Now apparently certain people (okay, me being one of them) had neglected to read the directions carefully (ah, the dangers of skimming) because during the course of round 1, we were being a bit too coy. I, for instance, discovered that my character had made a career of performing black magic for murderous ends – a fact that I figured no sane person would be eager to own up to, right? It wasn’t until midway through the opening round that it began to dawn on me that I was supposed to be ‘fessing up to my dark secrets. When Jen, a.k.a. Enya, began impatiently appending her questions with the less-than-subtle "and I’m asking you directly now," we all got the picture and spilled our secrets readily. The game then moved more smoothly. For awhile, the hilariously ludicrous one-liners, some scripted (my favorite: "his flower ain’t got no power, mon") and others, scarily enough, improvised, provided ample entertainment, but as the evening progressed, our abilities to concentrate began to wane. I can’t speak for the rest of the group, but at some point in the middle of round 3, I just gave up.

By the end of round 4, a full four hours or so had elapsed. At that point, we were all too exhausted to think straight. You know it’s bad when, after having just heard a person confess to a secret rendezvous, you then proceed to accuse the person of hiding the very fact that he has just revealed out-right. In the end, not a single one of us – eight reasonably intelligent people, mind you -- correctly solved the mystery, which turned out to have such a convoluted explanation that even after reading the conclusion, I remained unclear about just who had done what, and why.

the post-bash analysis
The final verdict on the murder mystery party: Fun, yes, particularly the dressing-up portion, but it’s not for everyone. This sort of cheesiness is best reserved for those who know how to revel in it with glee, without any fear of looking like a fool (this, unfortunately, is not one of those traits that I’m lucky enough to possess). And if any of the makers of "How to Host a Murder" are, by some miracle, actually reading this article, might I point out that the game is a tad long? Maybe they should make a "How to Host a Murder" series geared towards the attention-impaired that unfolds the story in, say, half the time. Call it "the Cliffs Notes Guide to How to Host a Murder," or "How to Host a Murder for Dummies" … now there’s a series that might be more up my alley.

o

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