It’s nearly Halloween so it seems appropriate to have a bit of a gory theme to my blog this week. As you may know I’m a big fan of murder mysteries, and enjoy writing them myself. But what you may not know is that I also enjoying trying to solve mysteries. For the past few years my friends and I have  been going on murder mystery weekend breaks run by the fabulous Joy Swift. They take place in lovely country house  hotels across the country. From Friday night to Sunday morning we become detectives, working to solve dastardly deeds and catch cunning criminals. 

Basically among all the guests will be around 10 actors. They’re in character for the whole time and over the course of the weekend they’ll have huge arguments, catch each other in compromising positions and ultimately at least three of them will end up ‘dead’. Fear not, no actual murders take place! It’s then the task of guests such as ourselves to piece together the clues, crack codes, question suspects and come up with our solution. In between all the sleuthing there’s also lot of extra fun and games with quizzes, charades and a fancy dress disco. 

The mysteries certainly give the old brain cells a workout, and for the duration of the weekend, you end up forgetting what’s going on in the rest of the world. 

The company is celebrating its 35th anniversary this weekend, so happy birthday to all the team, and here’s to many more mysteries to get us sleuthing!