Murder and Co is a L.A. based table top murder mystery experienced centered around receiving monthly boxes with specialty gifts and puzzles leading you to solve a murder. These games are season based so while each month you have a task, you will not complete the full story until the sixth box. This company is run by friends, Taylor Stanley, Christian Davidson-Nonner, and Melanie Monroe, who started this as a kickstarter to blend an experience of puzzle solving and subscription gift boxes! I was interested about the structure and decided I had to give it a try so let’s dig in!
Story:
The premise of this six-part mystery follows your good friend, Susan, reaching out to you in need of help. She works for New Cambridge University and uncovered the body of a student who, at first, appeared to have taken her own life but Susan is skeptical. To her, something doesn’t seem right and while her husband and his partner having taking over the case she feels a second pair of eyes couldn’t hurt to investigate. As you dig into the resources sent to you, you realize something is happening underneath what was called an open and shut case and now you must unearth the true story of what happened to Piper Green.
The story for this experience was extremely well done! I love how well characters and story lined up and they fell smoothly into each other. In experiences like these I tend to prefer playing all at once but I feel this is definitely a game you could do monthly without being too lost after taking a break. The variety of materials also further support an unfolding of the story that didn’t feel like exposition - you truly felt you were piecing it together. I would say if you want a story that doesn’t throw you around, Murder and Co’s Snow Angel helps you navigate the waters of a murder mystery quite well.
The story is unearthed through reading interviews, articles, secret notes, and comparing evidence. For the most part it is entirely paper-based so make sure to bring your reading glasses! Having multiple players also helps to divide and conquer.
Puzzles:
A murder mystery inherently requires quite a bit of deduction but there were a few puzzles here and there - mainly cipher based. I thought a few of them were entwined quite well into the story. There was one cipher that I felt needed some work - it appeared to have quite a few typos that led to worrds not coming together, despite us solving the previous word. The puzzle is still solvable (especially if you enjoy deduction) but I didn’t think they wanted us to solve it that way. That said, this was one small blip. I would say come from the deduction and murder mystery and enjoy the light cipher cracking as you piece together your timeline.
The deduction part of the experience becomes more challenging with each box, which I felt was a smart tactic. You will need to keep the other boxes handy as sometimes you’ll find a clue in a new box connected to another with will help you find a proper alibi for a suspect. The answers are not handed to you on a platter - there is no “Stacy has an alibi because she was seen on camera at the club,” rather you find a photo of group of friends at the club and find shoved in a bag a receipt showing she purchased a martini 20 minutes before the crime. The key thing is to read carefully and double check information, for example how far away is the club to the crime scene? Overall, I found the deduction a lot of fun and the ciphers were a good way to create pace in the adventure!
Customer Service:
The customer service is amazing for this company. When I sent an email inquiry about Canadian shipping they replied promptly and investigated the most cost effective ways for me to receive the boxes. They worked with me and I never felt like I was a burden or that I was having to hunt them down for answers. In addition, the hint system is fairly straightforward with password protection and they also provide a backup access to email confirmations in case you prefer not to send emails or are not receiving any. You can simply type in the solution you got from the box and it will open a new page if correct. I ended up having to use this for the sixth box and was grateful to not have to be disappointed waiting for my email reply. Though, the case sensitivity and precise wording took me a few tries!
Conclusion:
Snow Angel by Murder and Co provides a smooth story, great deduction, and some light cipher decryption in a well packaged box experience! The price point is quite high but this comes from receiving gifts like blankets, jewellery, stationary, and more that coincide with aspects of the story. I recommend this kind of experience for someone wanting to treat themselves in their deduction adventure or for a group of friends wanting to split on a multi day adventure (my group played it over the course of two days). I would say this experience falls on the easier difficulty because of its predominant focus on deduction. I definitely would play they games again and highly recommend playing them with a friends for more affordability and to have a partner in sleuth!
Interested in learning more about the company? Check out their website here!