ESL Murder Mystery Game: Mystery at Mr. Grim’s Mansion

Strengths: Entertaining, speaking practice

ESL Level: Intermediate to Advanced

Class Time: 1-2 hours

Update (09/2023): I've updated the character cards and moved this product to Teachers Pay Teachers. Please check it out there. Thanks for your support! - Matthew

Foreword: Planning a murder mystery for your ESL class takes time. Since each student will have a specific role, there is no murder mystery game you can download and prepare 5 minutes before class begins. You'll need to do some serious preparation.

I have done two murder mystery activities with my advanced Junior High ESL class. This was the first one, which I highly recommend: http://www.onestopenglish.com/community/lesson-share/lesson-share-archive/speaking/speaking-murder-in-the-classroom/154250.article

I found it on OneStopEnglish, which requires a membership (you may be able to find it elsewhere). The plot was slightly complex, but my students were able to figure most of it out.

My Mystery: "Mystery at Mr. Grim's Mansion"

Materials for class: Mystery at Mr. Grim's Mansion

The mystery I designed is more complicated and requires more preparation. Honestly, I would do the above one first if you haven't already. I only created this because I could not find any other activities online. It's pretty complicated - maybe too complicated. But if you want to look at my mystery for inspiration, it is below.

Mystery Basic Idea

The twist in this story is that it is not a murder mystery; rather, it is just a mystery. The students are told that Mr. Grim has died, and they must figure out how he died. Naturally, they assume he has been killed (later, in the end, they discover that he had a heart attack after coming across a lost cobra in his house).

The first part of the activity has them question each other in order to get background character information, possible weapons, and motives. The second part requires students to ask each other what rooms they were in (a map is provided) before and after the murder.

The story contains elements of the game Clue (or Cluedo).

Mystery Execution:

1) Assign Character Roles

Distribute character cards + props (wigs, hats, etc.) in the hall. Here are the mystery character cards (11 possible roles):

Name: Wally

1) You are a good friend of Mr. Grim's son, Todd Grim. You often travel together. You are at the mansion because you want to invite Mr. Grim's son to go hunting with you next month in Africa.

2) Items: a cobra— you brought it to give to Todd as a present. The snake has no poison. You also have your hunting knife in your bag.

8:00 pm: you lost the snake, so you were looking for the snake in the billiard room

8:30 pm: you found your snake in the library.

Name: Dr. Watkins

1) You are Mr. Grim's doctor. You came to the party because are very worried about his health. Mr. Grim has a very bad heart. You were worried that he might have a heart attack.

2) Items: You have medicine in your bag.

8:00 pm: [take 8:00 room card]

8:30 pm: [take 8:30 room card]

Name: Morgan Franklin

1) You are Mr. Grim's business partner. Secretly, you hate him. You wish he were dead so you could control the company.

2) Items: your computer and knife for opening envelopes.

8:00 pm: you were still at work. You didn't arrive at the party until 8:30 pm.

8:30 pm: [take 8:30 room card]

Name: Randy

1) You are Mr. Grim's gardener. You are at the mansion because you work and live there. You hate Mr. Grim because he's cheap. He's been paying you the same amount of money since 1960.

2) Items: a chainsaw, bottle of vodka

8:00 pm: [take 8:00 room card]

8:30 pm: [take 8:30 room card]

Name: Todd Grim

1) You are Mr. Grim's son. You are a traveler. You have traveled the world. You recently just came back from a trip to Japan. You are at the mansion because you live there. Your friend named Wally is also visiting the mansion.

2) Items: wasabi, samurai sword

8:00 pm: [take 8:00 room card]

8:30 pm: [take 8:30 room card]

Name: Mercedes Grim

1) You are Mr. Grim's 17-year-old daughter. You are rich. You hate your dad because he doesn't let you do what you want to do. You wanted to go to Paris this summer, but he told you that you had to stay home and study.

2) Items: mirror, lipstick, Justin Beiber CD

8:00 pm: [take 8:00 room card]

8:30 pm: [take 8:30 room card]

Name: Takeshi Fujimoto

1) You are Mr. and Mrs. Grim's personal fitness trainer. You are in very good shape. You have a black belt in karate. You came to the mansion because Mrs. Grim's wife (Wanda) invited you. Secretly, you have been in a romantic relationship with Wanda for a year, but Mr. Grim doesn't know.

2) Items: energy drink, jump rope, comic book

8:00 pm: [take 8:00 room card]

8:30 pm: in the basement (with Wanda)

Name: Wanda Grim

1) You are Mr. Grim's wife. You are rich, but you are not happy with Mr. Grim. He's boring, and you're bored. Secretly, you are in a romantic relationship with your fitness trainer, Takeshi Fujimoto. You like the excitement of having a secret lover.

2) Items: mobile phone, a book about yoga

8:00 pm: [take 8:00 room card]

8:30 pm: in the basement (with Takeshi)

Name: Crabby Kuramoto

1) You are Mr. Grim's neighbour. You have been living beside the Grim family for 60 years. You hate them, especially the daughter who always plays loud music at night. You wish they would leave the town so you could live peacefully.

2) Items: peanuts, tissues, small carrot

8:00 pm: [take 8:00 room card]

8:30 pm: [take 8:30 room card]

Name: Badger

1) You weren’t invited to the party, but you heard music so you walked in off the street. You have heard about how rich Mr. Grim is. You are amazed at all the expensive stuff in his house! You don’t have much money. You are starting to wonder if Mr. Grim would notice if some of his items went missing….

2) Items: chicken wing, dead fly

8:00 pm: in the kitchen, looking at the wine collection

8:30 pm: [take 8:30 room card]

Name: Kelly Kikukoko

1) You have been Mr. Grim’s longtime friend since high school. You've been a quite worried recently about some financial troubles (you lost all your money!). Tonight, you were planning to discuss your money problems with Mr. Grim. Maybe he might have a job available for you?

2) Items: old photograph (from the high school days), a letter from your bank

8:00 pm: [take 8:00 room card]

8:30 pm: [take 8:30 room card]

The necessary characters are Wally (the cobra-bringer), Dr. Watkins (the doctor who tells of Mr. Grim's heart condition), and Todd Grim (the son who was meant to receive the cobra). The rest are optional. Some pairs (e.g. the lovers Wanda Grim and Takeshi Fujimoto) go together.

2) Introduce the setting:

Announce: “You were invited to stay at Mr. Grim's large mansion for the weekend. Many other guests were invited too.

It is now Saturday at 9 pm. Suddenly, the butler, Barton, calls all of you to the living room.”

3) Announcement
(Put on your fake mustache.) "I am the butler. Mr. Grim is dead. I don't know how he died. But I think one of you killed him!
No one is leaving here until we find out who it was! You are all suspects. If you can't find out how he died, then I'll call the police and you are all going to jail! You all knew him someway. Interview each other and find out your names, jobs, what you brought to the party, and how your relationship was with Mr. Grim."

4) Interview

Guests interview each other to get character information. Give them the below sheet so they can write down information about the characters. They only need to fill in the first three columns. The other two columns about time are for later. Each character has the answers to these questions on their character cards (name, and #1 and #2 on the character card). It's important that all the information on the character cards is relayed.

(Interview worksheet provided on TPT.)

5) Distribute the map to each guest (to be used later)

(Map provided on TPT.)

6) Announcement by the butler

“I found the body at 8:15 pm. This was after dinner.”

Step 5a: Distribute room cards to each guest.

These are the "cards" below. Cut them up and put them in an envelope (separating the 8 pm and 8:30 ones). Students who have "Take room card" on their character card should take a room card for the appropriate time.