Murder in the Mail: A Bloody Birthday
- jillraymond4
- Sep 20, 2021
- 3 min read
Inspectors' Review:
The paper is divine!
I think someone was murdered here...
The poor birthday cake!
Wait...are you bribing me with treats in order to get me to post with this game????
It is working.
Oh, sparkles!
Boss' Review:
Murder in the Mail: A Bloody Birthday started as a Kickstarter back in 2018 by Felicity Banks. Over the course of eight weeks, you receive a series of envelopes filled with art, letters, postcards, and more from your friends after the death of your cousin Naomi, who was murdered under mysterious circumstances at her birthday party, which you attended. I recently came across this game and ordered from Felicity’s escape room website, Shooting Through. I not only received the original prints of the Kickstarter but also the book version, printed by Obscura Publishing. This review will mainly focus of the original Kickstarter version but I will point out comparisons and my thoughts on both.
The Story:
As the player you are given a role in the narrative. You are Hachi, a fellow artist, eighteen years old, and off on your art fellowship away from all your friends. Before you left, your cousin, Naomi, was killed at her 18th birthday party in which you were in attendance. Your best friend, Drew, has reached out explaining he wants your help in identifying the killer and he is having your friends send you letters with artwork with hopes their retellings of that day can provide the clues you need to identify who killed her. I felt the narrative element was well done. The story was structured, filled with twists and turns, as well as left no loose threads in the ending. You learn quite a bit about each suspect (your friends) and it makes the story feel more real as you learn little things about them. After the end of each mailing you are asked who you think killed Naomi and I like noting how my choice of suspect evolved. The ending was good in providing closure to your adventure.
Puzzles:
In terms of puzzles, there is no puzzles. This is more of a deduction experience. Take time after concluding each mailing to examine leads and suspects before moving into the next mailing. There are quite a few clues hidden throughout that help you discover the killer without the characters telling you. I found some of the clues I didn’t catch on my own, but they didn’t impair my ability to solve the killer on my own and they are addressed in subsequent mailings.
The Company:
In terms of customer service, I mentioned that Felicity was very kind to send not only the game I ordered (the Kickstarter version) but also her book version of the experience, which ended up being pretty helpful. Once I ordered I did send a follow up email and not long after that the game was shipped and arrived in a timely fashion, which was excellent for the way the postal system has been acting during the pandemic. I will note the original version of the game consisted of participants receiving mailings each week while mine was an all in one. The papers were stacked in order but quickly went out of sync once I started looking. The book helped my reorder things, but I wish these would have been divided into a bunch of envelopes with fake stamps to heighten the experience. That said, players who backed it in the beginning likely gained this experience while the book version does divide the mailings using chapter titles of weeks.
The differences between the Kickstarter version and the book version are small. The Kickstarter version has a bit more of a personal touch with handwritten letters but there were some photos that were updated for better quality in the book version. I also found the book version easier to follow and I used it to keep my Kickstarter version organized. The Kickstarter version was $40 AUS while the book is $26 AUS, but keep in mind shipping. I order both her mail experiences (Magic in Mail is to other experience) to legitimize the cost of shipping. I could see there is an opportunity to make this an eBook or pdf to reach more players, though.
Conclusion:
Overall, I found A Bloody Birthday to be an engaging murder mystery that spoke using well developed characters. The medium of letter writing was perfect for this style of storytelling and I enjoyed the mystery solving. This experience took me about 2 hours, and I recommend it for anyone who loves a good murder mystery!
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