Two summers ago we played Murder on the Grill murder mystery. We had so much fun that we knew we had to do it again. This time we tried out An Evening of Murder’s Beyond the Grave.
I’m not sure what it is about Murder Mysteries that are just so much fun. Is it the costumes? The acting? The creativity? The thrill of figuring out who done it?
Whatever the mystery is, we were finally able to have another party and act out another game.
Don’t worry there are no spoilers in this post so the mystery will remain.
Beyond the Grave Story
The story of this mystery is that a well-to-do woman names Lorraine died under suspicious circumstances but there was no charges ever laid. Five years later, Lorraine’s daughter has brought together some of her mother’s closest friends and confidences for a séance to find out who the murder is.
Beyond the Grave Characters
Anthony Lockwood was Lorraine’s husband and a lawyer.
Jessica Lockwood is Anthony’s new wife.
Vanessa Cross is Lorraine’s daughter.
David Cross is a politician who is much older than Vanessa, his wife. (We switched this character to be Dana.)
Susanne Smythe was Lorraine’s best friend.
Madame Rose was Lorraine’s spiritualist and advisor.
Dr. Thomas Blackman is the Lockwood’s family doctor.
Shawn Easton is Anthony’s son from his first marriage and race car driver. (We switched this character to be Shawna, Shawn for short.)
Extra characters.
We had two too many players for the game so we created some extra characters. Of course, these characters had no books to follow or give them things to say and defend but they did get to ask questions and make comments. We had Mario Cartson, Shawn’s manager. (This was extra fun as the character of Shawn was being played by a teen who’s been taking driving lessons and Mario was played by her father. Plus we’re Mario Cart fans as an added bonus.)
Next, we had Bree Brownson. She was the brown nose assistant to Anthony. (This was fun as Bree was a teen and she was her father’s assistant: a roll I’m sure is new to her.) Our Bree really got into her character and took notes throughout the game that she read back to us (in her teen lingo!).
The Costumes
As I might have said before, the best part of a Murder Mystery party is getting to be creative and there is no better place for that than the costumes. For my part, I got to dig out the few reaming dress up jewelry that we still have and get to be extra extravagant.
For the doctor role, we again raided the remaining dress up things to dig out a stethoscope and doctor’s bag.
We used masking tape to cover a pin button to make it was Vote Dana.
The rest of the costumes weren’t too much of a stretch for this game. Also, we had guests who were new to the whole murder mystery party (and my flair for dramatics in one).
The Setting
Now, this was the best part. Because it was suppose to be a séance, I put out a dark table cloth and then arranged a ton of candles and lit them. We played in the daytime so the candles were only for show but it might have been fun to do it in the dark.
Playing Beyond the Grave Murder Mystery
Beyond the Grave is from a company called An Evening of Murder. The last game we played was from University Games. The first game came with a CD that we had to interact with. It also had a script to read as well as suggestions of things to say and to defend.
This game came with a tape (yes a cassette tape and yes we still have a player). Unlike, the first game it didn’t have a script but it did have things for each character to say and defend.
The first thing we had to do was listen to the tape. I have to say it was a little confusing. We weren’t actually sure what we were listening to so we listened a second time. After hearing it a second time, we were no further ahead.
Next, we all opened our character booklets and read that first set of instructions.
I have to say, that I was the murder. This was in my booklet on one of the first pages. At first, I wasn’t sure what to do with this information. It was hard to know what to do but then I decided that the best thing I could do was pick a character to throw the most suspicion on. As it turned out, the character that I choose happened to have an in game issue that played out. That worked out perfectly.
With the first game that we played, we found that switching between the script and the notes was a little hard to get used to. However, without the script, it was harder to get into character. On the other hand, playing was easier with only the personal things to read.
This second game played much faster than the first. We were done in about an hour.
Winning Beyond the Grave
I’m not sure how anyone “wins” a murder mystery game. What I can say is that at the end, we all took a turn saying who we thought the murder was. Of course, I had to lie and pick someone else. There was a couple of guesses for my character but we had lots of other guesses too.
Beyond Fun
At the end of the day, we all had a great day playing this game. We liked the booklets better than the University game. However, I think we were able to get more into character with the University game. And it turned out that we really didn’t need the cassette tape to play. An Evening of Murder games are no longer in print but I’ve been able to find several in secondhand stores.
These games make perfect secondhand games as really once you’ve played it once, you can pass it on. Just make sure that all the pieces are there, including any tapes or CDs. The name tags that come with the game often don’t make it back into the box, but they are easily remade or even skipped. If you’re looking for a new mystery game to play, the University Games are still in print; you can read about our Murder on the Grill experience to see how it played. We also have a much lighter Mafia Murder game that you can play over and over again. You can read all about Mafia Murder here. I was able to find some copies of An Evening of Murder on the Canadian Amazon site so maybe you can luck out here too.
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