Unsolved murder mystery game - Cold Case Files Investigation - CRYPTIC KILLERS - Detective Evidence & Crime File - individuals, date nights & party games- "Murder at Merivale Manor"

Absolutely love these mysteries! I admit, it's a TON of reading and connecting the dots, but that's what makes it so much fun. I'm doing these by myself, because it was too much reading for the hubby, and they take 4-6 hours to complete, mainly because I triple check my theories and I refuse to ask for hints. Can't accuse the wrong person!! Absolutely worth the cost! On my first mystery, I thought I'd try to keep them clean so I could pass them on to someone else. Finally admitted to myself that for $20, it was worth taking notes on the actual documents and keeping track of evidence that that way. I say go for it and grab one. What have you got to lose? I've completed Murder on Mt Mortimer and Murder at Merivale Manor. Both challenging and fun!!

Simply amazing. I finally picked these back up, after a bit of a college-and-work break. It was so fun! I missed being able to be a detective and it was the best 2.5 hours I've spent in a long time. I did this by myself but it can easily be played with multiple people. I would recommend that this be between ages 8-99. I say 8 as the minimum because it does require a lot of reading and context clues/connections that might be difficult for younger players. Again, this game was great! It took me about 2.5 hours to complete by myself and the time really flew by. I truly felt like a detective, cigar and magnifying glass included. Definitely get this and have the time of your life! For fans of true crime, puzzles, and strategy games, this is a definite must-have.

Such a fun and unique date night game! My husband and I absolutely loved going through all the evidence and trying to solve the mystery together. The case file feels super immersive with photos, newspaper clippings, notes, and different pieces of evidence that make you feel like real detectives. The storyline kept us engaged the entire time, and it was challenging enough to be exciting without being frustrating. We ended up talking about theories for hours 😂 Perfect for couples, friends, or anyone who loves true crime and mystery games. Definitely worth the price and would love to try more cases from this company!

I’ve played three of the Cryptic Killers games so far, and I’ve genuinely enjoyed every single one. They strike the perfect balance between fun and challenging—just difficult enough to make you think, but never frustrating to the point where you want to give up. The creativity in the puzzles really stands out. Each game feels unique, and I love how they keep you engaged with clever clues and interesting twists. You can tell a lot of thought went into the design and storytelling. If you enjoy puzzle or mystery games that make you think outside the box, I would definitely recommend giving Cryptic Killers a try. I’m already looking forward to playing more!

I created a surprise murder mystery party over the TG holiday wknd for my family, & bought some supplies, created lots of art & detective sluething kits for ea attendee, & I bought 2 different murder mystery kits, from different companies. We had lots of fun & only tackled 1 of the kits, & they chose this 1 first. Overall, it's xlnt & I'd highly recommend & buy it again. However, I want to share the following for more success & fun by other future planners following in my shoes. This kit is 4/5 stars for difficulty. If u have serious sluethers, focused on the case, happy to create a genealogy chart, read 20-30 pgs of detailed, 9 pt font with fully typed pgs (challenging to read for ppl over 40 yrs), & track the motives, alibis & activities for 5+ suspects... With a world of added clues & details online, then this is an ideal kit for your event. But, if ur group is more focused on socializing, laughing, drinking, & such, then I'd pick a kit probably 2/5 or 3/5 difficulty. For us, we had a blast! Lots of compliments over the following days. But.... we were overwhelmed with the amount of small typed reading out of the gate - just tracking our nearly 30 clues (not including the online items), so we subdivided & shared. After about an hr & half, it was getting to be more work than fun, so I switched to online hints, we started laughing again & we opted to speculate on our #1 suspect. We were all wrong, because u had to catch 1 remote detail & use deductive reasoning to determine the actual guilty party. Plus, it was difficult to realize how many generations of the same family were involved - we should've started with a genealogy chart to stay organized. Subsequently, it's an xlnt kit, hands down, comprehensive & the online additional features are amazing! In hindsight, the real key to the maximum fun & enjoyment, is to determine what kind of event are u hosting? Fun & sociable or serious sluething? It'll take more kits to understand how they rate the difficulty, but we're looking fwd to the discovery process. Ty. 👍

These Cold Case Files always include great clues and special items, but I feel this one was especially ambitious. The components included in the Merivale Manor kit were well written, authentic looking, and filled with tantalizing details, clues, (and red herrings) that captured our attention. I highly recommend this kit. You'll enjoy it!

Excellent! I have done a couple of murder mystery games with my family, but it’s so hard to get everyone together at the same time when everyone is in the mood- it can be a struggle. I decided to try one by myself. I looked at a few different brands, and this particular story stuck out. I loved it being a cold case from the 1920’s, and I couldn’t wait to get started. It says the estimated playing time is about three hours, but as I was playing by myself (while taking a ridiculous amount of notes) during my lunch break at work, in the short amount of time after work and dinner and family time- but before bed, and that short span in the mornings on weekends before everyone else wakes up- I stretched it out over 4 days. This story is so in depth- you really need to familiarize yourself with all the evidence and pay attention! The price for entertainment I received was beyond worth it. If the idea of spending money on a game you only play once bothers anyone, or you feel reluctant, I can honestly say (for me) that I was captivated by the story. When I wasn’t working on it, I was thinking about it- constantly turning clues over in my mind and asking questions. It is SO detailed, you learn so much about every character! Even the size of the game is perfect. It comes in a folder inside a clear evidence bag that fit right into my backpack so I could take it with me to work. There is some online content that is crucial to the story- which I loved, and I absolutely did not expect it to be as in depth as it was. It was very cool with the different mediums that were involved. And solving the murder… You always hear about the rush detectives get when they finally have that, “AH HA!” moment and solve the case, I can truly say that that high is real. When I figured it out, I got stuck for a minute thinking, “no way… omg that’s it!” Once you figure it out they lay out every clue and every alibi so you can see if you missed anything. The difficulty is rated 4/5, and with the amount of information you go through, can confirm. Murder at Merivale Manor was SO FUN, and I can’t wait to try another one by Cryptic Killers, I might get another one right now. 10/10 would recommend.

Our family with grown kids and significant others did this cold case after Christmas this year. We are a diverse group with very different interests and participation levels. In a nutshell, this was a blast. Everyone participated reading through the materials provided and summarizing info to get the important facts. There were photos - very period appropriate taped on the walls and all the materials spread all over the table. The quality was exceptional. Newspaper articles looked authentic. Witness statements, etal were very realistic. It is necessary to logon to get “updated” evidence to be able to solve the mystery. We were able to solve it but it took a full 3 hours and was a fun challenge. The kids asked when we could do another one - always the sign it was good. I would highly recommend to anyone who would find this activity fun. Well worth it.

Classical principle „cross out all other suspects and who is left is the killer”, no additional envelopes, case is linear, and too overwhelmed with texts you need to read, much of which has nothing to do with case

Wow! That was incredible. The story is a slow burn and once you figure it out, damn. We worked out the killer, motive and some of the saucy bits before finishing what the clues described as "key" (we only needed a clue for one section, which we mostly worked out and I was fuming when I realised what I'd missed) Honestly an amazing way to kill a few hours, we did it just me and my partner. The puzzles are hard enough that you feel clever for working it out, but not so difficult that you can't! The actual materials themselves felt amazing, and were well designed. Definitely worth the money and I will be buying more. The only thing I'd say is you don't need to Google anything to try and solve a puzzle, we did and realised we were way off! Everything you need is provided as part of the physical pieces or part of the web link! Highly highly recommend if you're a fan of murder mysteries or puzzles.

Loved this game - my 13 and 15 year old dove right in with me, and we had a blast solving it. High quality "evidence", challenging but not impossible. Highly recommend and will be doing more!

Had great fun doing this with my wife, did feel good value but only being able to do it once is a shame, concept and gameplay is good and easy to use, i would not say it was a challenge to complete you just have to review all the data provided to you.

very tricky but great end would recommend