Murders in the Rue Morgue (Mystery Rummy, Case No. 2)

Rating:
Summary: Murder and mayhem and rummy!
Review: The second installment of the Mystery Rummy series focuses on Edgar Alan Poe's classic MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE. For those of you who haven't read the short story, this card game will spoil the outcome and this review is also a spoiler for the story.

The players are investigating the grissly murders of two women. It has been determined that the murderer was an orangutan. The mystery is in collecting enough evidence to prove the orangutan did it.

The game mechanics are similar to those of the first mystery rummy game, Jack the Ripper. Players try to form melds (three or more of a kind) of evidence cards. Whenever a meld is formed a card is taken from the top of the draw deck and placed under the orangutan card. This is important because at the end of the hand, whichever player went out first gets to take the cards under the orangutan and use them, if possible, to score additional points. There are a number of ways to get bonus points, as well. For example, each evidence card set has a complimentary evidence card set. These sets are of similar color (dark green and light green) to easily match them up. If a player plays complimentary evidence melds, they earn bonus points.

This is a great game to play with two people, though it's more challenging with three or four. I highly recommend this game for a quiet evening of mysterious fun!