Printable Halloween murder mystery party kit

Who you are

Medium, clairvoyant, and "Russian countess" according to your calling cards. Society hostesses invite you to make their tables turn, and you make them turn with a talent no one has ever caught out.

Aurélien Ravenel hired you to lead tonight's midnight séance. He met you twice in his study, behind closed doors, to "prepare the spirits".

What you know

• At 11:30 pm you set up the tower exactly as Aurélien asked: candles, the séance table, and the spirits' cup — spiced mulled wine he was to drink alone at midnight. You left the door open when you went to powder your nose.
• Coming back around 11:40 pm, you saw a plague doctor — long black coat, beaked mask — leaving the tower. He carried a silver-topped cane. There were two plague doctors at the ball tonight: Gaspard and Doctor Lestrade.
• The message you were to recite said: "The one who signed away my last sleep is among you." Aurélien wanted it to land right before his announcement. You never knew who he meant.

Your goals tonight

• Make sure no one finds out you are a fraud: your career would not survive it.
• Get back — or get rid of — the script, which proves the séance was staged.
• Figure out who Aurélien's line was aimed at: you are starting to believe that person killed him.

If you are accused

You prepared the cup, and you are the perfect suspect. Say it yourself, boldly: "If I wanted to poison him, would I use the one cup only I had touched?" Then tell them about the plague doctor you saw leaving the tower.

Who you are

Only son of Aurélien and his first wife, Mathilde. You were eight when your mother died, and you grew up in a house where no one said her name anymore.

You came dressed as a plague doctor — to mock Doctor Lestrade, who has always treated you like a child. He had the same idea, which the whole ballroom found hilarious.

What you know

• For a month, your father had been obsessed with your mother's death. He spent his nights in the attic going through Mathilde's trunks, and he told you: "They lied to me, Gaspard. They lied to both of us."
• You saw Basile, the gardener, arguing with your father this afternoon. Your father was shouting that he would throw him out, him and his mother.
• You know that Éléonore, your stepmother, had a packed trunk brought down to the front hall this morning. She said it was full of costumes.

Your goals tonight

• Hide your meeting in the orangery at all costs: it would give you an alibi, but it would ruin you.
• Find out what your father meant to announce at midnight — and what he found in the attic.
• Prove that you are not the one seen near the tower: they are mixing you up with the other plague doctor.

If you are accused

They will say a plague doctor went into the tower at 11:40 pm. Deny it without saying where you were, as long as you can. If they close in, admit the orangery — Victoire can confirm — and ask where the other plague doctor was at that time.

Who you are

Aurélien's second wife for twelve years. You married a charming man; you lived with a collector of ghosts, who preferred the dead to the living and his tower to your bedroom.

Tonight you are a widow. You don't know yet whether it feels like grief or like freedom, and you are afraid it shows.

What you know

• Three weeks ago, Aurélien showed you what he found in the attic: an old prescription in Mathilde's name, signed "Dr A. Lestrade", a few days before she died. In the margin, in Aurélien's hand: "Mathilde did not just fade away."
• You know Doctor Lestrade is the one who pronounced Mathilde dead twenty years ago and signed the certificate: "heart failure". He was also the one treating Aurélien's heart.
• You saw Victoire Marchal and Gaspard exchanging looks at dinner, like two people who have an appointment.

Your goals tonight

• Keep your departure secret: a wife about to run away makes a perfect culprit.
• Understand what the prescription meant, now that Aurélien died before he could speak.
• Show nothing of what you feel — neither grief nor relief.

If you are accused

Remind everyone that at midnight you were sitting at Aurélien's right, hands on the table like everyone else. Then ask, coldly, why the doctor declared "heart attack" before he had even taken a pulse.

Who you are

The Ravenel family doctor for twenty-five years: you delivered Gaspard and looked after Aurélien's tired heart.

You came as a plague doctor, with a genuine antique silver-topped cane. The Ravenel boy had the same idea; you did not find it funny.

What you know

• Aurélien threatened this morning to throw out Basile, the gardener, and his elderly mother who lives in the lodge.
• Madame Irma is no more Russian than you are: you saw her on stage at the Casino de Paris, under another name.
• Ophélie Darcourt was taking notes under the table at dinner: she is writing about this family.

Your goals tonight

• Get everyone to settle on a heart attack: Aurélien's heart was weak, you have said so for years.
• Steer suspicion toward Irma, who prepared the cup, or toward Gaspard, who wears your costume.
• Get your hands on the prescription Aurélien found in the attic, if it still exists.

If you are accused

Stay the physician: calm, precise, a little condescending. Point out that there were two plague doctors tonight, and the other one had everything to gain from his father's death.

Who you are

Gardener at the manor since you were a boy, like your father before you. You live in the lodge with your mother, who no longer gets out of bed. You know every plant on the grounds, and which ones kill.

Tonight, Aurélien asked you to serve dressed as a gravedigger, "for atmosphere". You obeyed, as always.

What you know

• Around 9 pm, lighting the lanterns on the terrace, you saw a plague doctor crouching by the flower bed below the terrace, in the dark. You couldn't tell which of the two it was. He went back toward the house.
• Later, walking past, you noticed that several stems of monkshood — aconite, a deadly plant — had been cut clean in that bed. No one but you knows it grows there.
• You saw Madame Éléonore pay the coachman to come back at dawn on November 1st, "without telling Monsieur".

Your goals tonight

• Make sure no one learns about the wine: a man who stole from the victim makes a convenient culprit.
• At the right moment, let people know someone cut aconite on the grounds — even if it draws attention to you, the one who knows plants.
• Protect your mother: whatever happens, she must be able to stay in the lodge.

If you are accused

You don't talk much, or well, in front of these people. Just say that if you had wanted to poison the master, you wouldn't have needed a ball to do it — and that the man by the flower bed wore a beaked mask, not a gravedigger's spade.

Who you are

Antiques dealer on the Left Bank, specializing in "curiosities": Venetian masks, spirit boards, reliquaries. Aurélien has been your best client for ten years; half his tower came from your shop.

You came as Columbine, white mask and tricorn hat. You love parties where everyone hides: that's where the good deals happen.

What you know

• From the orangery, through the glass roof, you saw a plague doctor cross the gallery toward the tower stairs around 11:40 pm — at the very moment Gaspard, in his own plague doctor costume, was sitting across from you. The figure walked with a cane.
• You know Aurélien asked Madame Irma for a "very special" séance: last week he bought from you a spirit board said to have belonged to a Dublin medium, "to make Mathilde speak".
• You know Ophélie Darcourt asked you tonight what certain pieces in the tower were worth, as if she were taking inventory.

Your goals tonight

• Keep the clock sale secret: it would cost you your reputation, maybe your shop.
• But figure out who the other plague doctor was: what you saw clears Gaspard, and only you know it.
• Leave tomorrow with the clock, if that is still possible.

If you are accused

You had no interest in your best client's death — say so, numbers in hand. If they push, reveal what you saw from the orangery, even if you then have to explain what you were doing there.

Who you are

Novelist. Your tales of ghosts and haunted manors sell in every train station, and critics despise you. You are an old friend of Éléonore's, who invites you to the ball every year.

You came as the White Lady, veil and candelabra. You watch everything; it's your job.

What you know

• At dinner, Doctor Lestrade casually asked you where Aurélien kept his "famous spirits' cup" and what time the tower would be set up.
• You saw Madame Irma muttering lines in the corridor, a sheet of paper in her hand, like an actress waiting in the wings.
• You know Gaspard owes money to some unsavory people: one of them came looking for him all the way to your publisher's office in Paris.

Your goals tonight

• Keep the threatened lawsuit from becoming an obvious motive.
• Get a book out of tonight — without becoming its main character.
• Find out whether the séance was rigged: you are almost sure it was.

If you are accused

Remind them a novelist needs her models alive: a lawsuit sells books, a murder gets them pulled from the shelves. Then tell them the question the doctor asked you at dinner.

Who you are

Aurélien's nephew, twenty-two, a law student in Paris when you can be bothered. They invite you because you are family; they keep an eye on you because you are you.

You came as a skeleton, glow-in-the-dark paint and all. Halloween is your night.

What you know

• Around 9:15 pm, while scouting the tower for your prank, you saw Doctor Lestrade come in from the garden through the terrace door. He was pulling off his gloves, and they were caked with soil.
• You know your uncle had summoned his lawyer for November 2nd: he wanted to "put his affairs in order".
• You heard Éléonore say on the telephone: "The day after tomorrow. Yes. For good."

Your goals tonight

• Confess the fuse prank — but only once you have proven it had nothing to do with your uncle's death.
• Get the doctor talking: you can't stop thinking about those muddy gloves.
• Don't cry in front of Gaspard.

If you are accused

Yes, you cut the lights. But the blackout came at five past midnight, AFTER Aurélien drank the cup: he wasn't killed in the dark. Ask instead what the doctor was doing in the garden at 9 pm.