Cudham Riding Club

From the Publisher's web site:

Homicide, horse-trading and horrid goings-on: a murder mystery in which it's not just the horses that get taken for a ride!

For 14 to 40 guests.

Set in timeless rural England, Cudham Riding Club offers all those taking part the chance to belong to the stirrup set for a few hours. Everyone is given a character, and whether you end up playing a Lord, a Lady, a dustman or a horse meat wholesaler, you will encounter more skulduggery, adultery, coercion and crime than in the entire works of Jilly Cooper, Joanna Trollope and Dick Francis.

Lady Amanda Cudham, founder and chairwoman of the club, has died in tragic and mysterious circumstances. Our plot unfolds during a meeting of the club, where members decide who should replace Amanda as chairwoman.

Invitations are sent out in advance, so everyone knows which character they are playing and understands some of the background. The plot is usually run over a meal and, as well as solving the murder, characters are given other objectives to achieve. Some, for instance, want to become the next chairwoman. Some have guilty secrets to keep hidden. Some have scores to settle. And everyone is keen to get rich, buy and sell a few horses, and place a few bets before the Race of the Season (the Isle of Man Handicap) gets underway.

No knowledge of horses is needed to run or enjoy this plot. How much guests become involved is up to each individual but, in our own experience, even the quiet ones become utterly caught up in the action.

Towards the end, a live commentary of the Isle of Man Handicap is read out and winning bets are paid out. The guest playing Inspector Dawdley then gets everyone into teams and invites each of them to put forward their solution. Finally, Dawdley reads out the correct solution, arrests the murderer and brings a fun-filled, highly entertaining and irresistibly silly occasion to a close.

Word of warning:

The behavior of some of the characters in "Cudham Riding Club" is appalling: they take drugs, they gamble, they cheat on their partners, they kill. As a result, we consider the plot to be suitable only for people aged 15 and over.