Seven cases that shouldn't be possible.
None of them are.
Every file in this collection was closed for the same reason: what the evidence showed could not have happened. A room nobody could enter. Three witnesses telling the same impossible story. The investigators stopped there. You won't.
- ✓Seven full files, evidence and all
- ✓Three answers per case — the mechanism, the person, the error
- ✓Every case has a rational answer. It is in the file
- ✓No hints, no app, no expiry
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File 001–007 · Status: open · Classification: anomalous
Seven files the police could not close.
You get everything they had.
No hints. No app telling you when you are getting warm. Just the paperwork of an investigation, and what you can do with it.
Some of them closed the file.
Some of them did not.
Every case here has a rational answer. Finding it is another matter.
★★★★★
PLACEHOLDER — We spent forty minutes convinced there was no explanation. There was one, and it had been on page nine the whole time.
Name · Case 002
File closed★★★★★
PLACEHOLDER — The three-answer format is what makes it. Naming a person is easy. Explaining how it was done is the real game.
Name · Case 005
Solved★★★★★
PLACEHOLDER — I was sure we had been cheated. Then we read the solution and every single clue had been right there in front of us.
Name · Case 001
File closed★★★★★
PLACEHOLDER — Four of us around the table, no phones, three hours gone. First time that has happened in this house in years.
Name · Case 003
Solved★★★★★
PLACEHOLDER — We got the person right and the mechanism completely wrong. Which somehow made it better, not worse.
Name · Case 006
Partial★★★★★
PLACEHOLDER — The documents look like documents, not like a game. That is the whole difference.
Name · Case 007
File closedSix files nobody could explain.
Every one of them has an answer.
Each one closed for the same reason: what the evidence showed could not have happened. Every single one has a rational answer.
File 001
Unexplained
The Weather Station
Finnmark, Norway · 1978
Locked from the inside. In the snow outside, one single line of footprints — and it leads away from the building. They are the victim's own boots.
Difficulty
★★★★★
File 002
Unexplained
Nine Minutes in Lisbon
Lisbon, Portugal · 1996
Two cameras film him six kilometres apart, nine minutes apart. That night it was not possible. He is also the only one with an alibi.
Difficulty
★★★★★
File 003
Unexplained
The Three Witnesses
Sapporo, Japan · 2004
Three strangers watch him cross the lobby at 10:40 pm. The autopsy puts him dead an hour and forty minutes earlier. None of the three is lying.
Difficulty
★★★★★
File 004
Unexplained
The Tide at Craigmore
Isle of Mull, Scotland · 1991
A body on a tidal island. The causeway was under two metres of water for six hours. No boat left the harbour that night.
Difficulty
★★★★★
File 005
Unexplained
The Fire That Left No Smoke
Rosario, Argentina · 2008
The workshop burns from the inside. There is no smoke in his lungs. The bolt was drawn from the outside, and it carries only his own fingerprints.
Difficulty
★★★★★
File 006
Unexplained
The Handwriting
Montréal, Canada · 2013
Three examiners confirm the note is in her own hand. For eight months, since the stroke, she had not been able to write at all.
Difficulty
★★★★★
Six impossible files, six sealed solutions. Every answer is inside the paperwork.
Open the first fileTwo things that come
with the collection.
One more case, and one way to close the night. Both are in the download.
Bonus 01
Sealed
The Sealed Case
The seventh file · Difficulty 5 of 5
A full case file, sealed for a reason. The anomaly holds up longer than anywhere else in the collection and the answer is still entirely rational — but nothing in the first six will have prepared you for it. Not sold separately. It exists only inside this collection.
Bonus 02
The Debrief
Ten questions · After the seal
What you spotted first, what fooled you, and who at the table was right all along. The part of the night people remember.
Seven files, two extras, one download. No subscription, no expiry, no app.
Get all seven filesSeven files the police could not close.
You get everything they had.
No hints. No app telling you when you are getting warm. Just the paperwork of an investigation, and what you can do with it.
Questions,
answered plainly.
Is the answer ever supernatural?+
Never. Every case in this collection has a rational explanation, and every explanation is provable from the documents in the file. The point is not that something impossible happened. The point is that it only looked that way.
Are these real cases?+
No. Every case, person, document and location is entirely fictional. Some settings are real places, but nothing in these files describes a real event or a real person. We do not build files about real crimes or real victims.
Do I need the first collection to play this one?+
No. This collection stands completely on its own. If you already own The Cold Case Files you will recognise the format immediately, but there is no shared story and no required order.
Do I have to print it?+
No. Everything works on a screen. That said, most people print at least the first case and spread it across a table, because moving paper around is half of how you spot a contradiction. A4 and US Letter are both included.
How many people can play?+
One to six. It works solo, as a couple, or around a table. Four is the sweet spot — enough people to disagree, few enough that everyone reads something.
How long does one case take?+
Between 45 minutes and two hours, depending on the difficulty and how thorough you are. Across the seven cases, expect 8 to 10 hours. Two of the cases are built as gentle entry points, so start with one of those.
What if we get it wrong?+
Most people get at least one of the three answers wrong on their first case, and that is the intended experience. The sealed solution then walks you through every clue, page by page, including every false lead and why it was false. Nobody finishes a case feeling cheated.
When do I get it?+
Immediately. The download link is emailed to you within a minute of your order. There is no expiry date — open the first file tonight or in six months, the archive waits.