Titanic Murder Mystery - Amy's Birthday Party

With another birthday Murder Mystery on its way next week, I really feel like I should get off my butt and catch up on the last one. That said, Amy herself posted about her Titanic Murder Mystery Party, which you may well have read already!

We were kindly gifted this Titanic Murder Mystery game, by a lovely man named Gary. We had originally been interested in his Fairytale one, but as it wasn't yet completed, he kindly offered us this one in the meantime. We weren't completely sure that a Titanic Murder Mystery was quite our thing, but in hindsight it was one of the best murder mysteries we've done!

In March of 2013, we did an Alice in Wonderland Murder Mystery Party. This was actually from the same website, as this Titanic one we just did. I'll be honest and say that we didn't really set out to do the Alice in Wonderland murder mystery with a view to reviewing it though, just because my partner likes Alice in Wonderland.

When you purchase from the Printable Murder Mystery Games, everything is instantly downloadable. The games are $16.95 each, which converts to about £10-12 (depending on exchange rate) which really isn't that bad. Included in this particular download is; invitations, character booklets, instructions, clues, recipe ideas, labels (to print and use on wine bottles etc), and even a suggested wine list. On top of that are some additional character booklets, in case you have extra guests you want to invite, but that don't really have a main part. Finally there is even a folder of rag time music, to give your party some atmosphere!

After deciding who should have each part, we sent out the invites, over Facebook and email. In this modern life, I have to admit that majority of our murder mystery parties are organised over Facebook these days. I usually make an event for the day, invite the people who are invited, then post all the info to the event page. If I can, I usually post character info on the wall, if I need to send booklets or private character info, I do that via FB message or through email. It also saves paper haha!

Anyway, the night of the murder mystery came around and I'd decided on an 8 course meal (I know, I'm mental). Luckily we took a lot of short cuts, making my life a bit easier, but orchestrating it all was still hard work, not to mention I was cooking for 10 people.

Setting the table was a lot of fun, though finding enough cutlery for each course was quite interesting. I also found a new trick for table mats - buying square shaped doileys that look like table mats but are cheap and easily disposable! I also bought a lot of plastic plates and bowls for the occasion, hoping they would last more than one use. One day I would love to own far more occasional tableware, but I'm thinking it will have to wait for now!

I borrowed a full set of glasses from my mum, in order to make cocktails for everyone. I bought 10 matching highball glasses, in order to have as water glasses. Luckily I already have 10 wine glasses though, so that was simply! Napkins were paper and disposable, though a little thicker and better quality than normal. I then bought paper napkin rings too, with gold jewels on. Though there was no picture, hanging from the ceiling was a party chandelier, a little like this.

Costumes were fairly simple and not too expensive. With characters like the Captain, and then passengers both rich and poor. I only posted pics of the guys, as I know us girlies aren't so fussed about having our pictures taken! The main 8 characters were: Captain Smith, Aidan Brogan, Bruce Ismay, Henry Harris, Irene Harris, Molly Brown, Tessie Anderson, and Margaret Petree. As I mentioned before, you can have additional characters, suggested no more than 4, but they are definitely not the murderer and just have extra input and questions they can ask. There are character suggestions for these people, even with brief character bios to make you feel like you have a back story. My brother played Mr. Isidor Straus and I accidentally printed ALL the extra booklets for him, giving him plenty to say each round!

The rest of the pictures in this post, are courtesy of Amy. I was far too busy with food to remember to take pictures and despite being ill right at the beginning of the night, she still managed to snap one for each food course!

As everyone arrived, I served Blue Lagoon cocktail, complete with a titanic and iceberg ice cube. These ice cubes were from a mold I'd bought from Ebay and were both cheap and effective! Everyone's character booklets were laid out on the table for them, indicating where they should sit. After taking the obligatory photographs, we all sat down and began the murder mystery!

My first and really only grumble, is that the character booklets don't recap our character information at the beginning. In a lot of murder mysteries we have done, there is an introduction stage, so we can all remember who is who and what we each do. Instead we all referred to our phones (see, modern life!) and to the emails I had sent out. We made up a brief introduction of ourselves, before I began serving the food. As there were 4 rounds and 8 courses, we did 2 courses to each round.

Round One

First Course - Minestrone Soup with Croutons

Second Course - Three chilled appetisers
Parma Ham and Cream Cheese Pinwheel,
Bruschetta topped with Tomato Salsa and Sour Cream,
Cucumber Slice with Smoked Salmon

Round Two

 Third Course - Fishcake on a bed of rocket

Fourth Course - Amuse-bouche/Palette Cleanser of Mint and Lemon

Round Three

Fifth Course - Chicken wrapped in Bacon.

Accompanied by creamed mash potato, long stem broccoli and julienne carrots. 

Sauces of peppercorn, four cheese and gravy alongside.

Sixth Course - Trio of Desserts

White Chocolate and Milk Chocolate Mousse

New York Cheesecake

Fresh Cream Profiteroles

Served alongside chocolate sauce, fresh single cream and salted caramel sauce

Round Four

Seventh Course - Palette Cleanser: Raspberry Sorbet

Eighth Course - Cheese and Biscuits with grapes and celery

In each of the Murder Mystery rounds we were given information to reveal, information in order to answer things we were challenged on and sometimes clues to reveal too. At the end of each round, there was a summary of what we have learnt. For a group like ours, this is ideal. We often get lost in our own little jokes, cudeness, or just straight out tangenting (not to mention we do drink whilst doing these and things become a little fuzzy at times!). This gave us the opportunity to just focus briefly.

After all four rounds, you then guess who you think did it. We rarely fill in the forms provided, instead just going around the table and saying who we think did it and sometimes even why. After that, you read a solution and all is revealed. Amusingly, in this murder mystery there are two conclusions. One if someone guessed the murder correctly and another if we didn't. Sadly in our scenario, the Titanic still sank. But then again, they do tell you not to mess with History so its probably for the best!

While no murder mystery is perfect, this was a pretty decent one. There was a huge amount of humour in it and even a level of smut that was also amusing. Added to the fact we are incredibly dirty minded ourselves, this made for a great murder mystery all around. The only things I would change perhaps, is the lack of character info/reminder at the front of the booklet. Plus I'm pretty sure the person who turned out to be the murderer, said it wasn't actually even mentioned in their booklet. I think we all agreed we prefer the ones where you at least know you've done it!

All in all a great night was had though and thanks again to Gary who kindly gifted us the Murder Mystery to do!