Black Sonata is designed by John Kean and published by Side Room Games. It is a solitaire game of hidden movement and deduction. In many of Shakespeare's Sonnets he writes of a Dark Lady. For 400 years historians and literary scholars have tried to figure out who the Dark Lady is. In this game you are an investigator travelling around London looking for clues to deduce who the Dark Lady is.
There are twelve possible women who could be the Dark Lady and the game includes a booklet telling you a bit about each of them and one of the sonnets that hints that this could be the lady. This book is not needed to play but gives you a lot of great flavor and historical context.
You will set aside one of the Dark Lady cards face down and shuffle the rest. Each of these cards has a suit and three identifying characteristics. You will pick a location on the London map to start at and use a deck of location cards to track where the Dark Lady moves next. Each turn you will first move the Dark Lady along her path designated by the next card. This could move her to one or more location. You use Dark Lady tokens to mark her potential spots on the board. Once she moves you have a few option. Most turns you will often move to a new location. If it is your first time in a location you will collect the spot's Key Card. Each Key Card has a keyhole cut out of it. If you are in the same location as as a potential Dark Lady location you can search for her. You will hold the Key Card up against the underside of the Location card and flip them over. If the Dark Lady's Silhouette is in the keyhole you have spotted her. You collect one of the remaining Dark Lady cards from the deck. and compare it to the suite of the card you set aside earlier. It will tell you how many traits this lady has in common with the Dark Lady. Once you have done this a few times you will be able to deduce what the three traits of the Dark Lady are. Once you know her traits the next time you find her you can confront her. Look at the Dark Lady Card if you have the correct three traits you have one the game otherwise you lose. If you have not solved it by the third time you go through the location deck you also lose.
I have never seen hidden movement done in a solitaire game but Black Sonata does it very well. I was surprised at how well this game works and how challenging it is to play.
The components in this game are excellent the tokens are all made of wood and the cards are of a good quality. There is also a small expansion called The Fair Youth which I have not tried yet but look forward to exploring. If you like solo games, deduction and logic puzzles Black Sonata may be just the game for you.
