The Coldfile: Murder Mystery

The first case is free. Every other case is a one-time purchase that stays yours: no subscription, no ads, no account needed. Each case is narrated in about 16 to 21 minutes.

A body, a file and six people with a reason. A narrator reads you everything the detectives had, and you decide who did it.

The Coldfile is a detective game for people who want to solve a murder mystery from the evidence itself. Each cold case is a folder of police reports, witness statements, photographs and records, written so that every document fits the others. Nothing is filler: the answer is in the case file.

HOW A CASE WORKS
- The story takes you through the whole file, chapter by chapter: the crime, the people, then every report, statement and record. Listen, read along, or both.
- Tap a card in the story to open the original document or photo, then pick up where you left off.
- Keep notes as you go. Hold any line to quote it in your notebook, or speak a note out loud.
- The timeline fills in with every hour the story mentions, and the cast list keeps track of who is who.
- When the story ends, name one suspect and the one document that proves it. Your accusation decides one of three endings, and then the case shows you what really happened.

SEVEN CASES TO SOLVE
- Assembly Required (1983, Dayton, Ohio). Free. Everyone who worked for him that night had a reason. The police called it a fall.
- The Last Sale (1912, Chicago, Illinois). Who killed Clara Hartwell?
- Static Fire (1962, Kern County, California). Who killed Evelyn Marsh?
- Dead Weight (1979, Bucks County, Pennsylvania). They walked right past him. Everyone thought it was part of the show.
- Panic Button (2016, Austin, Texas). Every room had a camera. Except the one he died in.
- Sleeper (1953, night train from Vienna to Trieste). His door was locked from inside. The police wrote suicide.
- Midnight Rollover (1999, a research station on the Greenland ice sheet). The backup generator was running with its exhaust shut. He was dead.

Each case has between 27 and 31 documents and photographs, six suspects and three endings. The narration of a case runs about 16 to 21 minutes; reading the documents and making up your mind is up to you.

CLUES THAT HOLD UP
Every case starts as a record of facts, times and places, and a checker validates it before the story is written. If a statement contradicts a record, the checker rejects the case. When you get stuck, go back to the file: the answer is in there.

FOR FANS OF
True crime podcasts, crime dramas, whodunit novels, escape rooms and logic puzzles. If you have ever wanted to sit down with the case file and work it out yourself, start with the free case. The cases and everyone in them are fiction.

PAY ONCE PER CASE
The first case is free. Every other case is a one-time purchase that stays yours, and you can buy them one by one or five of them in one bundle. No subscription, no ads, and you don't need an account.

PLAY ANYWHERE
The text of every case ships inside the app, so you can read it without a connection. The narration downloads chapter by chapter as you play. Your progress is saved on your phone. Sign in with Google if you want it saved in the cloud too, so it follows you to a new phone.