Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Review: How To Create Your Own Murder Mystery Party by Joseph J. Franco

As I was about to embark on writing this semester's murder mystery, I thought it would be good to do some more research into the process of writing and hosting them. There were only two books that I could find on the subject, How To Create Your Own Murder Mystery Party by Joseph J. Franco being one of them. I picked it up over on Amazon for about $12 (with Amazon Prime) and set out for a good read!

Interested in reading up on the subject for yourself? I've prepared a little review and summary of the book to help you determine if this is what you need!

How To Create Your Own Murder Mystery Party by Joseph J. Franco

I came to this book looking for anything I could find on writing murder mystery parties: theater, interactive, turn-based, general tips, what have you. The summary on Amazon talked about being able to write personalized murder mysteries that cater more individually to one's event than the boxed ones ever could. Of course, as an author who works to make the most immersive adventures possible, this immediately caught my eye. Fun times and lots of highlighting ensued.

The first half or so of the book consists of instructions on how to write and host a game of the style that Mr. Franco does himself - an interactive clue-based game. He has allegedly been hosting these games for an upwards of five years - annually at Halloween - and they have all been written by himself. Of course, this means that his experience on the subject that can be covered in the book is limited, but regardless, reading about the clearly successful exploits of another can lead to wonderful new discoveries and additions to one's own work!

Mr. Franco's parties revolve around the guests, as characters, searching his house for clues and puzzles to solve that will allow them to deduce the identity of the murder, the murder weapon, and more. There are lots of cool ideas for puzzles and diagrams of how they can work. These games are much less interaction-based and far more problem-solving and deduction centered. The fun is found in finding and solving the different puzzles as opposed to simply finding information to bring the murderer to justice. The events themselves would be very difficult to reproduce in another location or with another host due to the locations being tied in with the story and characters being written specifically with the intention of them being his guests.

The second half of the book is an inside look into the clues, playthrough, and thoughts behind each step of the mystery. There are five 'sample mysteries' here, as he calls them. Not often is one able to get an inside glimpse into how these games are constructed, so being able to read these is a real treat as it can help a new author to understand how to link together the many intertwined plot points that make up a murder mystery game.

One last teensy problem: there are many grammar and spelling errors that make it quite obvious that this book was self published without any sort of an editor. It can be quite the eyesore and cause a loss of credibility in the murder mysteries they write, but if you don't let that get in the way of your reading experience, though, it's no problem. After all, creativity and innovation aren't mutually inclusive of writing skills! (and I know that every time I host a party of my own, I notice a new typo - oops!)

All in all, I would definitely recommend this book to new and veteran murder mystery authors alike. How To Create Your Own Murder Mystery Party offers a unique inside view on how a murder mystery party works that will help your understanding grow for your own writing. Regardless of whether or not you choose to write one as Mr. Franco does, I have always believed in getting exposure to a variety of related things allows for one to further understand their own craft, and maybe discover new mechanics or means of organization to make their own even better!

Here is another link to the book on Amazon if anyone is interested.

Happy reading!

-Princessofherworld♥

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