Whodunit evenings take place in the UK every day of every week. But how do you find a murder mystery near where you live? How do you book it? What kind of venues might be suitable for it?
It depends what you are looking for. There are three main options:
- A murder mystery put together and/or run for you by professionals.
- A murder mystery you put together and run yourselves.
- A public, ticketed murder mystery event.
Murder mysteries run for you by professionals
Like some other professional companies, we have run events all over the UK. And Europe. And (if anyone pays for the airfares) the rest of the world. We aren’t tied to any specific venue or place. Although based in London, we can come to where you want us to be. But do please be aware that our prices rise significantly the further away from London you are.
Unlike many other companies, we are very flexible about the venues used for our murder mysteries. They can happen in your home, in your office, in a hotel, in a restaurant, a pub functions room, a village hall, a golf club, even on a boat. Some take place outdoors. The main requirement with our most immersive, participative games is having plenty of space so people can easily get out of their seats and go and speak to those who aren’t sitting next to them. It’s best if people aren’t too “squashed in”.
You’ll also need a private room. People sometimes “die” during our murder mysteries, which can worry those not directly involved! Venue/meal costs vary hugely – everything from around £15 per head in a pub to £200 per head in a hotel. Many hotels and restaurants require a minimum spend from you but how much this is varies considerably.
As well as in England, we’ve run murder mysteries before in Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy. We’ve run them in big cities like London, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Coventry, Brighton, Southampton, York. We’ve run them in country house hotels in the middle of nowhere and bustling travel lodges in town centres and close to airports. We can go anywhere although, as we said before, being based in West London means our prices rise considerably the further from there we go.
Tell us where you want your mystery event to take place and we’ll do our best to make it happen. We may be able to suggest a venue or else bring what we do to one you’ve chosen.
Public, ticketed events
As well as whodunit evenings for private groups and companies, we occasionally run public, ticketed murder mysteries. These are advertised by the venues who invite us to hold them. The chances of us having one in your area right now for you to come to are, we will admit, not great.
You can, though, see what else is around by searching for “Ticketed murder mysteries” on Google. These events usually take place over a 3-course meal. Open to everyone, they bring people together who won’t necessarily know each other. Sometimes members of the public, sometimes corporate groups.
Styles and formats vary a lot and so do the companies who run them. Some are very rough and ready with little audience participation, thin plots and substandard food. Others are much more polished. Don’t just read what it says about them on the hotel’s website. Make sure you also go to the website of the murder mystery company running them. Do they seem professional? How will the evening unfold? Check before you book!
Murder mystery online directories
These list many different companies which offer various kinds of whodunits. Two to try for UK murder mystery searches are:
Freeindex
touchlocal
Murder mysteries run by you
You can buy downloadable murder mysteries online or box set games and run them yourselves at home. Or book a private room in a local restaurant, pub or hotel and run them there.
Taking this approach will save your a lot of money although you’ll need to allow time to get everything ready beforehand.
Our sister company Murder Mystery Games has several excellent plots you can buy online then download. If you decide you’d like someone to be there on the day to play a key character and run things for you, you can check with us if we have anyone available.
Events in London
The closer your event happens to London, the better our local knowledge. Our favourite venue in the capital is Browns Courtrooms.
For more about what they (and we) can offer you, have a read of our Murder Mysteries in London.
Events Outside London
We have been around long enough and managed events in enough different locations to be able to run them almost anywhere.
For more information about what we can do for you outside London, please go to Murder Mysteries Outside London.
“It was invisible, buried in the mud. I only saw it because I was looking for it.”
Sherlock Holmes, Silver Blaze