A Big Murder at the Manor 6-20 Player Murder Mystery Flexi-Party

Product Information

They explain they were invited by their boss at ITV before being greeted by a range of stars, from Davina McCall and Dermot O'Leary to Joel Dommett. Davina explains that the 'bigwigs invited all the great and good from ITV' to the celebrations. In this collection we are treated to a glorious mixture of mystery story ingredients, country house parties, poison, jealousy, strange inscriptions, bizarre and unexplained phenomenon, wills, suspense, jewel theft, amateur sleuths and ingenious policemen.

This might be my favourite new cozy mystery series. I mean, I am predisposed to enjoy a cosy mystery series set in the 1920s. I admit that. But here's the thing, this one has: Loved this continuation of Jane Wunderly’s adventures! The characters, by far, are the best part of these novels. Instead of Egypt, this story finds us in a stately English manor when an “accident” appears to be more sinister than accidental– and the stakes get higher and higher as other things start to go awry. Not long after their arrival one of the estate's mechanics, Air Force veteran Simon Marshall, is killed when the car he is driving crashes into a tree. Mr. Redvers arrives to inform everyone of the man's death and reveals it was not an accident. Someone had cut the brake lines. Redvers offers to stay and assist in catching the murderer. Jane is happy about that and looks forward to working with him again. But their investigation isn't going to be easy. The manor is full of visitors and servants and even mysterious strangers and they are all suspects. Plus they are not even sure Simon was the intended victim. She and Redvers will have to work through all the secrets and clues to uncover the killer. While at it, maybe she can uncover what her true feelings are for Mr. Redvers as well. During the first book, I immediately suspected that a side character, Marie, was gay. The author makes repeated, heavy-handed references to how infatuated Marie is with Lillian, and I expected another shoe to drop later in that book or in the sequel. I was absolutely right. Lillian, who remains woefully undeveloped as a character, indicates in a conversation with Jane that she is aromantic/asexual, so there's nothing happening there, but Marie swiftly becomes involved with Poppy, a visiting friend of Lillian's family.Murders at Karlov Manor is a top-down designed murder mystery set, featuring the tropes of the genre. Murders and mysteries are woven into the game itself. The players have to solve their puzzles and their mystery.

J.J. Bell’s “The Message on the Sun-Dial”: Another psychological tale from the point of view of the criminal. Quite good, although the resolution, involving a "dying message clue" was not the best part. E.V. Knox’s “The Murder at the Towers”: An outright but fond parody of the Golden Age manor crime story. There's a lot of room for parody there, and I found this short tale quite funny. The early ones show the relative roughness of the form as mystery writers were beginning to assemble their tropes. Somewhere along the line the English mystery shifted from its pulpy origins to an acceptable literary game for the respected auteur, though the funniest story in the entire group, penned by E.V. Knox (brother of Ronald Knox, and editor of Punch) pokes fun at the subgenre with a hilarious deftness. The prose and characterizations show a steady advancement in polish and sophistication over the course of the anthology, though those early ones are not without charm and vigor.The editor, Martin Edwards, gave a brief biography on each author at the beginning of each story, and even those were interesting. W.W. Jacobs’ “The Well”: No detective here; just a very good psychological story about a crime, a bit in the vein of The Tell-Tale Heart. And the moral of this story is: don't hide the body inside your property. I must also say the setting of Lord Hughes's estate was wonderfully described. From the manor house itself to the outbuildings and the countryside, the author took this reader on a wonderful virtual trip to a beautiful place at a fascinating time.