Black Circle (1), and Why Not?

Well why not start Black Circle? So what if I just finished another Carol Reed game. I like Carol Reed games.

I decided, though, to stop playing at a reasonable hour. I've made good progress, although I'm sure I'm not a quarter of the way through the game yet.

This time I had no idea what the game was going to be about--or at least, what the mystery is. Didn't look up any reviews. I do worry about poor Carol though. She's always doing work for her neighbors, and never seems to get paid. Maybe she sells her dollhouses?

An interesting note--in the last game, I noticed that two wall clocks were missing their hands. That little mystery never got solved. Now I see the same thing in this game. It's becoming a theme. I'm really curious as to why these handless clocks are all over the place in these games.

At any rate, I got a fairly good start. The Nyqvists are pretty good at moving their games along. The few times I wondered where to go next were solved by looking at the hint book, but not getting any hints. It's most helpful just to know where to go.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure that the kid I'm looking for is the murder victim spotted by Carol's neighbor. Now I'm learning about a weird cult that operated out of a foundery. Wandering around that, I marvel at how Mikael Nyqvist is able to find all these derelict buildings, presumably around Norrköping. I mean, there seem to be dozens of them.

Slowly gathering inventory items right now. So far, except for keys, none of them has been useful, but that's normal in these games. Eventually they will all come in handy.

I note that we've returned to the old Tower, which was used in an earlier game--one of the first two, as I recall. Plus, we're back to the library to do online research.

I saved at the point where Bigge, the crazy janitor, wants his cell phone back, and I have to get him out of the way before I can break into the railroad building. But I still don't have the item I need to get his phone. If only I still had that boat hook from the last game--that would work.

Well, I'll look tomorrow. Until then, it's back to Kirkus books. At least these last two aren't due until November 1st, so I can play for a few hours a day without feeling guilty.

Till tomorrow!