The Saints and Sinners Cases in Detective: City of Angels
Uncover the solutions to a trio of less difficult cases in a 1940s crime noir setting with an expansion for Detective: City of Angels.
It was only fitting that my days as young Columbo would extend to the final currently available expansion for Detective: City of Angels! My experiences so far were quite enjoyable, spanning a myriad of mysteries where I had a pretty good solve rate. Detective: Saints and Sinners set a trio of new cases before me and I was ready to investigate one last time!
Spoiler Alert
No case specifics or solutions are included. Everything shown is what is seen when first opening the expansion, along with a few elements present during setup of a few cases. This is all designed to give an overview without any case spoilers.
Game Overview
Game Name: Detective: City of Angels
Publication Year: 2019
Designer: Evan Derrick
Artist: Vincent Dutrait
Publisher: Van Ryder Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Cases involve hunting down evidence, questioning suspects, and figuring out solutions. This expansion takes a step back in terms of difficulty, offering a selection of gumshoe and veteran cases. Finding the truth requires some focused detective work, and solving a crime is never easy!
First Play
June 22, 2019
Complexity
2
Latest Play
May 10, 2025
Expansions
3
Setup Time
10 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
21
Play Time
45 Minutes
High Score
N/A
Game Area
36" x 28"
Low Score
N/A
A New Appearance
This expansion is the first one that breaks away from a single art style and writer. Standees showcase the differences, although art is never mixed in the same case.
I knew that this difference in artists was one of the biggest things to take note of, although it didn’t have much of a bearing on my enjoyment of the cases. Just different!
After watching The Golden Palace recently, I was positive a case involved Don Cheadle. That is Don Cheadle. Ha ha!
Of more interest to me was the case quality, and I was a bit surprised to see that there were only 3 included cases.
Gumshoe and Veteran
One Last Hit for the Hitman was the first case, and it has the distinction of being a gumshoe level mystery. In other words, the easiest difficulty level. Which was jarring for me.
I had just come off of the second expansion, which involves the most advanced cases with plenty of complexities.
With this first case, I solved it after 5 of 12 investigation days passed. I never talked to 2 suspects. And I got it right.
The case wasn’t a bad one, yet I wasn’t sure who it was designed for. Even after solving the base game cases, this one felt like it might be too simple for a lot of players.
Blast from the Past
My favorite case from this set was Blast from the Past! It had a few different elements and stuck with the general formula of lots of different threads and no obvious answer.
However, as it was a medium difficulty case, I pieced it together with multiple days to spare and didn’t find the solution all that satisfying. It wasn’t too surprising.
Granted, I went down a few incorrect paths, yet I still ignored questioning a suspect when I found the answer.
I would have to check, but I don’t remember ever skipping over questioning suspects in prior cases. Too easy for me?
Sleuth Confusion
While setting up the final case, I panicked at the final statement that applied to sleuth mode only… Telling me that I would be using leverage for what should be the first time.
I scrambled to go back to the base game rules, as I thought I had played incorrectly all along. But then how would the core questioning mechanic work? Had I cheated all along?!
No. Leverage is used in the sleuth mode. I played correctly. It’s just used slightly differently in Cloak and Daggered.
And this turned out to be the most disappointing case. I was glad to be done with it, and sadly didn’t like this expansion.
Ranking the Saints and Sinners Cases
This was the only expansion that didn’t resonate with me. Only one case seemed interesting enough, yet it was fairly easy to solve. Maybe my issue was in the fact I didn’t wait in between expansion releases and played them at the same time. Still, these cases are on the less difficult side and might not be right for those looking for challenging mysteries to solve.
I’ll also reiterate that the difference in art styles barely affected my enjoyment. Vincent Dutrait’s style appeals to me more, but these rankings are based on my overall enjoyment of the case stories. Throwing in what seemed like a novel mechanic in one case was neat… Except for how I mostly should have ignored it and followed my usual sleuthing to find the solution.
That might have been the worst part: Feeling like I adjusted my technique to use new rules and actions that didn’t help me out. This expansion was the only one where I felt like my overall enjoyment was pretty low. Rather a shame, unfortunately.
- Blast from the Past (Veteran)
- One Last Hit for the Hitman (Gumshoe)
- Cloak and Daggered (Veteran)
Session Overview
Play Number: 19-21
Expansion: Detective: Saints and Sinners
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: All Expansion Cases
Outcome: 2 Wins & 1 Loss
I thought the first cases were rather easy to solve, but the last one threw me for a loop with a new mechanic… That ended up being more about wasting actions. I never got enough information to solve the case due to chasing down dossiers that I thought would be the core focus. Rather a disappointing ending to my experience with the collection.
%
20 Plays
Affordability
Price & Value
8
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
10
Originality
Design & Theme
7
Quality
Components & Rules
9
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
7
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
5
+ Pros (Positives)
- Questioning suspects to gather information is a fun process of looking up paragraphs and weeding out the lies.
- Only a handful of actions are available to choose from, allowing the focus to remain on the investigation.
- A few interesting mechanics or special rules are often introduced with cases, changing up some elements.
- Play time moves quickly with a total of 12 investigation days and very little downtime to look up paragraph numbers.
- The sleuth mode works very well as a solo experience, offering plenty of ways to hunt down evidence and the truth.
- Solutions typically aren’t obvious, and understanding when to challenge a suspect’s answer is a major mechanic.
– Cons (Negatives)
- This expansion features easier cases that may feel too simple after working through the previous hardboiled cases.
- Having a mixture of art styles for different cases isn’t a problem, yet the box artwork may be slightly misleading.
- Easy cases often don’t feel satisfying, especially when the solution can be tracked down by skipping over suspects.
- Bringing in new writers still offers quality cases, yet they feel different, like when a book series switches authors.
Victory Conditions
Complete the Case
- Overall Goal Progress 100%
Goals and Milestones
Complete all base game cases. (9/9)
Complete all Bullets Over Hollywood expansion cases. (4/4)
Complete all Saints and Sinners expansion cases. (3/3)
Complete all Smoke and Mirrors expansion cases. (4/4)
Continue the Conversation
Do you have a favorite case or expansion for Detective: City of Angels? Were any of the solutions particularly surprising? I had a great time working through all 20 cases! Some were certainly more enjoyable than others, yet I appreciated something about them all. Time to hang up my sleuthing hat and toss my rumpled trench coat on the floor for now. Ha ha!
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