News and photos

Issue No 7: 15 June 2001

• We have redone all of our mystery dinner party kits so that they are now half the size. Gone are those bulky pages with lots of white space cluttering up the dinner table and all that time spent at the printer. Instead, now you have to cut the pages in half, but the result is neat little clue booklets that look great. And the kits take half the time to print!
• We have also redone the host's guide so it is more informative and we have added graphics to the invitations.
• We have redone our web site so it has a completely new look and we have put our kits in categories to make it easier for you to find what you want. The categories are: children's parties, good clean fun parties, naughty but nice parties, gay parties, office parties, large parties and seasonal parties.
• Within the next few days we will be able to take phone orders within the USA via a freecall phone number. We will also still be able to take phone orders via our Australian phone number.

• We have added a "Common Questions" page to answer the questions you may have wanted to ask us.
• We are redoing most of our kits for large groups to be more flexible (eg Murder of the Great Chef for 13 to 21), so that you won't have any trouble if the number that turns up isn't what you expected.
• We are thinking of writing a new baseball mystery called "Death On The Mound". Please let us know if you would be interested in such a kit by sending us a short email to info@merrimysteries.com.

• Our photo competition winners
• Feedback on "The Search For The Truth".

Our photo competition winners

• Kathi Duarte
• Sandy Cogburn Stokes.

A picture from Kathi's "Murder On The Prairie" party of the victim

A lady with a horse and Lulu and Joe

A picture from Sandy's "Murder On The Prairie" party as displayed in a PhotoParade

The squaw and the widow

Feedback on "The Search For The Truth"

"Stephanie,

Sorry for taking so long to let you know how the party went but when I got back the whole Easter thing was thrown my way. I have been a busy little bee.

So, they LOVED it! A few funny things happened that I thought you would like to know. First, one of the kids had his cell phone with him and tried to call the police to report that someone was dead. Luckily, I was right next to him and looked him directly in the eye and said, "Whatever you do, don't use your phone right now. Just trust me on this." I think he got the jest of what was up. Next, the people in the cabin next to the "murder" packed up all their stuff and were ready to leave. They really thought there had just been a murder and an arrest and they had decided they didn't want to stick around. I hadn't even given a thought to the people around us! We had to explain it to them. They thought it was a great idea and the young lady with them was going to have a talk with her youth director about it.

One of the girls there, as soon as she saw the police man in uniform, started in with comments like, "He's not a real pig... I know bacon when I smell it. He's just a faker..." (Did I mention we have a few "street tough" kids in our youth group?) Anyway, the police officer laughed and we had a hard time convincing her that this man in the uniform with the gun and the cop car was a real cop. (When he came over to me I asked him if he wanted to arrest her and he said, "Can I?")

I think I told you we were going to plant evidence and let the kids find it. Well, when we gave them evidence markers and told them to look for clues they went outside and started marking everything from gum wrappers to broken potatoe chips they found. We finally had to tell them to hold off until they saw something they KNEW was a clue. Throughout Saturday we planted the clues... the diary, the letter, the watch, and a couple other things. They did get the idea and started to keep a look out, not ever knowing when something would show up.

My own group, believe it or not, wanted to arrest me. Since our worship leader had quit and I took over her job, they thought perhaps I wanted to run the whole church and take over the other pastor's job too. I told them it was a possibility but if they thought I really wanted that much responsibility they were crazy!!!

Anyway, it went so very well. Thank you for everything you did. It is a weekend these kids will not soon forget!

In Him Always,
Teri"