The information opacity bothered me as well. When I played it, I got tokens out and drew a circle on the table and labeled it suspicion. When they earned suspicion i put tokens in the circle. When I spent suspicion (which is what GMs do) I take tokens out of the circle and smile.

Doesn’t really break the game, as long as the players don’t know the costs of GM actions.

It’s a very enjoyable approach to mysteries in a TTRPG. Just have the players commit the crime and the npc’s try to solve it.

Great game I got to the table once, before the group fell apart. Favorite scene involved a soccer mom with a minnesota accent picking up her kids and in passing say, “Wll ye know, praise soth!”