These stories occur within a set time limit where the reader has to solve the mystery by asking the right questions to the right people and looking in the right places for clues (and recognizing the importance of some clues over others). The Normal setting for this TIME challenge is 100, if a reader wants an Easier game they can select this feature to be allowed a TIME of 125, for a Harder game a TIME of 75 is given (this isn't recommended for readers reading the story for the first time).

So Reader, Choose your Difficulty.

You easy Difficulty (125 Time Points)

The Dorset Evening Gazette - 1 July 2000

TRAGIC DEATH ON BLACKSEA ISLAND

The residents of Poole were shocked to learn this morning of the apparent suicide of Blacksea Island resident Robert Powell, aged 15. Powell and his mother Olivia Powell, aged 40, were volunteers for the National Group and both lived and worked on the Island. Powell, who took the ferry to and from the mainland to attend and leave Poole Grammar School every morning and evening was described by one classmate as a "happy" and "intelligent" student.

In a statement issued by the Dorset Police Force it was confirmed that "A teenager died during a fall from a clifftop on Blacksea Island sometime between the hours of 10pm and 6am last night. At this time no foul play is suspected as the part of the island on which the deceased and his mother were living, known locally as "The Wetlands", is enclosed by a high spike-topped wall and barred gates, making entry by a third party extremely unlikely.

This paper was able to speak with Barry Guest, owner and operator of the Blacksea Ferry. "I can't believe it," he told us in a statement. "Robert was a happy boy and just about the last person I would have expected to top himself. I reckon it was an accident, a fall from the cliffs though Robert would have known better than to go up there at night. I feel sorry for his poor mum, she's been left all on her own now."

Robert Powell's suicide is the third such to happen on the island within living memory: on 25 December 1920 island owner Colonel Augustus Foster shot himself in the Hall of Blacksea Castle and on 5 July 1960 Castle Housekeeper Gwen Green apparently drowned herself in a Lily Pond on the island following a devastating fire on 30 June that had claimed the lives of her husband, butler Jack Green, and the island's owner, Lord Marcus Van Raalte.

Blacksea Island has a history of death and madness and indeed the eccentricity of a number of the island's owners, most notoriously "The Mad Doctor" William Benson and the much-reviled Lady Mary Bonham-Christie, who closed the island to the public during her ownership of the island from 1960 to 1980, has done much to bear these suspicions out. This latest suicide is just the most recent in a long line of tragic and unusual deaths to occur on this notorious island.

The Mystery

You lay down the Dorsetshire Gazette for 1 July 2000 (by now, nearly a month old) and stare moodily over the Blacksea Ferry's railing towards Blacksea Island, squatting like a bug on the gentle sea, its thickly-growing dark green trees clustering together like a wall which, together with the almost total lack of beach beneath the steep cliffs, makes the island and its secrets appear ominously impenetrable. With a sigh you flick open your notebook to a page you have titled SUSPECTS.

SUSPECTS:
The ten Resident Volunteers who were actually on the island on the night of 30 June 2000:
Iris Grey (50), Castle Compound Volunteer.
Barry Guest (40), Ferryman of the Blacksea Ferry.
George Loader (80), Castle Compound Volunteer.
Gerry Luff (30), Island Handyman.
Father Patrick Ould (40), Island Priest.
Bill Parsons (30), Island Farmer.
Olivia Powell (40), Wetlands Volunteer.
Robert Powell (15), Wetlands Volunteer and Murder Victim.
Arthur Van Raalte (40), Castle Compound Chief Volunteer.
Charles Whitburn (20), Island Gamekeeper.

You stroke your finger over Robert's name. To you it's not just a name, it's a friend, a hundred happy memories, an ear in times of trouble and a joker in times of play. He was your best friend in school and given time he might have become more than that. That will never happen now and you want to know why. You KNOW Rob would never have killed himself. You KNOW that. So now you need to find out if his death was accident or murder.

You suspect the latter.

Your name is Susan Knox and you are a fifteen-year-old amateur detective. You know that your time is limited: the first ferry arrives at the island at 9am and the last ferry leaves the island at 5pm and tomorrow, because of the tragedy, the National Group Volunteers on the island will be moved to another location and a new group will move onto the island: this is your last chance to find out what really happened to your friend Robert.

You don't believe either the accident or suicide theories which means it must be murder. There were only nine other people on the island on the night your friend died and as steep cliffs ring the island except in one place where the ferry lands (which is locked up at night) you are sure that his killer must be somewhere on the island. You are determined to find out who it is, how they murdered your friend and why.

As the ferry bumps alongside the Island's Quay you rise to your feet alongside the other tourists who visit the island daily. As you climb off the boat with the others you reflect that time is short and you have to search everywhere and talk to everyone to find the clues that you need to solve this mystery so that you can confront the staff of the island when they gather together to leave on the last boat.

You owe it to the memory of your best friend to find the person who killed him.

NOTE: YOU MIGHT FIND IT USEFUL TO PICK UP THE LIST OF SUSPECTS TO REFER TO IT IN THE FUTURE. TAKING NOTES OF YOUR OWN WOULD ALSO BE A GOOD IDEA.