Shutterstock / Luis Molinero©Who doesn’t love a bit of mystery?
Every Friday since lockdown began, my group of friends has taken it in turns to host a quiz night.
To shake things up, our latest host decided to put on a murder mystery night instead!
To be honest, we were a little worried about how it would work virtually. But by the end, we were all amazed at how well she pulled it off.
I know that our readers love a good mystery, so here’s how to host your own . . .
Set the scene
Like any good story, you need to decide on a time period, and where the event will take place.
Our host decided on the year 1900, and set it in a manor house owned by Lady Phillips (yours truly)!
Create characters
Find out how many people will be taking part, then come up with a character for each person.
This is really fun when you know the participants personally! Take their hobbies and interests and give them an historical twist.
Remember to create an extra fictional character to be (sadly) killed off.
How, when, where, why and who killed them? It’s time to choose a killer and give them a motive. (Pick a friend who has a good poker face)!
Don’t forget to give a few of the other characters suspicious details, too. It’s good to have a few possible motivations to make it more interesting!
Send out the character descriptions to each person individually — and notify your murderer of their future crime and their motivation.
Play dress up
Our host advised us to stay in character as much as possible.
We pulled together some old-timey outfits and put on voices. It made it twice as fun!
Introductions
Now everyone has “gathered” at your setting of choice, have everybody make introductions in character and advise everybody to note down details.
As the host, introduce the final character — the unfortunate victim.
Now it’s time to announce that a grizzly crime has occurred . . .
The game is afoot!
Have each participant ask the others a question based on the details they’ve written down, and go around three more times.
Perhaps somebody’s job is in direct opposition to the deceased? Maybe the deceased had been caught up in some relationship drama? Who will benefit the most from the murder?
You’ll be surprised at the tangents and red herrings that occur. We became fixated on a Duke who (we decided) had lost all his money and had become desperate. The poor man was innocent!
Make your accusations
It’s the moment of truth. Ask each participant to cast their vote. Who is the murderer?
In our case, we guessed incorrectly, and the real killer revealed himself in a shocking twist!
If you can’t get enough of mysteries, remember we do publish one or two in “The People’s Friend”! Subscribe here and make sure you don’t miss out.
Abigail Phillips Abbie is the newest member of the fiction team at the "Friend." She loves how varied the role is - every day is different and there is always a new story to read. She is keen to work closely with established writers and discover new writers, too.
