Laura Bow

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Laura Bow
First game	The Colonel's Bequest
Created by	Roberta Williams
Voiced by	Leslie Wilson

Laura Bow is a fictional amateur detective and heroine of two adventure games, The Colonel's Bequest (1989) and The Dagger of Amon Ra (1992), both created by the computer game company Sierra On-Line. Laura Bow was created by Roberta Williams, co-founder of Sierra On-Line and creator of the classic King's Quest series. The Colonel's Bequest, after King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella, was the second Sierra game to feature a female lead.

Laura Bow was, after Samus Aran, the first female protagonist to be featured in more than one game, and the first to be featured in two games for the same platform. While Carmen Sandiego had already starred in five games when The Dagger of Amon Ra came out, she is an adversary, not a protagonist.

The Laura Bow games take place in the 1920s. Laura Bow is portrayed as a southern belle in her early twenties who is headstrong, determined, somewhat naïve, and extremely clever. She is a student at Tulane University in The Colonel's Bequest before she becomes a journalist in The Dagger of Amon Ra. Attendance at Tulane is an anachronism, as the University did not admit women until later. Women were admitted to Newcomb College, an affiliated institution. Her father, John Bow, is a retired detective and taught her everything she knows about detective work.

Both games featuring Laura Bow are murder mysteries, but only The Colonel's Bequest was actually created by Williams. She took a backseat role in the creation of The Dagger of Amon Ra, making sure that Laura Bow herself seemed like the same character in both games.

In The Dagger of Amon Ra, Laura Bow was voiced by Leslie Balfour, who also voiced Yvette Delacroix and the narrator.

The last allusion to her eventual fate is given as an Easter egg in Gabriel Knight, Sierra's later adventure made and set in 1993: an octogenarian Pulitzer Prize winner named Laura Bow Dorian is scheduled to give a lecture on Investigative Reporting at Tulane University.

[edit] Name

Laura Bow's name is an allusion to 1920s actress and sex symbol Clara Bow. Laura's appearance (especially in The Dagger of Amon Ra) closely resembles Clara Bow's, particularly her curly red hair.