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Every murder mystery needs a decoy or two. Somebody has to look guilty who isn't, or the whole game collapses into a straight line from opening clue to obvious culprit. But there's a wide gap between a red herring that keeps a table of guests arguing until the final reveal and one that gets sniffed out in the first twenty minutes and quietly ignored for the rest of the evening. So what separates the two?
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Nobody solves a crime properly under fluorescent strip lighting. Half the fun of a murder mystery night is stepping into another decade entirely, one where the suspects had better hats and worse alibis. Get the décor right and your guests do half the acting for you. They walk through the door, see the setting, and slip into character before you've even handed out the name badges.
Read more: Set the Scene: Décor Ideas for 5 Classic Murder Mystery Eras
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There's a type of party invitation that causes hosts to pause mid-sentence. It's the one where the guest list includes an eight-year-old, a moody fourteen-year-old, a grandmother who still can't work the remote control, and three adults who are already plotting how many glasses of wine this evening is going to require. Someone suggests a murder mystery. Someone else asks, cautiously, whether that's actually going to work with everyone in the room at once.
Read more: Running a Mystery Party for Mixed Ages: Kids, Teens and Adults Together
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There's something about a garden that makes a murder feel more plausible. Perhaps it's the shrubbery offering convenient hiding spots for eavesdropping guests, or the fact that everyone already associates lawns with croquet mallets and the faint suggestion of violence. Whatever the reason, an outdoor mystery party has a charm that no dining room can quite replicate. It also comes with its own set of headaches, most of which have nothing to do with the plot and everything to do with the weather.
Read more: Garden Party Mysteries: Tips for Hosting Al Fresco
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It's one of the first questions people ask before they commit to hosting one. Understandable, really. Nobody wants to invite friends round for what they've billed as a fun evening, only to still be interrogating Colonel Mustard about the study at half past midnight while everyone's coats are quietly making their way towards the front door.
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There is a moment at every murder mystery dinner party when someone leans back in their chair, narrows their eyes at the person accused of hoarding the good silverware, and announces, with total confidence, "I can always tell when someone's lying."
Read more: The Psychology of Lying: Why We're Bad at Spotting Bluffs
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There is a particular kind of optimism that arrives with a bank holiday. Suddenly, the diary has room in it. Suddenly, your friends have room in it too, because for once nobody has to be up for work the next day, and the usual excuse of "I can't, it's a school night" evaporates. It is, on paper, the perfect window for a murder mystery party.
Read more: Planning a Mystery Party Around a Bank Holiday Weekend
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There's always one. You've sent the invitations, sorted the characters, decanted something into a decanter for effect, and somewhere between the starter and the first round of clues, you notice that one of your guests has found the single quietest corner of the room and is doing an excellent impression of the furniture.
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There's a particular kind of bravado that takes hold of a parent roughly a week before a birthday party, somewhere between ordering the bouncy castle and casually deciding that this year, instead of pass-the-parcel, the eight-year-olds are going to solve a murder.
Read more: Murder Mystery Games for Kids: What Works and What to Avoid
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Summer is the season of long evenings, garden furniture dragged optimistically onto patios, and the quiet national sport of staring at a weather forecast and trying to decide whether it counts as "dry enough."
Read more: The Best Themes for a Summer Murder Mystery Party
