The titular character is an author and book store owner in New Orleans who is investigating a strange series of murders when he learns he is descended from a long line of Schattenjäger ("Shadow Hunters").

The original 1993 game Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers met with success and popularity, due in part to the voice cast including actors Tim Curry, Leah Remini, Virginia Capers, Mark Hamill, Michael Dorn, and Efrem Zimbalist Jr.

Players must also solve puzzles and complete tasks through the use of items they acquire, information they obtain, devices they activate, or provoking action in NPCs.

The game's story generally proceeds linearly, with the player unable to continue into the next "day" or "chapter" or "time block" of the narrative until they have solved the required puzzles and obtained the proper information.

The Sins of the Fathers graphic novel follows the story of Günter Ritter, an ancestor of Gabriel Knight, who has left his ancestral home for the American continent in the 17th century.

This game introduces Gabriel Knight, a financially struggling horror novelist who owns a bookstore in New Orleans called St. George's Rare Books.

Compelled by strange nightmares and thinking the murders may give him good material for a book, Gabriel begins his own investigation, aided by his assistant Grace Nakimura.

The 20th anniversary remake edition featured Jason Victor as Gabriel Knight, Cissy Jones as Grace Nakimura, Ned Clarke as Detective Mosely, and Amy Kelly as the Narrator.

A year after the events of Sins of the Fathers and after undergoing the spiritual trial necessary to become a Schattenjäger, Gabriel has moved to his ancestral home in the small village of Rittersberg in Bavaria, Germany to write his new novel and connect with his family lineage.

Gabriel develops an unusual friendship with Baron Friedrich Von Glower, who leads an exclusive hunting club in Munich and believes Knight is a kindred spirit.

Gabriel's arrival coincides with that of a visiting tour group supposedly hunting for a legendary local treasure that may be linked to the Roman Catholic Church, the Knights Templar, or the Holy Grail.

During the case, Gabriel reflects on recent events and Grace's departure, as well as the fact that he has fulfilled three major "quests" already and is now 36-years-old, bringing him to wonder if he has reached his peak already.

During the adventure, he has a vision of Von Glower from The Beast Within and hears the man voice his own doubts and selfish desires, saying Gabriel should return to his life where he had no responsibility and didn't need to endanger himself hunting evil.

She stated her willingness to proceed with a book version as a method to make any potential subsequent game production more feasible, but admitted that the complex nature of rights and legal contracts with Activision continues to render such a project unlikely.

The first is a straightforward adaptation of the events of the game, an approach which Jane Jensen decided, in retrospect, was not the most successful way of introducing Gabriel Knight to a literary audience.

As part of her 2012 Kickstarter campaign to fund a new adventure game, Jensen offered both Gabriel Knight novels as ebooks to backers who pledge $50 or more.