Murder, Mystery Evening
Saturday was the day of my first ‘proper’ dinner party, when Dave and I hosted ‘Murder At Farthingay Manor‘, a murder, mystery evening.
Over the years we have been involved in different Murdery, Mystery Evenings which we’ve always found great fun – from the sedate affair at a former employer’s house, to the uproarious (drunk) evenings with my former colleagues at the Halifax. The best evening, though, was hosted by the A4U Forum, at a ‘posh’ black tie event, when the Murder was acted out during a sumptuous dinner – very polished, professional and hilarious.
When I discovered that Dixon – the brains behind the Afu event – had lauched a Murder Mystery Games website where you choose from seven different scenarios, suitable for 6 – 200 guests, and can download all the necessary instructions, character booklets and suggestions, I decided to take the plunge and host one myself.
I duly invited my guests – Rose, Dave, Lisa and John and started to plan the dinner, bearing in mind (as those of you who know) I couldn’t begin to compete with either Rose or Lisa (and probably Dave and John) in the cooking department, so I stuck to a plain old prawn cocktail, beef casserole and shop bought puddings. Although I did branch out and create a Thai Carrot Salad to accompany the prawns, which nearly floored me, but thanks to Oliver (our 15 year old) who managed to beat the red chillies into submission and showed me the correct way to prepare them – apparently, you, carefully, scoop the insides out first but my fingers had stopped burning by the next morning!
The hard part was printing out all the information and directions – without looking and reading anything – but I managed this and had all 6 character booklets waiting for the evening to commence and the ‘cast’ to arrive.
The running order was easy to follow as each section is clearly stated and follows the course of the meal, and the main action happening between courses, with each character being told what’s happening, what they need to know about other characters and what they must keep secret – all very highly entertaining.
The evening was a roaring success with everyone playing their part and I’ll certainly be downloading and hosting another Mystery from Dixon’s site.
Categorized as Fun Stuff
Hey Elaine, sounds like you had a great night.
I have always fancied one of these, so will have to add it to my list of New Years Resolutions of must do this year. Heard about Dixons site, but not had a chance to look, so thanks for the prompt in that direction!