and available both in download and retail versions, the latter reportedly including a novella and 50-odd teaser pages from James Patterson’s next novel. If you're an adventure game diehard and wondering if a casual title like this could possibly be worth your while, that's more difficult to answer, though this game is a deserving place to test the waters if you feel so inclined. For many, seek-and-find games offer the core experience they love in adventures with all the excess trimmed away, while for others they’re little more than diversionary filler with no real substance, but Death in Scarlet certainly has more than most. So don't be quick to discount it sight unseen, as its appeal may just be the most important object currently hidden from view.

This review was originally published as an ungraded feature article, and has now been fully rated and adapted accordingly.