The Beekeeper’s Picnic: A Sherlockian Adventure Walkthrough (Part 1)

The Beekeeper’s Picnic: A Sherlockian Adventure is a point-and-click adventure game by Afoot games. After retiring from his detective career, Sherlock Holmes settles into a quiet life as a beekeeper—but mystery has a way of finding him, no matter where he goes. Cases are light-hearted and cozy, like finding a cat, interrogating pesky neighbors and reuniting families.

The game offers a wholesome experience, takes around 4–5 hours to complete, and is filled with witty dialogues and gentle inventory-based puzzles. The main highlight is the brain attic, where you will be combining facts observed during exploration and interrogations and making deductions. Your deductions are key to progressing through the case, and solving it. Without a clear motive or solid reasoning, you won’t be able to move forward. That’s where the Brain Attic comes in, helping you organize information and clues and piece everything together. In part 1 of this walkthrough, I will help you solve the mystery of the missing cat in The Beekeeper’s Picnic. The game’s afoot, my friend!

Tutorial

The game begins with a short tutorial. You will learn how to interact with non-playable characters (NPCs), how to use items from the inventory, and how to make deductions in the “Brain Attic” by combining key facts from Holmes’ interrogations with NPCs, interactions with specific items, and observations.

Click on Dr. Watson to bring up four actions above him. Choose the appropriate action:

1. Examine (Magnifying glass icon)

2. Converse (Gramophone icon)

3. Pick up (Hand icon)

4. Make use of (Gear Icon)

In this tutorial, you must click the magnifying glass icon to examine Dr. Watson. A portrait of Watson will be displayed on the screen. Click on the parts of his body to obtain clues or know more about him.

Click on Dr. Watson’s face. Holmes notices that Watson’s focused expression briefly shifts—he wets his lips and clears his throat. A banner appears above the text, indicating that this observation has been stored in Sherlock Holmes’ “Brain Attic.”

You will have to access the brain attic later to make deductions based on such facts. You may click on other parts, but that would be general observation and won’t be of much importance.

Click on the plate kept on the round table. Choose examine. The plate has the remains of Watson’s dinner – curried lamb. From the plate, Holmes observes that the dish is quite spicy and salty. This observation will also be added to the brain attic.

To enter Holmes’ brain attic, click on the house icon on the top-left corner of the screen to see if he can make any deductions.

The blackboard plays a crucial role in this game. Combine facts made through observations and interactions to make deductions. This will help you to solve a mystery.

Click on the blackboard and then choose “Make use of…”.

Click and drag the first fact, “Watson keeps clearing his throat,” onto the second fact, “Watson has eaten curried lamb,” to form a deduction that will advance your investigation.

From these two facts, Holmes concludes that Watson is thirsty. Holmes should find him something to drink. Click on the back buttons to get back to the main screen.

Click in the gasogene kept on top of the table with drawers. Choose examine. It is Watson’s gasogene and contains water, tartaric acide and sodium bicarbonate. The two chemicals react to produce carbonated water. Watson loves drinking carbonated water. Unfortunately, holmes couldn’t find glasses to pour some water into them.

On the right side of the screen, click on the glass beaker kept on the lab table. Then, choose pick up (hand icon) to retrieve the beaker.

There’s a backpack on the top-left corner of the screen. Click on it to expand your inventory. Drag and drop the beaker onto Watson’s gasogene. The carbonated water is poured into the beaker.

From the same inventory drag and drop the beaker of water onto Watson to quench his thirst.

After a brief conversation, Holmes wants to say something important to Watson – Click on Watson and choose “Converse” (Gramophone icon).

From the list of dialogues, select “We must discuss something important.” Next, select ” Yes, I think I am ready.”

Holmes starts talking to Watson and decides to retire. Watson is shocked. Yes, you read that right. No detective work! Sherlock Holmes wants to take up beekeeping and spends the rest of his life in a cozy little cottage in Sussex. They part ways but Holmes says Watson is more than welcome to stay with him any time he wants. This concludes the short tutorial.

Watson Pays a Visit to Sherlock Holmes’s House

Sussex 1920. Watson pays a visit to Holmes’s house after serving as a medic in a war. Holmes welcomes him and tells him that he can stay at his home as long as he likes.

Now that Watson is once again by his side, Holmes plans to surprise him with a picnic atop the clifftops.

Inside the living room, click on the door on the right and choose “make use of” to open the door.

Enter the kitchen and converse with Martha, the housekeeper. You can choose to examine her and may find some clues, such as she wears a wig and loves flowers, but these won’t be added to the brain attic.

From the list of dialogues, choose “How can I make a good picnic”.

Martha names three essential elements for a perfect picnic: a peaceful spot with a lovely view, a well-stocked hamper of food, and Mrs. Kumar’s elderflower cordial – Dr. Watson’s favorite refreshment.

From Holmes and Martha’s conversation, it’s clear that Watson has visited Holmes’ cottage on several occasions in the past.

From the next set of dialogues, you can either choose “Can you make a hamper of food for me” or “Goodbye”. If you choose the former, Martha will refuse as Holmes wants the food hamper as soon as possible, by afternoon.

Exit the kitchen from the left door.

Just for fun, click on the violin kept on the bamboo chair and choose the gear icon to make use of it. Holmes plays the violin. Next, examine the mouse hole in the bottom-right corner of the screen. A very friendly and intelligent pair of mice live there and they love music.

Click on the inventory (backpack) icon in the top-left corner of the screen, then drag and drop the violin onto the mousehole. Holmes begins to play, and the mice emerge from the hole cheerfully, enchanted by the sweet melody.

Step outside and leave Holmes’ cottage. Keep clicking along the path to make your way out of his area.

The Gables

Once you leave the cottage, a map will be displayed on the screen. It’s the map of the Village of Fulworth. Click on “The Gables” to enter the location.

Examine Tilda, Holmes’s young neighbor. Any information gathered won’t be added to the brain attic. Just a general observation, but may trigger further events. Click on her hair, dress, and hand. To examine each of them click on the magnifying glass. While examining Tilda’s hand, Holmes observes there’s dirt in her fingernails and no calluses of the kind one would associate with daily piano practice.

To converse with Tilda, click on her and choose the gramophone icon. Next, choose these dialogues:

1. What are you doing?

Ans: I am catching newts.

2. You have been neglecting your piano practice. Holmes makes this remark after observing her hand.

Ans: I don’t like playing the piano, I want to study plants and animals when I grow up, not be a musician.

3. May I have the jamjar? (It’s kept next to Tilda)

Ans: Sorry Mr. Holmes I need the Jam Jar. It’s very very important.

Holmes: If I were to find you some kind of specimen of natural history, would you surrender the jam jar to me?

Ans: You are on! (She agrees).

Bid her goodbye and exit the Gables.

The Cottages

On the map, click to enter “Cottages”.

Step inside Mr. Kumar’s cottage by clicking the first cottage’s door. Next, click on the gear icon to unlock and open it.

Click on Mrs. Kumar and choose Converse (gramophone) to begin talking to her about her fabric business/trade. She also talks about her son Sanjay and his love for detectives. She even reveals that Sanjay insists that Holmes is secretly a detective. Mr. Holmes keeps his identity secret and doesn’t reveal it to Mrs. Kumar.

Choose the next dialogue – “Could I buy some of your excellent elderflower cordial?”

She says it’s sold out at the moment, but she is preparing a fresh batch as they speak. She requests Holmes to come back another time. Holmes needs the elderflower cordial at lunchtime today. Luckily the preparation of the drink will be finished in an hour or two.

The Picnic Spot

Exit Mrs. Kumar’s cottage, and keep walking towards the right-hand side until you exit the cottage’s location. Using the in-game map, head straight to the Picnic Spot.

Someone’s lying on the ground, murdered. Holmes with his impeccable observation skills finds out that the boy is faking his murder. Click on the boy and choose examine ( magnifying glass icon).

The boy’s name is Sanjay Kumar, Mrs. Kumar’s son. Examine his face – He is breathing, quite heavily in fact.

Examine the knife and blood. The knife has been sawn off at the end and blunted so that it may appear to be thrust into the boy’s chest. An old trick, which Holmes’s brother Mycroft played it on him once. The “blood” is bright red paint.

The above observation will be added to the brain attic.

Examine the book tucked in his pocket. It’s titled “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” by Dr. Watson. This fact will also be added to the brain attic.

Enter the brain attic by clicking on the house icon on the top-left corner of the screen. Click on the blackboard and then click on the gear icon to make some deductions.

Combine “The blood and knife aren’t real” with “Sanjay has been reading about me”.

Holmes realizes that the boy has been inspired by the tales of his adventures and has decided to fake his own murder and wonders what explanation will he give for his actions.

Click on Sanjay again and choose “Converse”. Choose the first four dialogues to wake him up.

Sanjay gets up and asks whether you’ve solved the mystery. You respond with dialogue or a set of dialogues of your choice—but whatever you say, Sanjay ends up disappointed, realizing that Holmes didn’t find his efforts to impress him all that impressive.

Sanjay leaves the fake crime scene, sobbing. Follow him to the Gables using the map. Holmes must find a way to cheer the lad up.

The Case of the “Cat-Napped” Kitty

Sanjay is now with Ms. Tilda at the Gables. Converse with him. Choose “I wanted to apologize to you, Sanjay”

Holmes apologizes and also praises his efforts. Thankfully, Sanjay isn’t upset anymore. He then cites an interesting case mentioned in one of Holmes’s novels. Choose any one dialogue from the next set of dialogues.

Sanjay continues talking only to reveal that he has a proper case to solve now and “not a made-up one”.

From the next set of dialogues, choose “Tell me about this real mystery you have discovered”

Sanjay’s cat has been “cat-napped” (kidnapped). She has been stolen.

From the dialogue options, choose:

Q. Why do you think the cat was stolen?

Ans: There’s an old house next to Mrs. Kumar’s cottage. It’s been empty for years but last week a strange man started living there. One day, he asked if he could buy our cat. Mrs. Kumar said No as she is their special cat, the stranger got angry and stole the cat as revenge.

Q. Can you describe the cat?

Ans. Her name is Kalu. She is small and white. Tilda adds more to the description – She is soft and her toes are pink.

The cat is the best mouser in the world. A few days ago, she dragged a giant rat into Mrs. Kumar’s house. Mrs. Kumar had to bury it in front of the house – Two facts will be added to the brain attic.

Q. Perhaps she has simply wandered off.

Ans. No, She always stays near the house.

Next, choose the final dialogue – I will help you find your cat.

Exit the Gables location and go back to Cottages.

Walk straight to Mrs. Kumar’s neighbor’s cottage. Click on the door and then click on the gear icon to knock on the door.

A grumpy man opens the door and says “What do you want?” choose this dialogue – I thought I would welcome you to the neighborhood. He replies rudely and slams the door in Holmes’s face.

Click on the gate next to the rude neighbor’s door and choose the magnifying glass icon to examine it. It’s locked and only a cracksman or moderate skills with the “right tools” can unlock it. Even a law-abiding beekeeper can unlock it if he has enough reasons.

Go to Mrs. Kumar’s house. She is visibly upset. From the list of dialogues, choose “I must apologize for upsetting your son”.

The next set of questions is very important. Choose

Q: “Could I ask you about your missing cat”.

Q: “Could you describe the cat to me?”

Ans. She is a small cat, completely white. We have had her five years now, and I have never known her miss and single meal.

Q: “I hear the cat found a strange rat?”

Ans: “Yes, Indeed. Dragged it in here, a huge ugly thing almost as big as her. It must be dead, stiff and its eyes glassy. It shed hair everywhere. I had to go around and sweep it all up.”

Click on the wastepaper basket in Mrs. Kumar’s house and choose examine.

Holmes finds a large amount of fur/hair and takes a small sample with him. The coarse fur gets stored in the inventory.

Go back to Holmes’s house and converse with Martha in the kitchen. From the dialogues, choose “Martha, where are my lockpicking tools?”

She says it’s in the top drawer of Holmes’s dresser.

Head up the stairs in the kitchen to reach Holmes’s bedroom.

In Holmes’ bedroom, open the top drawer – click on the drawer, and choose the gear icon.

Holmes takes the lockpicking tools from the drawer. It’s the green pouch.

Exit Holmes’s house and head straight to the Gables.

Click on the backpack to open the inventory. Drag and drop the fur onto Tilda. Holmes asks for her opinion of this sample of fur.

Tilda describes it as “coarse fur from an animal with tough guard hairs and softer undercoat. The fur could be of a beaver”.

Holmes exclaims – “An exotic animal then?”

Tilda says yes.

The Beach

Make your way to the beach, where a commotion has gathered a curious crowd. A woman is showcasing an exotic creature, drawing excited murmurs and wide-eyed onlookers. Converse with Constable Webber.

Q. What is happening here?

Ans: A young archeologist made a tremendous discovery – A fossilized mermaid. She draws quite a crowd and offers a lecture about the discovery.

Q. You must realize it’s a scam.

Ans: She is not doing anything illegal. I am just here to keep the peace.

Q. Have you asked the young lady to move?

Ans: Unless I find out she has done something illegal, I can’t shift her, Mr. Holmes.

Click on the mermaid and choose examine.

Examine her head first. Holmes wonders “The features seem simian to me – like a monkey.” (This fact has been added to the brain attic).

Examine her tail. It has been created from paper and glue.

Converse with the young archeologist. Her answers don’t impress Mr. Holmes. He calls out her trick and threatens her by calling the authorities for fooling the public and using a fake papier mache doll as a real mermaid. She doesn’t care and ignores his warning.

Approach Harold Stackhurst as he reads a newspaper, standing a little further from the crowd. He is Mr. Holmes’s neighbor and the headmaster of the Gables. Click on him and choose the gramophone icon to talk to him. Choose these dialogues from the list:

Q. Anything interesting in the newspaper?

Ans: There has been a heist over at the British Museum. Several valuable specimens of taxidermy belonging to the British Museum remain missing. Lost treasures include pieces collected by the late Charles Darwin. (This is a case of stolen animals and it will be added to the brain attic).

Harold asks – Do you ever miss being involved in that sort of thing?

Choose “Yes sometimes.”

Harold continues ” So, if you were on the case, where would you look to find the stolen animals?”

Answer: A collection of rare and very distinct specimens of natural history is certainly valuable, but only to a limited and specialist clientele. I expect the thief will have found somewhere to store the stolen animal collection until the police have lost their scent. (This fact will also be added to the brain attic.)

Leave the beach.

Get Toby’s Help

One of the most delightful aspects of The Beekeeper’s Picnic – A Sherlockian Adventure is using Holmes’s loyal pet dog to help sniff out a hidden clue. Go back to Holmes’s house. Outside, near the bee hives, click on the cute hound named “Toby III”. He is the “finest canine in all England!” And he will help you in your investigation. Click on him and choose “Converse” (gramophone).

Choose “Follow me, Toby” to make him follow Mr. Holmes wherever he goes.

Click on the house icon on the upper-left corner of the screen to access the brain attic. Click on the blackboard.

Combine “Kalu bought home an enormous rat” with “Taxidermy specimens stolen from Museum”.

Holmes wonders whether the cat discovered one of the taxidermy specimens that was stolen from the museum. He would only know for certain if he could locate the remains of the animal.

Head straight to the Cottages. Click on the “Disturbed ground” right next to Mrs.Kumar’s main door, on the left-hand side, and examine it. The earth seems disturned all along the front of the house.

Next, click the backpack icon in the top-left corner of the screen to open your inventory. Drag the fur and drop it onto Toby. He’ll sniff the fur scrap and begin tracking its scent around the front of the house, leading Holmes to the direction of the animal.

Toby finds the spot. It’s near that disturbed ground in the front of the house. Click on the spot that Toby sniffed. You need a tool to dig the dirt.

Using the map, move to Holmes’s house. Enter the kitchen. There’s a shovel in the corner of the room, right near the green chair. Click on the shovel and click on the hand icon to pick it up.

Return to the cottages. Expand the inventory and use the shovel on the “spot that Toby sniffed”. If you can’t find it, then use the furn again on Toby and he will show you the exact spot again.

Drag and drop the shovel in that spot. Holmes digs the dirt and unearths a taxidermized creature. The eyes are glass and the skin is broken revealing woodwool inside.

Lockpick Your Way Inside the Gate

Now that you’re near the house of Mrs. Kumar’s suspicious neighbor, it’s time to put Holmes’s lockpicking skills to use and unlock the gate beside the house.

Use the lockpicking tools from your inventory on the gate to unlock it. Once it’s open, head through the gate to enter the back of the house.

When Sherlock Holmes passes by the suspicious neighbor’s building, the game shows us the house’s interiors. Click on the white cat and “examine” it.

Next, click on the box of papers behind the white cat and examine it. Holmes assumes that there may be documents inside.

Click on one of the rats in the house and then choose to examine. It’s a fat rat and this fact will be added to the the brain attic.

Use the lockpicking tool on the window to open it. Holmes hesitates as he still does not know the full facts of the situation and so he may miss vital clues about a larger mystery.

Now is the time to make some deductions and only then you will be able to unlock the window. Click on the house icon on the top-left corner of the screen and then click on the blackboard.

1. Combine “Sanjay’s cat is a good mouser” with “There are rats in the house”. Holmes finds a motive. The house has a rat infestation. The man knew that only a cat could get rid of rats, and when he couldn’t borrow it from Sanjay, he stole it.

But what is there inside the house that is causing a rat infestation?

2. Combine “The taxidermy collection must be in the storage” with “Kalu was taken to protect something”

Holmes gets it right and the picture becomes clearer. The specimen buried in front of Mrs. Kumar’s house (the one which was found by Toby, Holmes’s pet dog) is enough proof that the stolen taxidermy is nearby, probably in the suspicious neighbor’s house. The specimens were safely stored but were foiled by the rat infestation, which forced him to steal the cat from Mrs. Kumar’s house as he hoped that the cat would get rid of the rats.

Sherlock Holmes has a motive and now he can sneak past the window to retrieve the cat from the house.

From the inventory, use the lockpick to unlock the window. This alerts Mrs. Kumar’s neighbor and foils Holmes’s plan to get in the house. The ace detective needs to “engineer a distraction” so that he can safely sneak in and collect the evidence and Sanjay’s pet cat.

Seek Watson’s Help

Exit the cottages and return to Holmes’s house. Talk to Dr. Watson to seek his help. You can also go to the Gables and talk to Sanjay to get his help. But in this game, I sought Dr. Watson’s help.

Watson is resting on a chair outside Holmes’s house. Click on him and then click on the gramophone icon to talk to him.

Choose ” Watson, the game is afoot! I need your help!” from the list of dialogues.

Holmes needs a distraction so that he can break into the house of the suspicious neighbor.

In the next scene, you will see Dr. Watson talking to the neighbor. He is acting as a representative from the Ministry of Health and wants to take blood pressure and a generic health checkup to make sure the neighbor isn’t sick.

While Dr. Watson keeps talking to the neighbor, sneak past them and head straight to the back of the house where the cat is kidnapped.

From your inventory, use the lockpicking tool with the window once again and Holmes will jump into the room. Click on the cat and choose the hand icon to pick it up.

Click on the “box of papers” and choose “Examine” to know what’s inside the box.

Among the papers, there’s a list of taxidermized animals that have been stolen. It includes a nutria and a chimpanzee! This fact will be added to the brain attic and Holmes will take the papers as evidence.

Give the Cat to Sanjay

Leave the cottages and head toward The Gables. Click on your inventory in the top-left corner of the screen. Drag and drop the cat onto Sanjay to give it to him.

Next, drag and drop the beaver-like creature from the inventory onto Tilda. You found this creature in front of Mrs. Kumar’s cottage with the help of Toby, the dog. Tilda is elated and identifies the creature. It’s a Nutria. Holmes gives it to her.

Click on Tilda and choose “Converse”. Select “May I have the jam jar now”? She happily gives the jam jar to him.  

Solving the Case

Head straight to the beach. Open the brain attic. Combine “The mermaid is made from a monkey” with “One of the stolen animals is a monkey”.

Holmes concludes that the papers collected from Mrs. Kumar’s neighbor’s house reveal that the missing specimen was a monkey. Holmes remembers that the archeologist’s mermaid also had simian features.

Click on Constable Webber and choose converse from the list of actions. Select “I have something to report”.

Next, select “I have a lead on the British Museum heist”. Holmes goes on to explain how Mrs. Kumar’s suspicious neighbor is in league with them and that he is a thief. The constable ignores him again.

From your inventory, drag and drop the papers (incriminating documents) onto the constable. He asks what is it.

Holmes answers “It is a selection of docs concerning the theft of taxidermy collection from the British museum”.

Holmes also directs the constable to visit Mrs. Kumar’s neighbor, search his residence, and question him thoroughly. The name of the archaeologist Miss Pippi Rici, who is exhibiting the counterfeit mermaid is also mentioned in the documents.

Miss Pippi Rici is now taken for interrogation. The beach is empty and perfectly tranquil, as Mr. Holmes describes.

Case Closed. End of Part 1. Part 2 Coming Soon!