Shadow Over Westongrove Manor – Murder Mystery Dinner Party Game for 6-8 Players

We've been quarantined for ten months now and were desperate for a game night. I was skeptical about how this would work if we did it virtually but we decided to give it a go. We invited three other couples and dropped off the character books a few days in advance. WE HAD SUCH A BLAST! It took about two hours from beginning to end. It wasn't so complicated that we couldn't do it over zoom. Some of the other ones that we did in person before covid had maps or complicated visual clues. But this one just had "incidents" that you could read out loud, which lent itself perfectly to virtual/remote play. It was hilarious because it seemed like everyone had something to hide and everyone had a motive! Immediately after playing, we all agreed to playing another!

Tons of fun for a family/friends who are willing to just have a good time. Advice from first timers: ask all the other characters about their relationships with one another. Don’t volunteer any “secret” information unless asked about it. You’re not allowed to lie, so good questioning is key to discovering the hidden motives.

This made for a fun dinner party. My only critique is that a few conversation/discussion starter questions would be helpful. It took a while for our group to get going. We did not guess correctly, but that made it more fun! Our group dressed in costumes and assumed some accents — very funny!! Just to help out another host/hostess, our menu was pate, canapés, etc in the living room for the first discussion. We had boeuf bourguignon over garlic toast, roasted asparagus and a simple salad of greens with mustard vinaigrette for dinner and the second discussion. We concluded with chocolate mousse and coffee/after dinner drinks for the final conversation. I used my China and silver since we were “at the Manor”. The mystery took us about 3-3.5 hours, after a slow start. Definitely a fun night and I would buy another mystery from this company. The instructions were clear.

not the best one out there of this brand.

My teenage daughter hosted a dinner for this game with theater kids and they had a blast. They got totally glammed up and ate apps/charcuterie instead of a formal dinner. It was a night to remember because I heard lots of laughter throughout the evening!

This was our first experience with a murder mystery game. We had 6 adults and 2 teenagers (ages 15 and 18). This is a bit of an adult theme, but was not an issue for the teenagers. We played it during Thanksgiving dinner (appetizer, then game play, main course, then game play, dessert, and finished the game). In this game, there is no murder, only attempted murder. The "victim" was played by my husband, with the premise that he had spent the previous evening the hospital due to the poisoning. So he entered the dining room to begin the game in his bath robe. In reality, he was thrilled that his dressing the part of the victim allowed him to wear PJs and a bath robe to Thanksgiving dinner. We had a blast and we did NOT correctly guess the person who tried to poison the victim. When we all got together again at Christmas, you could hear the disappointment when they found out we weren't going to play another murder mystery.

I purchased this item for my teenage daughter. She wanted to have a mystery murder dinner party and this one was perfect. It came with the invitations and bios for each character. It was easy to use and fun for the entire group. If you are thinking of having a murder mystery party, then I would highly recommend buying it.

It was a lot of fun and worth the money. As one reviewer said, it would have been helpful to have a few starter questions for the host to ask. Round 1 got off to a slow start but we ended up getting into the characters, learning to ask the right questions, and watch for others body language and try to catch them in a lie. We did end up guessing correctly, but it could have easily gone the other way.