This Mystery Novel Doesn't Have a "Clue"

 I recently read the latest novel in the "Witch City" mystery series.  It stars Lee Barrett, currently a field reporter for a Salem, Massachusetts television station.  She has not had the best life.  Her parents died in a plan crash when she was four, leading her to be raised by her aunt Ibby.  After spending time at the station as a "fortune teller" hosting the late night horror movie, she went to Florida.  There, she married a NASCAR driver, who died in a terrible wreck.  Lee then moved back to Salem, living off her inheritance and her husband's life insurance, as well as a teaching a television production class at a local art school.  Soon after she returned to Salem, she was the one to find a murder victim.  This also triggered her long lost talent of scrying.  As a scryer, she can see visions of events form the past, present, and possible future when she looks into a reflective surface, such as a mirror or shiny metal.  She can't control when she gets a vision, nor can she quickly determine the meanings behind her visions.  While she investigates this crime, she meets up with police detective Pete, who later becomes her boyfriend.  In a later novel, she becomes the caretaker for O'Ryan, the former cat familiar of an actual "witch" who was also killed.  The cat seems to have abilities of its own.  In the current book, Murder, Take Two, Lee is asked by some former students to investigate a recent murder where their nephew is the prime suspect.  She easily agrees.  During her investigation, she still has to do her job at the station.  One of her assignments is covering the opening a new toy store in town.  In a slight coincidence, the store is running a promotion on the mystery board game Clue.  It is during an interview with the store owner that a mistake occurs.  The owner suggests that the famed New England game company, Parker Brothers, based the game on a famous murder that happened a century ago, one that the current murder is remarkably similar to. There's one very big problem with that theory.  Parker Brothers never developed the game; they only licensed it from England, where it was created.   The murder was never an inspiration for the game.  Even the store owner's theory on the suspects' names and the weapons are totally wrong, as the character names and weapons were altered before the game went into mass production in England. While there were some minor changes when the game came to America, done reflected any attempt to link the game with the famous murder.  Don't get me wrong, I still like the book, and the series as a whole.  I just get annoyed when an easily checked fact, such as this, slips by and editor.  Maybe the author, Carol J. Perry, wanted the connection to be made, even when it was patently wrong.  Perhaps she wanted the toy store owner to make a link that wasn't there for the sake of the plot, even though in makes Lee look unprofessional for not double-checking the facts.  I actually owned the anniversary edition of the game, which featured much of this information.  Unfortunately, I lost the game, as well as pretty much every other game I owned, back in the 2003 flood, and I have yet had to opportunity nor the interest, to repurchase any.  Still, I remembered the background material enough, as well as an article in a fairly recent issue of Games World of Puzzles magazine, to catch the mistake.  I'm just surprised no one else did before the book was published.