How to host a murder mystery party

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A murder mystery party is a dinner or a party where every guest plays a suspect. Someone is found dead (off stage, and nobody actually has to lie on the floor all night), clues come out in rounds over the evening, and at the end everyone names who did it. It works because each guest has a secret to keep and a reason to ask questions, so even the quiet ones end up talking.

There are three ways to run one. Buy a boxed kit with a script and character booklets. Write your own, which this guide walks you through. Or let your phones run it, with a game that hands out the clues and keeps score. Whichever you pick, the hosting is the same: a clear plan, good casting, food that doesn't fight the game and a firm running order.

• Plan it
• Themes
• Invitations
• Roles
• Food
• Timing
• Hosting tips
• A free case
• Play it on phones

Plan it: six decisions to make first

1. How many guests. Six to eight is the sweet spot: everyone gets a proper character and nobody waits long to talk. With ten or more, add guests as detectives or play in pairs, or pick a phone game that holds up to 20.
2. Who the host is. The host knows the answer, so the host can't be a suspect. Play the victim, the butler or the inspector, and run the night from there.
3. How long. Three hours suits a dinner: arrivals, three rounds of clues across the courses, then the accusations and the reveal. A party without a sit-down meal can do it in ninety minutes.
4. Who's coming. Grown-ups, a family, teenagers or a work team change the theme, the food and how dark the story gets. Keep it light for a mixed crowd: the crime happens off stage and nobody describes it.
5. The theme. Pick it before the invitations, because it sets the dress code, the music and the menu.
6. Kit, homemade or phones. A kit saves writing time. Homemade suits a host who likes a project. Phones suit a host who wants to play too, or a group that can't sit still for a script.

Murder mystery party themes

A theme works when guests can dress for it from their own wardrobe, or one trip to a thrift shop. Eight that never miss:

• 1920s jazz club. Feathers, braces and long beads. Serve small bites on trays and play swing records. The suspects: the bandleader, the heiress, the club owner.
• Country house weekend. Tweed, pearls and muddy boots by the door. A roast with all the trimmings, and the body is found in the library, naturally.
• Christmas party. Ugly jumpers or summer tinsel, depending on your hemisphere. Someone has poisoned the pudding, or stolen the star off the tree for a lighter family version. Run the rounds between courses of the Christmas lunch.
• Masquerade ball. Masks only, so it costs nothing. Everyone's identity is half hidden, which makes the clues about who stood where much more fun.
• School reunion, class of 1986. Shoulder pads, big hair and old school photos on the wall. Twenty years of grudges come back in one night.
• Hollywood premiere. Black tie or very fake glamour. A red carpet made from a hallway runner, and a missing film star.
• Holiday cruise. Captain's hats and Hawaiian shirts. Seafood, cocktails with paper umbrellas (mocktails count), and nowhere for the culprit to run.
• A guesthouse in a storm. Raincoats and torches. The power flickers, the phone line is down and one of the staff knows more than they say. This is the setting of our phone game, Checkout Time.

Invitations: what to send and when

Send invitations two to three weeks out, then each guest's character a week before the party. A good invitation has:

• The date, the start time and a firm arrival time. The first round can't start until the last suspect walks in.
• The theme and the dress code, in one line.
• A promise that nobody has to act. Reading your clues out loud is all it takes.
• A request for dietary needs with the reply.
• One line of mystery to set the tone.

Here is a short invitation you can copy and change:

You are invited to the Vane family's New Year's Eve party, 1925. Arrive at 7pm sharp, dressed for a jazz club. Your character will arrive by message next week. By midnight one of us will be dead, and by dessert one of us will be found out. Reply by Friday with any food you can't eat. Acting is optional; suspicion is not.

Casting the roles

Casting makes or breaks the night. You know your guests, so match the character to the person, not the other way round.

• Give the confident guest the red herring. The character who looks guilty all night needs someone who enjoys the attention.
• Give the quiet guest a character with fewer lines. A witness or a detective can watch and ask, without having to defend themselves.
• Give everyone a secret that isn't the murder. An affair with the past, a debt, a lie about where they were. Then every suspect has a reason to dodge questions, and the real culprit hides among them.
• Cast the culprit carefully. They have to keep a straight face for three hours. Pick someone who will enjoy the bluff, and never someone who will feel singled out.
• Send a costume idea with each character. One line is enough: "a cardigan and reading glasses" gets a better turnout than "dress as a librarian".

Food that works with the game

The food has to keep up with the story. Plan one course for each round of clues, so the evening has a rhythm and nobody misses a clue while they're stuck at the stove.

• Nibbles on arrival. Food you can eat standing up and talking: dips, skewers, cheese, a grazing board. This is when characters meet.
• A main you made earlier. A slow-cooked dish, a lasagne or a build-your-own taco table. Nothing that needs carving or last-minute frying, because the host is also the inspector.
• Dessert for the reveal. Something dramatic: a cake with the word "guilty" piped on top, or a pavlova that collapses on cue.
• Name the dishes for the theme. "The Butler's Revenge" is a cheese platter with ambition. Write the names on cards; it costs nothing and guests photograph them.
• Drinks for everyone. A jug of something non-alcoholic that looks the part, so every guest has a glass to raise at the toast.

Timing: a three-hour running order

A loose plan lets the night drift and the reveal lands at midnight to a half-empty room. Use something like this, and keep a timer on your phone.

1. 7.00pm. Arrivals and nibbles (30 minutes). Guests meet in character. Each says who they are in one line.
2. 7.30pm. The crime (5 minutes). The host announces the death and the rules: ask anything, lie only about your secret, and the culprit is the only one who may lie about the crime.
3. 7.35pm. Round one (25 minutes). The first clues come out. Everyone questions everyone.
4. 8.00pm. Main course and round two (45 minutes). More clues at the table, which is where the best arguments happen.
5. 8.45pm. Round three (20 minutes). The last and sharpest clues. Leave room for people to compare notes.
6. 9.05pm. Accusations (15 minutes). Each guest names their culprit and one reason, in secret on paper or a phone, or out loud.
7. 9.20pm. Dessert and the reveal (20 minutes). The culprit confesses, the host explains the clues, then awards: best dressed, best detective and best liar.

Hosting tips

• Read the solution before anyone arrives. If you can't explain the answer in three sentences, guests won't find it in three hours.
• Keep a spare clue up your sleeve. If the room is stuck after round two, hand out one more clue that rules out a suspect.
• Move the clues, not the guests. Read clues out at the table, or send them to phones, rather than hiding them around the house for people to search in the dark.
• Keep it light. No gore, no detail about how anyone died, nothing that makes a guest uncomfortable. The fun is in the lying, not the crime.
• Let guests opt out of the spotlight. Anyone can be a witness instead of a suspect. Say so on the invitation.
• Take photos at arrivals. Everyone's at their best dressed then, and it's the photo they will share.
• Hand out small prizes. A badge, a chocolate, a printed certificate if you have a printer. A prize for best liar gives the culprit something to win too.

For a kids' or family party, make it a mystery party, not a murder: the birthday cake has vanished, or the trophy has gone from the shelf. The same planning works, with shorter rounds (ten minutes each), picture clues for younger players and a grown-up as the inspector.

A free murder mystery to run tonight: The Midnight Toast

A short case for six suspects, with no printing. Send each guest their character as a text message, then read the clues aloud in three rounds. It suits ages 12 and up and takes about ninety minutes. With more than six guests, the extras play detectives from the newspaper and the police.

The story. New Year's Eve, 1925. Cornelius Vane, a wealthy jeweller, is throwing a party at his house. At midnight the guests raise a toast. Vane, alone in the library with his drink, never comes back out. He is found there at ten past twelve, his glass beside him. The doctor says it was something in the drink.

The six suspects (send one to each guest)

1. Vivienne Vane, his wife. Elegant, sharp, bored of her husband. Motive: he was about to change his will. Secret: you have been selling your own jewels and wearing fakes. Dress: long gloves and pearls (fake, obviously).
2. Teddy Vane, his nephew. Charming and broke. Motive: you inherit a share of the money. Secret: at 11.35 you searched your uncle's desk for the will and dropped a cufflink there. Dress: a bow tie, slightly crooked.
3. Archie Bell, the bandleader. Smooth, funny, never off stage for long. Motive: Vane owes you a year of wages. Secret: you're not from New Orleans at all, you're from Ohio. Dress: a waistcoat and a flower in your lapel.
4. Dr Margaret Shaw, the family doctor. Calm and observant. Motive: Vane knew you'd lost money in one of his deals. Secret: your bag, with a bottle of sleeping drops in it, sat unlocked in the cloakroom all night. Dress: something sensible, a watch on a chain.
5. Rosa Quinn, the housekeeper. Sees everything, says little. Motive: Vane was about to let you go. Secret: you read the new will. Dress: an apron over your best dress.
6. Felix Hart, Vane's business partner. Polished and friendly. You did it. For a year you've swapped real stones in the shop for glass copies, and Vane found out today. Tonight you took the sleeping drops from the doctor's bag and tipped them into his glass. You may lie about anything, but you can't deny what someone saw. Dress: a sharp suit and a ring you can't afford.

The clues (the host reads them out)

Round one

1. The drink was mixed with a large dose of sleeping drops, the kind a doctor carries.
2. From the stage, Archie could see everyone who went into the library between 11.30 and midnight: Vivienne, Teddy, Rosa and Felix. Archie never left the stage, and Dr Shaw danced every dance.

Round two

1. Rosa carried the drinks tray into the library at 11.45 and put the glass with the green ribbon, Vane's glass, at his chair. Anyone who came in after 11.45 could have reached it.
2. Vivienne left the library at 11.40, before the tray arrived, and danced with the newspaper man until midnight.
3. Teddy's cufflink was found under the desk. He says he was in the library at 11.35, before the tray, and the telephone operator confirms he was on a call in the hall from 11.40 until 11.58.

Round three

1. The cloakroom girl saw Felix come out of the cloakroom at 11.43 "looking for his coat", though he never left the party.
2. The last line in Vane's pocket diary, written that afternoon: "F. The Hartwell necklace is glass. Police in the morning."
3. Rosa went back for a forgotten napkin at 11.55 and saw Felix alone at the drinks tray, "straightening the glasses".

The solution (host only)

Felix Hart did it. Vane found out that Felix had been swapping real stones for glass copies and planned to go to the police in the morning. At 11.43 Felix took the sleeping drops from Dr Shaw's bag in the cloakroom, and at 11.55, after Rosa had set the tray, he tipped them into the glass with the green ribbon. Vivienne had left before the tray arrived, Teddy was on the telephone, Archie was on stage and Dr Shaw was dancing. Rosa had the chance, but she is the one who saw Felix at the tray.

Copy the clues into your phone's notes before the party, so you can read them without guests seeing this page over your shoulder.

Or let your phones run the party

If you'd rather play than host, a phone game does the casting, the clues and the scoring for you. Ours run in the web browser: no app, no printing, and any TV becomes the shared screen.

Launch Party: every game is free to host until 30 November 2026, Party Pack 01 and Deck the Desks included. Sign in free to host. Guests never need an account.

1. Checkout Time

   A murder mystery trivia game for 3 to 20 players, ages 10 and up. A storm, a guesthouse in the hills called Mistwood and a guest who has vanished, with one of four staff behind it. A trivia question lands on every phone: answer right and you earn a private clue, answer wrong and you face a 15 second challenge, and fail that and you play on as a ghost, whispering clues to the living. At dawn everyone votes in secret on the culprit. Nothing gory: everything happens off screen. Part of Party Pack 01, where the host buys once and every guest plays free.

   Play Checkout TimeHow it plays

2. Murder in the Dark

   The classic lights-out party game, free, for 3 to 20 players. Your phones deal the secret roles, so nobody has to fold paper slips. Play it in a dark room, or as Wink Murder with the lights on, which is the better choice at a dinner table. It's a quick warm-up while the main course is in the oven, and it holds a bigger crowd than any character kit.

   Play Murder in the Dark free

3. At-home mystery cases (coming)

   Standalone cases you crack on your own phone, alone or with a friend somewhere else, in about 30 to 40 minutes. They're for the nights after the party, when you want a mystery without the guest list.

   See the mystery games

For a party too big for one table, Checkout Time takes up to 20 phones, and bigger groups play in teams. More ideas for a night in are in the best mystery games to play at home.

Updated 28 October 2026.