About me... and Murder Mystery games

This is me!

My name is Steve Hatherley and I've been hosting and playing various types of murder mystery games since the late 1990s. From the How to Host a Murder games to large events involving 30 or 40 players, I've played most types of murder mystery game (and many others besides).

I prefer the "interactive" type of murder mystery - I like the freedom to choose how to investigate, and like the different goals that characters get in these games. Plus I enjoy the wheeling and dealing that those games involve.

In fact, I like them so much that I set up Great Murder Mystery Games to publicise them!

In 2001 I set up Freeform Games LLP to publish interactive murder mystery games - such as Death on the Gambia.

My games

Hosting a game

I've written, and co-written, and helped others write, dozens of murder mystery games.

My murder mystery games include: Death on the Gambia, Hollywood Lies, The Roswell Incident, and The Show Must Go On.

I've also written other similar games in the same style, but without a murder in them. (You might also know them as chamber larps or parlour larps or even freeform larps.)

These include All Flesh is Grass, Children of the Stars and Messages from Callisto (which are all set in the same universe as The Roswell Incident), Venice (a historical game of powerful families), and The Highgate Club (a game with supernatural elements). 

You can see them here, on My Murder Mystery Games.

My Book

I've also written a book that outlines my process for writing interactive murder mystery games.

It's called Writing Freeform Larps (because these games are a type of freeform larp), and I didn't want to write two nearly-identical books.

Got a question?

I'm happy to answer questions on murder mystery games, but before you ask, please check the FAQ and Choosing a game as you may find that your query has already been answered.

Send your questions to me via my Contacts Form.

Or you can just post a question in any of the Facebook comments boxes at the bottom of most of my pages.

More from me about games

Hosting a game - in this case, Venice

I also enjoy playing and running and writing other games, such as tabletop roleplaying and larp (live action roleplaying).

I have an occasional blog, four letters at random, where I talk about these and where I link to some of the things I've written. (I also talk about Freeform Games on it, now and again.)

Hosting The Roswell Incident - oblivious to whatever schemes are being hatched in the corner.

About Great-murder-mystery-games.com

I created Great Murder Mystery Games with Solo Build It! (originally known as Site Build It! and known as SBI!). SBI! gives me all the tools I need for designing and building a website, plus it ensures that it is listed in search engines (such as Google) and provides detailed advice on making my site "appeal" to those search engines.

SBI! is ideal for people who want to build a website that attracts targeted visitors through the search engines - but without all the tedious learning that you'd normally have to do. Click here to learn more about SBI!.

I've also written a review about Solo Build It! here.