Lea Turner runs The HoLT, a community of 500+ small business owners and solopreneurs. Members across the UK, Europe, North America and beyond. She wanted something social for her members. Something with a bit more to it than a quiz night. She got in touch about running a murder mystery.
What we built
We ran The Ashworth Inheritance. Fully interactive virtual murder mystery. 65 people on Zoom from multiple continents, split into eight investigation teams.
Three actors played the suspects live on camera. Each team interrogated them, examined evidence through our web platform, broke cyphers, cross-referenced statements and pieced together what happened.
Nobody had to act. Nobody had to read a script. You just had to pay attention and argue with your team about who was lying.
65 people. Multiple continents. One murder to solve.
65 people who weren’t sure what to expect
Most of them had never done anything like this. In the weeks before, “I’m Braving” graphics started appearing across LinkedIn and The HoLT’s community channels. Members sharing that they’d signed up. That word kept coming back. Braving.
The “I’m Braving” graphics that appeared across LinkedIn in the weeks before.
By the time it started, the nervous energy was real. Two hours later, nobody wanted to leave.
“I’d been in training all day. I was in two minds about whether or not to give up my evening when I’d had such a cognitively busy day but I’m SO GLAD I did. The wonderfully funny, chaotic buzz. Loved it.”
— Emma Cowsill, ADHD + Systems Coach“My first time with a murder mystery and it was so much fun. I’m still buzzing. Can’t wait for the next event.”
— Lisa McLachlan, Copy & Communications“I’d had a really tough day and wasn’t sure I felt like coming along still. It was the perfect thing to distract me and help me unwind.”
— Penny Allard, The Wild BookkeeperThen the database went down
Towards the end of the event, our database provider went down. Unannounced maintenance following a drone strike in the Middle East caused cascading failures across their infrastructure. No warning. The platform that runs the evidence, voting and team chat disappeared mid-event.
We improvised. Brought everyone back into the main room. Got theories in the chat. Ran the final sequence live with the actors performing their closing statements to the whole group.
Different to what we planned. Still worked.
“Even when tech problems occurred, which were not Adam’s fault and unavoidable, Adam handled it like a pro, and the experience was still unbelievably good.”
— Lea Turner, Founder of The HoLTThe depth caught people off guard
This is the bit we care about. The reactions weren’t just “that was fun.” People were genuinely taken aback by how much was in it.
“I didn’t actually believe how in-depth it was. I think our whole team was in shock at the depth of info. It was unreal.”
— Rebecca Watson, Brand Design Specialist“It was such a well thought out and engaging event. I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
— Helen Queen, Queen Accountancy“I woke up dreaming of murder, and clues.”
— Kirsty St JohnOne person had actual police intelligence experience. She worked out who did it early on and kept quiet. Her teammates only found out afterwards.
“You KNEW? You knew and said nothing to the group?? Actual police intelligence experience and kept quiet. Best Tuesday I’ve had in months.”
— Sarra RichmondThe actors
The suspects were played by professional actors live on camera. Every team got to interrogate them directly. Ask whatever they wanted. No scripts. No pre-set answers. The actors just stayed in character and dealt with whatever got thrown at them.
“I can’t believe Jay Blake isn’t even a full time actor. Unreal performance.”
— Rebecca Watson, Brand Design SpecialistLea’s take on Jay: “He was by far the most convincing. Think he missed out on a career in soaps.”
What Lea said afterwards
“Adam ran an INCREDIBLE murder mystery for 65 of my community members and although we were all unsure what to expect, we got SO into it. The level of detail was insane, the actors were convincing, and we all had so much fun pouring over evidence, cross comparing, breaking cyphers and interrogating suspects. Everyone’s been buzzing about it ever since. I would HIGHLY recommend Adam and Cinderella Events to all communities and companies looking for a fun team building or social activity. We will definitely be hosting another with them.”
— Lea Turner, Founder of The HoLT