Halloween Murder Mystery Party

It’s Halloween night (or the Saturday before, as it happens this year) and everyone is gathered together in the ballroom of Stately Manor. Suddenly, the lights go out and the room is pitched into darkness.

Bang. The sound of a gunshot echoes through the room and a high pitched scream can be heard from one of the guests.

“Was that a gunshot?” Lady Felicity cries.

“What’s happening?” her husband Gerald asks

“Why are the lights out?” Asks Miss Merryweather, the elderly local librarian.

Everyone starts talking at once and a sense of confusion and terror grips the room.

Suddenly, the lights flicker back on but in the middle of the floor, in front of the fireplace, a body is lying lifeless and dead.

Hans, the trusty German butler leans over the body to feel for a pulse.

“It’s too late” he cries “It seems there’s been a … murder …

Yes, this Halloween, we suggest you don’t just do the same random party, but instead, why not embroil your cocktail party guests in a murder mystery.

There’s something deliciously old-school about inviting guests to get in character for an Agatha Christie-style evening. But don’t assume that the theme necessarily needs to be something out of an English Drawing Room farce. There are zillion-and-one kits available online that range in their theme from Horror At Homecoming through to Murder Under The Big Top and a Vampire Murder Mystery Party

And then as the night unfolds, so will a web of lies and scandals intricately woven to point you to the killer but it is up to all of you to uncover the clues, solve the crime and reveal the culprit.

Approach

Once you have decided on a theme, then a murder mystery night really takes care of everything! It provides everyone with plans for the evening, details what costume to wear, and gives people a night of unexpected, childlike entertainment and sleuthing!
If you set it up as a dinner party then the evening an easily have a fairly set format where guests find three clue cards tucked underneath their place settings.

If you give some detail to your guest as to what everyone should wear beforehand, and formally set up the dining table, the rrswt should really take care of itself.

Once everyone is seated for dinner, the host would present the case. Then you’d go around the table and each person gets to read their card, and the whole group discusses it. You go around the table three times, and by the time dessert is served, each person gets to guess who the murderer is. There could also be a break between dinner and dessert, during which time guests would explore the venue in search of final clues.

Food

A perfect entree idea is to make little Jack-O-Lanterns out of Orange Peppers and then stuff them with shredded chicken and rice.

Then for the main course, why not take the scary up a notch with some individual Savory Kraken Pot Pies (sadly, no dark Rum in these but certainly tentacles galore …)