Murder Mystery

Racecourse Murder Mystery Party Game

★ MURDER AT MARLBROOK PARK — a 1953 English racing whodunit for 4-12 players ★

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

Marlbrook Park is a small Midlands course with six meetings a year, and on the Saturday after Easter it had a card of seven and about four thousand people. Cyril Bray had trained there since 1938 and had two runners. The last race went off at twenty past five. At a quarter past six a lad found him in the horsebox park behind the stables, inside the box of a chestnut gelding that has not put a foot wrong in four seasons — with the bolt shot across on the outside of the door.

🎭 THE TWIST THIS ONE IS BUILT ON

The police took statements from everybody who had been near him that afternoon, and by Sunday evening they had done something they said they had never managed before in a case like this: they had accounted for every single person with a reason to want him dead. All six alibis are true. Every one of them stands up. The Inspector thinks that means he is looking in the wrong place — and he is wrong. It means one of these six did not need to be there.

🖼 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 course at a glance

• A painted cover of the horsebox park 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 owner who has been laying his own horses to lose for two seasons with money he does not have, the rails bookmaker who was owed four hundred and eleven pounds since November, the yard secretary who left a name out of the entry book twice this spring, the widow who has been to the bank three times this month, the stable jockey who knew in March he was losing the ride, and the head lad who has known since February that something was wrong with those horses.

6 more of the racecourse 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.