Remember Murder by the Dozen? It was an Apple game in the 80’s, sorta like a choose-your-own-adventure, where you had to solve one of twelve mysteries. I used to love playing it at our local library. My favorite part was the revealing of the solution, which you could only read by holding a piece of red plastic up to the book. I don’t think I ever had the patience to play a whole game but I just thought it was so neat and high-tech.
I was reminded of that game tonight while the Snook and I were watching our new favorite show: Crime Team. It’s a reality program from England that features two celebrity sleuths trying to solve an actual historical London murder in only three days. They can only use means that were available to the police at the time. (It’s currently airing in Australia Thursday nights at 9:30 on the ABC.) Tonight’s episode had a radio personality and an investigative journalist trying to uncover the mystery of several dead babies that turned up in the Thames in the 1890’s. It was fascinating, not just the crime solving aspect but also the hidden history of London that I never knew. (Shepherd’s Bush was a thriving center for “baby farming”?) It’s also interesting to see the tenuous leads that police back then were forced to follow (without recourse to DNA testing, modern forensics, etc). Tonight’s killer was convicted and hung on the basis of the way she tied her shoe. I really recommend the show if you can find it.