Gaslight Gothic: The Clockwork Corpse

London. November, 1888.

Lord Edmund Blackwell — industrialist, philanthropist, and man about whom people said one does not speak ill in a tone suggesting considerable effort was being expended not to — has been found dead in his workshop. Locked from the inside. A clockwork device embedded in his chest that had not been there when he went to bed.

Scotland Yard has a problem. Scotland Yard, somewhat more specifically, has Ada.

The Clockwork Corpse is a literary interactive mystery in twelve chapters. Play as Constable Ada Cogsworth — Scotland Yard's first female detective — as you investigate a murder that is not what it appears, a victim who is not what he claimed, and a killer whose motives are considerably more complicated than crime.

Features:

• 12 chapters of branching literary fiction
• Multiple investigative paths — your choices shape what evidence you find and how
• Four major suspects, each with something to hide and something to say
• A mystery that asks not only who but why — and whether those are the same question

Reading time: approximately 45–60 minutes. Contains themes of labour exploitation, systemic injustice, and moral ambiguity.