Our heritage guesthouse and intimate function venue recently hosted its first murder mystery-themed dinner night complete with photo shoot. We ordered Deadly Inheritance and The Traveller from On The Case, split our guests into two tables of 10, and handed each table a case file to solve. The games were well packaged and presented, with realistic evidence inside and clear instructions to follow (some found online).
Admittedly, our groups were just a tad too big for each case, making it tricky to share all the evidence equally and discuss the case audibly. Eight guests per case would be better, and six is ideal.
Deadly Inheritance was solved in under an hour (which means, retrospectively, we didn't have to rush out our main course,) so the timing guideline is quite inaccurate. The Traveller was also solved in just over an hour, and the guests felt that some loose ends were still not tied up and could not be explained.
Overall, a great concept well presented, however, the difficulty level of both games needs to be upped significantly. South Africans are smart (or perhaps just too exposed to unsolved crime cases in reality). We would love more old-school 'Murder at the Manor' mysteries from these producers, where guests come dressed up as characters, pre-briefed with a subtext/plot. While all the guests enjoyed the case files they expressed their interest in a dress-up concept closer to the latter mentioned. These plots could keep coming, ad infinitum, as there is a huge appetite for well-planned and theatrically executed murder mystery dinner nights where the menu too is laced with intrigue and a photographer snaps the couples.