From the title you might think that Sherlock Solitaire is a just a solo game but, perversely, it's also playable as a two-player cooperative. And it's not just the Solitaire part of the title that's a touch ambiguous - tho' there's a veneer of a Sherlock Holmes theme, it's only lightly worn: for sure, there are character cards representing Holmes and Watson, and the rules expressly reference stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but this isn't a deduction game where you're engaged in any detective work or solving any mysteries.
Wise Wizard's Sherlock Solitaire is essentially a themed version of Patience. It's played with a deck of cards made up of 'investigation' cards numbered 1-4 (eight of each) and 'threat' cards marked A-D (four of each). You have a hand of four cards and you must play two to the left and two to the right. If you have a pair of identical threats on the left, you take a 'wound', and if you suffer three wounds you lose. Matching pairs of investigation cards on the left trigger responses that require you to move a specific card type to the other side; if you create a pair and are unable to carry out the action triggered, you take a wound. The responses differ depending on whether you are playing as Holmes or Watson.
Investigation cards played to the right-hand side are used to make sets of matching numbers. Various permutations of these form the win condition for The Valley of Fear and The Final Problem 'scenarios' in the game - each with three levels of difficulty. Threat cards can be played to a set on the right-hand side but they must be interlaced with investigation cards and you cannot have two or more threats in a set that have the same letter.
If you enjoy Patience-style games, this design from Peter Sholtz represents an engaging alternative: fairly easy on the simplest setting but more challenging as you step up the difficulty, particularly for The Final Problem - which, at the hardest setting, requires you to end up with a set of six matching investigation cards with all of the interlocking threats shipped off to the left-hand side. Win or lose, the game can be played in around 15-20 minutes, and the atmospheric artwork on the cards (unique on each investigation card) gives a strong evocation of Victorian London.
And if you prefer the convenience of a digital copy, Sherlock Solitaire is also available for download as an app from the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.
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