Sorry! I can't agree with the positive reviews I've read. What was that someone said, "gorgeous game that shows polish in every area." I couldn't disagree more. A very simplistic game with anything but polish. I'm a veteran HOG player and I wouldn't waste my money or time on this game. Frustration is the best narrative I can come up with.

I must admit I quite liked the game, even with the timer mode being the only option. Normally I want to play without having to work against the clock. The final task in Investigation 14 is what made me decide to abandon the game. It just will not work. I have tried reading about it on various forums, but nobody has come up with a solution as to why it doesn't work. It does work for some people, I hasten to add. I won't know the ending.

why can't i get this to install??? it keeps saying do i want to install it, i say yes, then it says its activated, but never goes through the setup process to install it on the computer! i've tried as administrator, clicking on Open, and just clicking on Setup. Same thing happens each time. i'm disappointed. Sounds like a fun game. i've never had this problem before. any suggestions??

Sooo … having done the first Investigation, a couple of things to mention.

BIG thumbs up for the Help in this game! I now know that each Investigation has specifically a 25 minute time limit.

The graphics really are good in this: no items that look like clip art here! And so far, everything has been "hidden" in a sensible place, and to scale (hooray!) but the downside is that some items are VERY small and somewhat hard to see … but I'm slowly getting into this very beautifully drawn style.

It took me something like 10 minutes to do Investigation 1, so thus far I'm not finding the time limit onerous. BUT as many others have said, it would be better to have at least an OPTION of a casual/non-timed mode as well. If that option existed, I would have definitely taken it for preference, especially since the game is pretty challenging to start with!

So a big thank you to I-play, Floodlight Games, and MPC for today's GGOTD. Apart from the lack of a casual option, it's all good for yours truly.

As many have pointed out, having an option without the time would be a great add. Also the ability to "find" or "earn" more hints would be great. Others also pointed out that some of the items are quite small and very well hid. Without having more "hints" it is almost impossible to locate them within the time allotted (at least for me and my eyesight). Thanks again for a fun game with an interesting story line.

This was installed on a Win 7 Home Premium (64-bit) with no problems.

One thing this game doesn't need, is a timer. At least give us the option to play at our one pace.

I definitely want an untimed option. Thanks for the heads up. I won't be wasting my time on this one.

D/l'd and installed fine on Win 8.1 (after usual disabling of AV). I'm liking it quite a bit; somewhat different from the usual HOG. So far (about four 'sites' completed), I haven't had to resort to help. Although I really prefer to try to muddle through without resorting to hints or a walkthrough, I do appreciate when a walkthrough is available, and I can't find one for this game. Some sites (bigfish, jayisgames) have forums with tips interspersed, but haven't found an organized walkthrough and see lots of reviews around the web complaining of a few common "stuck" places, so expect I may need a walkthrough hint or two. If anyone finds one (not the YouTube video, which just has a few sites), I'd love to know, in anticipation of future issues :).

Although an older game, I like the graphics fine and the music is unobtrusive. This is definitely worth attempting, though I suspect it will get harder as I go through.

Hugs as always, WR!

This seems like a really nice game with a nice storyline and nice graphics. Installed without problems on win7. Only drawback thus far is that I am a left hand player and the game didn't recognize my mouse as such.

Such a shame that this game is timed. It spoils it for me and I probably won't complete it before losing patience and uninstalling it. Surely it wouldn't be too hard to add an un-timed option for those of us that prefer to play a relaxed game.

Final comment from me (promise!): the game download is a slim, trim 93 megabytes, so those of you with slower Internet connections should find it less painful to download than some of the monster-sized downloads we've had here from time to time.

Assuming you don't mind a HOG which ONLY has a timed mode, that is …
I usually switch any HOG I play into "relaxed" (= not timed) mode because my game play tends to be five to ten minute stretches at a time when I have the time to play, so getting my head back to "where I was last time" usually means the timer runs out on me.

That said, the comments on gamezebo (see #3 below) give me some hope that this game might not be as harsh as some others on timing. Let's hope so!

Review from jayisgames.com in 2008, who rated it 4.5 out of 5:
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From the same group that brought us Agatha Christie: Peril at End House and Women's Murder Club: Death in Scarlet comes an equally alluring hidden object game, Dr. Lynch: Grave Secrets. This entry veers away from the more adventure-oriented direction and hugs the item finding wall fairly close, but the same high production values and great storyline remain intact.

England's leading skeptic, Dr. Ignatius Lynch, is looking to challenge his mind with a new story to pick apart. He finds a newspaper article telling the tale of a haunted archaeological site where a mysterious ghostly woman appears. Lynch immediately sets out, ready to turn his skeptical eye on the situation.

The game is divided into a series of investigations where you'll search the scene for items and a few key clues. Afterwards a witness will hand you a Clue Card which will be used in conjunction with the items you found to uncover new facts about the case. After a short mini-game you'll jump right in to the next investigation.

Analysis: When evaluating hidden object games one question always floats to the top of my mind: are the items hidden intelligently or did the developers go out of their way to give me a hard time? Dr. Lynch strikes a fair balance between logical item locations and camouflaged objects, so I didn't have a very tough time finding what I needed. A few of the descriptions were a bit too obtuse for my taste, however.

Dr. Lynch: Grave Secrets is a gorgeous game that shows polish in every area of presentation. Despite the good looks, however, the underlying structure is a bit formulaic, almost as if it were afraid to step out of the set path hidden object games before it have carved out. If it followed the design of, say, Azada, Dr. Lynch would be an unstoppable juggernaut of a game.

Great set-up, nice storyline, Dr. Lynch: Grave Secrets only falters a bit in the gameplay department where it loses the crucial ability to bring in cross-genre fans. Still, hidden object buffs will find plenty to love in this release, and the game has enough dark mystery for everyone to enjoy.
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Reember this review (and hence the comment about graphics) is from 2008!

I hope you find it helpful.

Game info and tips from gamezebo.com:
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This game has one mode: timed mode. There’s no way to turn off the timer, but the time allotments are quite generous, which should give you enough time to complete all missions.
The game is pretty generous when it comes to random clicking, but if you do click too many incorrect items quickly, you will get 30 seconds deducted from your clock. I found that if you clicked several incorrect objects slowly that you did not get penalized.
You will NEED to click randomly when you’re trying to figure out the "optional items" because hints are NOT given for that part of the game.
The only time you are not against the clock is when playing the mini-games, so you can take your time to solve all the puzzles.
To pause the game, click the clock in the upper left corner. To resume the game, click the clock again.
You can toggle between locations by clicking the "map" icon at the lower left of the screen.
Clicking items can be challenging in this game, since so many items are so tiny on the screen. Very slim/narrow items require very precise clicking or the game will not accept it.

HINTS
You start each chapter with a number of hints. The number is determined by how many locations you have to complete in a chapter. The hints you get have to be used for all the locations you in that chapter, so use them wisely! You don’t want to get stuck and run out of hints.
The only way to get extra hints in this game is by completing the "optional items" that are given in some locations. After you solve an optional item, you get one extra hint.
Click "hint" when you want to find an item, you will see a circle of arrows that is pointing to one item on your list. Then you will see that the item start to pulsate, which it will do for a few seconds.
Hints WILL NOT help you look for items on the optional items list: you will have to figure those out on your own.

OPTIONAL ITEMS
Certain locations have an "optional items" section. YOU must figure out how to solve these tasks without any help from the hint system. Usually, these tasks involve picking up items around the scene and placing them someplace else; sometimes, you have to place items in a location according to their sizes.
Once you complete a task, you will receive an extra hint.
Always look in the lower left corner to see if there are any optional items to solve.
If you find all the "main" items in the scene you’re in before you complete a special task/optional item, the level will end and you WILL NOT be able to complete the optional items. No second chances! So, make sure that you tackle optional items BEFORE you find all the items on your "main" item list.
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I hope that helps give a flavour of the gameplay, and that you found the advice as useful as I did!

There's only one mode to this game: timed. I ran out of time and it reset the entire level. This is a definite uninstall before even finishing!