Mystery Case Files: Ravenhearst

After the Master Detective solves the mystery of the Queen's Hope diamond, the Queen of England herself sends a letter to the sleuth regarding a mysterious estate in Blackpool known as "Ravenhearst Manor." Those who have entered the mansion refer to bizarre locks on more than half the home's doors, which seem to hide some kind of secret. Her Majesty wishes to know more about this odd place, and requests the Master Detective's help to crack the case. The Queen offers a single lead: the diary of a young woman named Emma Ravenhearst, who traveled to Blackpool from Iowa over a century earlier. The Master Detective travels to Ravenhearst and begins to explore. Many of the doors are indeed locked with Rube Goldberg device-esque puzzles that the sleuth must solve to break the seals and search the whole mansion for clues. Successfully finding these clues allows the Detective to assemble more entries from Emma's diary, detailing the courtship of a handsome young man named Charles Dalimar, her reluctant refusal of his marriage proposal, her attempt to return to Iowa upon news of her father's illness, and her gradual descent into a strange, seemingly incurable malady. Charles insisted on having Emma recuperate in his newly built mansion, which he names in her honor in an attempt to convince her to stay in England rather than go home. Emma agrees, but notices that Charles is becoming increasingly distant and interested in texts on black magic. As the Master Detective continues to open Ravenhearst's doors, it becomes clear that all is not right in the manor: ghostly whispers and wails are heard throughout the halls, and several of the rooms–locked for over a hundred years–contain anachronistic technology that Charles could not have obtained when the mansion was originally built. Emma's diary entries similarly take a turn for the worse as she describes her increasingly severe sickness, bizarre dreams, and odd lack of correspondence from her family. To soothe her, Charles hires a nursemaid named Rose Somerset to clean the house and tend to Emma. The two women become friends, but Rose soon begins informing Emma of Charles's increasingly dangerous behavior, culminating in her spotting a bottle of white phosphorus–the key ingredient of dangerous poison–in the man's pocket. Emma realizes that Charles has been keeping her sick, and that the locks he has been installing on the doors are a method to keep her bound inside the mansion's walls forever. She and Rose make plans to flee, but it seems in vain, as the penultimate diary entry the Master Detective constructs contains an image of Charles standing over Emma with a hatchet. The sleuth assembles the final torn page, written by none other than Emma's ghost. She has been magically sealed in the house since her murder, and only the Master Detective can lay her to rest. By finding seven skeleton keys hidden throughout the manor and solving a final puzzle, the sleuth breaks the last lock, discovers Emma's coffin, and opens it, freeing her spirit and lifting the curse on the mansion. The Queen sends a congratulatory note, and informs the Master Detective that other European rulers may have need of the sleuth's skills in the future.