It is Christmas Eve, 1937.
An early heavy snowfall has seen an avalanche in the Zittau Mountains which has halted the Vienna – Prague – Berlin train. Travellers, informed that there will be a probably three day delay (because it is Christmas, meine Damen und Herren!), will be brought to the famed Hotel de Saxe in the village of Bad Bernsdorf, and may count themselves lucky to find themselves in such as renowned establishment, a centre for winter sports and possessed of an excellent chef and a small casino.
They will find some people in residence already – the wealthy and notoriously ruthless American media owner, Chetwyn Glyde, his mistress, the actress Nellie Nolan, and his personal assistant, the saturnine David Olson. Also present is a White Russian aristocrat, Count Vasily Dolgorukov, and a German diplomat, Franz von Essen.
The hotel is run by Frau Gutrun Blauer, with the assistance of her son, Fritzel.
All seems charming and welcoming …
But there are tensions beneath the surface … and murder is in the air.
Murder at Christmas is an online email game that will run over (approximately) the Twelve Days of Christmas – from December 21st 2016 until January 6th 2017. There will be between eight and fifteen writers, working collaboratively (see the Rules of the Game). Regular updates will be posted here, with links that you can follow on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ so that people can follow the story, root for their favourite characters, and keep up with the twists and turns of the plot.
Followers can also apply to join the Gossip mailing list, where they can discuss the game with the writers!
By the end, the aim is to produce something that resembles a Golden Age murder mystery novel. You can see earlier examples from Christmas 2000 (a classic country house mystery) and Christmas 2003 (Death in the Highlands).
The game will start on December 22nd.
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