Anthony E. Pratt Anthony E. Pratt Anthony Ernest Pratt (10 August 1903 – 9 April 1994) was a musician and the inventor of the English detective themed board game Cluedo, currently owned and marketed by American entertainment company Hasbro. Pratt was born at 13 Brighton Road in the Balsall Heath area of Birmingham, England. He received his secondary education at St. Philip's School in Edgbaston. His favourite subject was chemistry, but he suffered from poor eyesight, which affected his education. Pratt was a gifted musician and a proficient pianist from an early age. When he left school at 15, he wanted to pursue
Mystery fiction before the 1800s was due in part to the lack of true police forces. Before the Industrial Revolution, many of the towns would have constables and a night watchman at best. Naturally, the constable would be aware of every individual in the town, and crimes were either solved quickly or left unsolved entirely. As people began to crowd into cities, police forces became institutionalized, and the need for detectives was realized – thus the mystery novel arose. An early work of modern mystery fiction, "Das Fräulein von Scuderi" by E. T. A. Hoffmann (1819), was an influence on "The Murders