It was a Saturday in November. Twelve guests. A converted dining room. Candles because the ambience mattered and also because the overhead bulb had blown.
The murderer was supposed to be revealed over dessert. Instead, a guest — a retired secondary school teacher named Margaret — had deduced the killer, the weapon, and the motive before the main course arrived. She'd found a prop letter I'd left tucked under a side plate and cross-referenced it with a throwaway line in the character brief I'd handed out at the door.
I was furious. Then I was delighted. Then I was furious again. Then I spent three hours after everyone left making notes about what I'd do differently. I typed them up. I saved the file as clue_notes_v1.txt and I've never stopped adding to it.
The problem is there's nowhere to put that file.
There are forums. There are Facebook groups. There are Reddit threads that go cold after three replies. None of them take this seriously. None of them treat the person who hand-writes clue cards at 2 a.m. with the same seriousness as the person who reviews Michelin-starred restaurants or analyses Premier League tactics.
The host who Googles "how to stage a convincing crime scene with a budget of forty quid" at midnight deserves a proper answer. The guest who solved the poisoning before the second course deserves somewhere to brag. The event planner scouting converted warehouses in Birmingham deserves a directory that actually works.
So we're building it.
Clue is a community hub for the obsessives. Event reviews written by people who've actually played them. Hosting guides from hosts who've actually failed and learned. Printable case files you can adapt. A directory of mystery companies, venues, and prop suppliers. And a forum where the conversation doesn't die after 72 hours.
It doesn't exist yet. But you're reading this, which means you already know it should. Add your name to the guest list. We'll let you know when the doors open.
Four rooms.
One obsession.
Event Reviews You Can Actually Trust
Written by players, not press releases. Every review covers the puzzle architecture, the hosting, the props, and whether the murderer was obvious by the entrée. Country houses, speakeasies, converted warehouses — if it's been staged, it'll be here.
The Hosting Manual
Everything from writing your first character brief to managing the guest who ruins the reveal for everyone. Printable templates included.
Printable Case Files
Adaptable crime scene documents, witness statements, and evidence envelopes. Designed to look like they've been pulled from an actual police archive.
The Mystery Company Directory
A searchable register of event companies, prop suppliers, and venues. Filterable by location, budget, and whether they take themselves seriously enough.
The Forum Where the Conversation Doesn't Die
Dedicated boards for hosts, guests, and planners. Alibi breakdowns, red herring debates, prop photography, event post-mortems. The thing that should have existed in 2008 and somehow doesn't.
The people who already know
this should exist.
"I've hosted forty-three dinners. I've never once found a forum where I could discuss the structural difference between a closed-room mystery and an open-world one without someone telling me to just buy a box set."
"I solved the poisoning before the second course. The host was furious. I need to find my people."
"I'm an event planner. I've staged three mysteries this year. My Google search history is just crime scene references and 'how to make fake blood that doesn't stain a listed building'."
Add your name
to the guest list.
We'll write when the doors open. No newsletter. No drip sequence. One email. That's the deal.
No spam. No third-party sharing. Your email stays in the case file.