Murder Mystery

Art Auction Murder Mystery Kit

★ MURDER AT VESSEY & CRANE — a 1988 London auction house whodunit for 4-12 players ★

Get it on Etsy → Instant digital download · print at home

Vessey & Crane have sold pictures out of a building in St James's since 1848, and on Thursday morning they were to sell fourteen million pounds' worth in ninety minutes. Lot 41 was the star of it, and the whole sale had been built around it. On Wednesday evening Denis Holland, who had run Old Masters here for nineteen years, told the chairman he was withdrawing Lot 41 in the morning. He did not say why in front of anybody, and he stayed late to write it up. At six the next morning the registrar opened the building and found him in the viewing gallery, under Lot 41 itself, off its plinth and on top of him.

🎭 THE TWIST THIS ONE IS BUILT ON

His right hand was closed around a cufflink. One clue in this building fits the murderer exactly — and by the end of the second round your guests will have proved to their own satisfaction that it was planted, and thrown it away. That is the trap. Everything else in the file is true, checkable and dull: a consignment form, a catalogue date, an overdraft, a telephone log. The evening turns on whether anybody is willing to believe something that obvious.

🖼 FULLY ILLUSTRATED — NEW EDITION

• 12 painted character portraits, one on every character sheet

• A "Meet Your Characters" page so your guests can see the whole firm at a glance

• A painted cover of the viewing gallery as it was found

Nobody hands out a plain sheet of text any more. Your guests get a face to play.

👤 12 CHARACTERS, EACH WITH A REAL SECRET

The 6 at the centre carry the mystery — the registrar who opened the building at six and had already made up her mind about somebody the night before, the junior specialist who had the row with him at ten in a corridor where three people heard it, the chairman who was asked to let the sale go ahead and did not argue when he was refused, the collector who told him on Tuesday that Lot 41 was wrong and could say exactly why, the finance director whose overdraft is called on the thirtieth of November and whose whole plan was this sale, and the junior director whose family has owned this building for four generations.

6 more of the building each get a full sheet of their own: a motive, an alibi, something they saw, and a reason to be nervous. Nobody at your table just watches.

📄 WHAT YOU GET — instant download, 23 pages

• Host Guide — how to run all three rounds

• At a Glance — the whole game on one page, safe to read even if you are playing

• The Tangle — who is covering for whom (host only)

• The Story — read aloud to open the night

• Meet Your Characters — the illustrated cast

• 12 Character Sheets — secret, alibi, what you know, and what to say in Round 3

• Clue Cards for all three rounds

• Accusation Sheets and printable invitations

• The Murderer’s Envelope — hand it to one guest, or leave it sealed and play along yourself

• The Solution — sealed at the back, read aloud at the end

🖨 HOW IT WORKS

1. Print. A4 and US Letter are both included — print at 100% on plain paper.

2. Hand out. One character sheet per guest. At 4 players you use the core 6; at 12 you hand out every sheet in the file.

3. Play. Three rounds, roughly 90-120 minutes. Clue cards go out at the top of each round.

4. Accuse. Everyone fills in an Accusation Sheet. Read the Solution page aloud — whoever names the murderer, the method AND the motive wins.

You can host AND play. No character sheet tells its owner they are the killer, so read your own and leave the last two pages — the Murderer’s Envelope and the Solution — in an envelope until the vote.

★ GREAT FOR ★

Dinner parties, game nights, girls’ nights in, birthday celebrations, Halloween gatherings, and evenings when a group of friends wants something to do together — small groups and large.

Teen & Adult · Instant digital download · Nothing is shipped · Print it again for the next party.