I'm surprised no one has mentioned what I think has been the true exceptional niche for Handcuffs since the release of parallel Roland, which is fueling fun combos with Due Diligence and Red Tape. Making the upgrade cheaper means it becomes significantly less prohibitive to get this on the field, and the doom clause means that even when you're lugging that Wizard of the Order around to all the crime scenes, you've gagged him with enough tape that his incantations only sound like Wonderwall. The +2 is very helpful for using cards like Winging It, Seeking Answers and Fortuitous Discovery fast and bolstering Roland's meager 3 , along with other boosts like Alice Luxley, Grete Wagner and Michael Leigh if you're running his normal deckbuilding. There's also the very fun bonus that Due Diligence in fact helps you evade the enemy initially. This is a wonderful upgrade for a very specific niche, but a very fun one nonetheless.

I wanted to update my review since the taboo.

Bottom line: I think building around Research Notes is still worth it - particularly on hard/expert. Testing at (0) to discover clues makes getting clues easy, and typically leaves you with actions to spare to move, play cards, or try Research Notes again if you didn't use your evidence limit up. Even without the new limit, it was still fairly hard to drop clues fast enough to net more than three clues a round.

Old review:

Other reviews have been dealing with this card well. I wanted to mention a few other things from my experience using it with Daisy Walker.

This is a strong card, but it feels like something that's only effective if you make it a core (if not the core) of your deck.

Note: I'm not sure how to interpret the use of Abigail Foreman, but I'll leave this next part in brackets: [White Liger mentioned in a comment on another review that Abigail Foreman is strong with this card. With Research Notes attached to Abigail, you can double the number of clues you get from your success without any of the cost in evidence. This means you won't need a second copy of Research Notes.]

If you're playing this, and need resources, you'll likely benefit from taking Crack the Case. You'll have a decent chance of taking advantage of a high shroud location multiple times.

Here is another card that involves resources. If you're running Research Notes, there is also a good chance you'll be running Research Librarian in order to find both of them (at least before you upgrade). Astounding Revelation will trigger when you use Research Librarian.

The Raven Quill is also convenient, since you can use it to find (or recover) your Research Notes and play it without an extra action, have it take up no slot (in case you want to include something else in your hand or other tomes). Being able to recover your Research Notes is particularly important if your deck is built around it and you'd be out of luck without both copies.

There is a very nice interaction for this card someone commented at Carson Sinclair page , it is getting it back with Resourceful with far more control. Commenting only so this combo is also here for anyone who evaluates this card. 

I did a special challenge run, where I played Charlie and Preston,( called the 1/1/1/1 Run) and I ran Girish as a means to provide a boost and a soak. Charlie was the fighter and he did take a bunch of pain while Girish was in play. but I discovered a strange interaction with him and Bonnie. I could be fighting, and i could Exhaust him to trigger his heal on a successful test, but then I would Exhaust Bonnie, which allows me to ready Girish and Exhaust him again. this allows you to heal 2 damage/horror at a time, which is huge. Charlie really surprises me sometimes.

The single worst card to take to an Arkham event, esp if you don't know the people in your table.

Can you imagine crafting a wonderful standalone deck for an event that relies on one or two key cards, only for someone you've never met to draw this card to and nerf your deck?