Friday 5 August 2011

Murder Mystery and Thinking on My Feet...

For a few hours I was a potential murder suspect.
No, not in reality (if you haven't read my previous post) but as a suspect in a murder mystery event held on Wednesday evening (3rd) at the writers' club I attend.
It was not our usual writing related activities as August is the holiday month for many, so we have a fun social event for the members that are still available.

This year it was decided to do something different, and it was certainly different...

I'd volunteered to be one of the eight suspects- it gave me an excuse to dress up and put on full make-up (honestly you wouldn't want to see what my computer screen faces each day).

My character Florence was a former eye make-up model, so I concentrated on the eye liner, shadow and mascara. Honestly it looked good at the start of the evening but it was very hot in the room even with the windows open, so it smudged later...

My character's husband Donald- related to the victim- was also there.

The murder was set in the late 1930's and I actually had an outfit that would have been ideal, but it was too thick for the weather, so I opted for a long sleeveless maxi dress and one of my numerous wraps to give a general impression of an evening outfit.

suspect,dress,shawl,glasses
'Florence' relaxes

As we went along we were each given information- some that had to be revealed during the round, and other information about our own character that it was important not to reveal.
Then it was up to us, act and react...

By the end not only had at least half of the audience been convinced that Florence and Donald were the murderers, even I thought I was guilty! It had to be the revelation about the acrobatics...

But as it turns out, although I did make an attempt the plan hadn't been thought out enough and I gave up.

When the murderer was revealed there was only one person who'd guessed correctly, blogger Keith of  Dream it, then do it.

From a writing viewpoint it just confirmed that I should never be a crime writer...

6 comments:

Helen Baggott said...

Sounds like a really good evening. Florence has a guilty ring to her!

Patsy said...

Sounds like fun!

Keith Havers said...

I can confirm that Carol really did look the part. As I understand it, the cast were given their characters a few weeks ago but were only given the scenario at the last minute and had to improvise a lot.
I have to confess that it was pure luck that I guessed the murderer. I got the right guy but the wrong method and the wrong reasons. With the luck I'm having this week I'm off to buy a lottery ticket.

Rosemary Gemmell said...

Sounds great fun and'Florence' looks fab! Well done to Keith.

Carolb said...

Baggy I went for the let everyone else make the accusations and keep quiet except for revealing incriminating information as needed- I think they may have helped me seem guilty. :-)

It was great fun Patsy and I'd willingly do it again.

Thanks, and good luck on the lottery Keith!
We had a basic character profile of our fellow suspects and everything else was given to us as we went along so it was improvisation the whole evening.

Thank you Rosemary.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you enjoyed your evening. I wish I could have joined in, it sounds like fun.

I've chosen your blog to give the Liebster award to.