A somber mood fills the air as guests mourn Buster Kracker, a tycoon who usually hosts the annual Christmas dinner party. One minute, she’s in a meeting in her office in Birmingham – the next, she’s walking out on her job, her home, her life. Players get directions from the host and work individually or as a team to get leading clues and unveil the mystery behind the death.

When Carol Singer, the visiting Welsh performer, is brutally murdered in the middle of the stage, Fi and her friends, Mae B, Del, Miss Merkin, Thora Point and Stan the Man, must stop feuding and work together to unmask the pantomime villain before another queen falls. With his loyal grandson and their golden retriever along for the ride, he sets off to investigate, but on arriving at the snowbound manor house on the English coast, they find that the wrong man has been killed. Some of the technologies we use are necessary for critical functions like security and site integrity, account authentication, security and privacy preferences, internal site usage and maintenance data, and to make the site work correctly for browsing and transactions. And can it be a coincidence that a shadow from Charlotte’s past, Syndicates boss Tony Israelsson, has recently been released from prison and is reportedly headed for Umeå?Meanwhile, someone else – someone utterly ruthless – also has ideas about what ought to happen to Hercule Poirot . Agatha Christie published her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, in 1920 introducing her famed Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, to the world. Determined to take the evidence with a generous pinch of salt, Juno navigates pagan ceremonies and astrological connections that turn up yet more bodies on a deadly path to the truth. Abby is desperate to find out the truth, but putting herself in danger isn’t on her Christmas wish list. In this setting, residents of Mid-Trimming, a country village, gather for the annual caroling and partying on Christmas Eve.

When Mariah Ellison arrives in the picturesque village of St Helen’s to spend the festive season with her old friend Sadie Alsop, she is shocked to discover that Sadie has vanished. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, cloth-bound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. Unsurprisingly, the gathering takes a dark turn when Lady Partridge is found dead, hanging from a pear tree. The ‘Save Peridale’s Soul’ campaign is gaining momentum, with the café abuzz with schemes to thwart the developers.The game will have four to eight suspects, one of whom the host will assign the murderer’s role before the game begins. No food or beverage of any kind are permitted to be brought into the hotel that is not purchased from Coombe Abbey. On 19 December, renowned puzzle setter Edie O’Sullivan finds a jigsaw puzzle on her doorstep with a disturbing message: ‘Four, maybe more, people will be dead by midnight on Christmas Eve, unless you can put all the pieces together and stop me. They capture the essence of Christmas with themed settings, characters, and storylines, immersing players in a festive world filled with yuletide cheer.

It’s Christmas 1936 and an eclectic list of guests and staff have gathered for the grand reopening of Maybridge castle, a newly renovated yet still crumbling hotel deep in the Cumbrian countryside. Players must investigate and separate the nice folks from the naughty ones and identify the troublemakers. Information leaks that the law firm’s major partner intends to announce his retirement and replacement. With her wedding taking a disastrous turn and a killer on the loose, the sleuth makes another vow: to investigate and solve the case. When a journalist is found pinned to a bowling green with croquet hoops, his head caved in, DI Drake and his team must unravel the man’s life.

This mystery is for eight to 16 players and has customizable options to accommodate 100+ characters. The day continues as badly as I feared, forced cheerfulness turning to rolled eyes, and when a wine-fuelled argument swirls out of hand Neil can’t take it anymore. The Night before Christmas is set at a glamorous 1948 American cocktail party on Christmas Eve, and one of the valets has been murdered! The community’s resilience shines, with an illicit Christmas market springing up in defiance, but their unity is shattered when a car, brakes failing, crashes through the stalls.

Luke and Chloe’s plans for a Christmas wedding are threatened as assassins close in, while Marcus is shot and Ryan fights for survival in the woods.

If you're looking for a unique and engaging way to bring family and friends together during this magical time of the year, Masters of Mystery has you covered. If you like a little bit of Chesterton, Christie, and Waugh, some wry humour with squabbling mothers and daughters and a hint of romance, this is perfect for you. If they hope to survive the festive season then they will need to face the truth about what happened on that fateful night twelve years ago.