$49.95
Add intrigue to your next party with this murder mystery game, set at a Mardi Gras party in New Orleans.
The guests play a mixed group of characters who have been invited to a Mardi Gras masquerade hosted by Marshall Inglewood, the Governor of Louisiana. The party will be held at the governor’s posh New Orleans mansion. Everyone is expecting an elegant evening with hor d’oeuvres, drinks, and dancing, but as it turns out, something mysterious is afoot!
This mystery is divided into two primary segments. During the first portion of the evening (Act One), the partygoers will have the opportunity to eat, drink and mingle at the governor’s mansion.
At the midpoint of the evening, a blackout occurs, and one of the players makes a terrible discovery: someone has been murdered in the middle of the party!
Act Two will begin with the grisly discovery of the victim’s body. In the area around the body, there are clues that point to what must have occurred prior to the death. It will now be up to the guests to figure out what happened.
There are 25 primary suspects in this game,however only 9 are required to play the game. The host or hostess will play the role of Tony Cour, the Head Caterer. Read the "How To Play" section for more information on how to play an expanded game with more than 25 guests.
* = Optional character
Mardi Gras, Masks, Murder! is a 155-page downloadable PDF file that you print at home. It includes the following features:
With your purchase of Mardi Gras, Masks, Murder!, you will also receive the following:
Follow these steps to host this mystery:
If you have extra players, there are two ways that you can accommodate everyone:
Both the standard and expanded games are included with the purchase of any game kit.
Read more about Expanded Games here
Visit our How to Host a Mystery Party page to get step-by-step instructions on how to prepare for your murder mystery party.
Content Rating:
This party is rated adult. While there is no explicit material, the party does contain references to the following:
Difficulty:
This party is moderately complex to set up. We recommend a venue with at least two rooms and a sufficient area to hide clues for the scavenger hunt.
This party is difficult; the solution involves multiple steps, and may not be intuitively obvious to most players.
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Bill Benson –
Headline First Time Success!
Nickname Bill Benson
We did the Mardi Gras Murder with our church young adult group and they had a great time. It was simplistic, but we know see how we can expand it for next time. We learned a lot about the process while working everything, but even with our inexperience, it went very well. We are looking for the next murder mystery event to be even better! thanks!
Bayder –
Headline Magic fun evening
Nickname Bayder
Menu Highlights All famous New Orleans food - the gumbo and southern fried chicken were excellent!!!
Theme Highlights Lots of beads, masks and lighting
We did this for my mums 80th birthday as she only wanted a small family dinner for her birthday and it was fabulous. She and everyone had so much fun and it will be highly memorable for years to come. Would have helped to have a few more characters – we only had 11 – but it worked fine. Best dinner ever!!!
KAK –
Headline Great fun for everyone
Nickname KAK
It was great fun. The only thing we didn’t really like was the people who weren’t main characters felt like their roles were pointless and they felt lost during the game BUT they were good sports and played along anyways. Due to Covid we had to do it outside and so we just did desserts but it will still great fun.
DebRas –
Headline Who knew we had so many actors in the family.
Nickname DebRas
Menu Highlights Shrimp, Crawfish, hushpuppies, corn, potatoes all buffet style. Open bar. And of course King Cake for dessert.
Theme Highlights I have lots of mardi gras decorations anyway but put out tons of beads also. Everyone got beads with their name tag. Used the music and invitations provided in the "kit".
Had 15 guests age 24 to 78 and we had a great time. The party went better than I thought and everyone participated more than I thought they would. It really was funny and creative. It was my birthday party and I wanted to do something different – this hit the spot.
Sarah –
Headline Fabulous time was had by all
Nickname Sarah
Menu Highlights Cajun Chicken Alfredo and Hurricanes
Theme Highlights Had mardi gras beads on the tables along with extra masks in case anyone forgot one. had a photo area with fun props as well
I held Mardi Gras, Masks, Murder for a birthday party and had a blast! Everyone came ready to party and had fun dressing up and being the different characters.
chel13 –
Headline Mardi Gras Masks Murder Party
Nickname chel13
Menu Highlights Shrimp broil, chicken and sausage gumbo and lots of appetizers and deserts
Theme Highlights We decorated the house with Mardi Gras decorations
For my birthday which was the day after Mardi Gras, we held the Mardi Gras Masks Murder party with some of my closest friends and family. We had so much fun and it was such a hit! It was great to see all my friends come dressed up and in character for this event. I definitely recommend this and me and my friends are going to through another party like this again!
Mardi Gras Masks Murder –
Headline Murder Mystery Party Crawfish Boil
Nickname Mardi Gras Masks Murder
Menu Highlights Crawfish Boil with shrimp, sausage, potatoes, corn, and lots of good sauces!
Theme Highlights Bought fun Mardi Gras paper lanterns, masks in case people didn’t have good costumes and Mardi Gras beads. Didn’t send paper invitations but people were fine with the email invites! Definitely make sure you print people’s roles out for them though! They liked having the reference at the party itself.
What great fun! Everyone absolutely loved the event. We did a crawfish boil Murder Mystery. Lucky enough to have friends who totally committed to their roles and being in costume was such a hit! Dinner gave everyone time to socialize and get to know their parts a little better, definitely critical for adding to the overall ambiance. I even put the “Governor” on the spot to give a surprise toast!
Lynelle –
Headline Fun Family Bonding
Nickname Lynelle
Menu Highlights King Cake Shrimp Gumbo Crab Cakes Hurricanes!
Theme Highlights Lots of props and masks. Jazz music
It was a family event with 11 participants from the ages of 16-55. Everyone had a great time and the details and characters were great. Some of the feedback I did get was that the female characters (aside from Voodoo Queen and Sarah) could have been a little more exciting. Also, our family has done other murder mysteries before where different characters had different objectives. The objective here just seemed to solve the mystery. Overall great time!
Betsy –
Headline success
Nickname Betsy
Menu Highlights Newk’s catered the event
Theme Highlights rented tables and table cloths
We had our Mardi Gras Masks and Murder! Party last night- it went amazingly well to have such a large crowd! I ended up having to write an extra 22 characters into the story, which was an undertaking, but i piggy backed characters onto main characters story line and that worked well. That being said, we used Newk’s to cater and rented the tables and linen- the photo back drop we found on Amazon and the columns on Shindigz.com. At the end of the larty i gave out various awards and all in all a huge success!
Linda L. –
Headline Ready to try another one!
Nickname Linda L.
Love, love, love this! This was my first murder mystery party and it turned out great. I manage a condo association and threw this party for the residents. I had approx. 60 people attend and the roles were spoken for quickly the other people played roles of guests at the party. The decorations were awesome and most people came dressed for their part. I had a movie projector playing a mardi gras parade in the hall prior to entry to “The Governor’s Mansion and a lightning machine on the windows when the blackout occured! I asked everyone to bring appetizers to share to cut down on my kitchen time and had the wait staff serve some of these throughout the evening.
Mardi Gras Murder at Marshall’s Mansion –
Headline Mardi Gras Murder at Marshall's Mansion
Nickname Mardi Gras Murder at Marshall's Mansion
Menu Highlights I approached another group I am involved with to be our caterers. They were thrilled to be asked to prepare a Cajun meal rather than the normal comfort foods they are used to making. We had jambalaya, gumbo and mimosa to drink.
We had our Marti Gras party last night, and it was exceptionally fun.
People were really in the mood and came dressed I costume and were prepared to play their roles. I was Sarah The Bouncer, but people assumed I was a hooker with my skimpy clothes and because I was overly made up. One man offered me $0.50 but I wouldn’t go for less than a dollar.
At our dinner table, Rene flirted with the preacher’s wife and was told in no uncertain terms to back off.
When one table went up to the buffet a woman left her oversized rings and bracelets at her place. A thief came over and stole her jewelry. She was upset at first, and told me about the loss. I just shrugged my shoulders and she realized it was part of the play. So she approached the sheriff, and he looked into it.
After dinner, the caterers had a brawl outside the door, knocking on the walls and roaring at each other. Eventually, they threw in the body, which was pillows and towels dressed in a suit. I screamed, we all ran to the body, and then it was bedlam.
Now people were standing up, accusing each other, calling each other names and giving their alibis. This lasted for awhile.
Now, we did not do this according to the instructions. Governor Marshall Inglewood was not present at our party. Since we were in his mansion, we often wondered aloud why he was not there.
The way we found who was the murderer, was that the sheriff drew a name from a hat.
PsychTeacher –
Headline Murder in Psychology Class
Nickname PsychTeacher
I purchased this Murder Mystery game for my High School Psychology class. We used it for our Research Methods review and it was a major hit. My students and I both loved it. I’ve never had such engagement from EVERY student. It was a fun theme and easy to follow game. I can’t wait to do another one!
Cortney –
Headline Such a good time, would recommend.
Nickname Cortney
We had an event with some friends over dinner, and it was so much fun! It was great to see everyone get into character and we’re definitely hoping to do another this year!!
1st time murder mystery host –
Headline SO. MUCH. FUN.
Nickname 1st time murder mystery host
Menu Highlights Shrimp and grits, chicken and waffles, hot crab dip, mini muffuletta sandwiches, Hurricanes and bourbon tasting to drink!
We had the best time with our murder mystery party! It was the first time we had participate a murder mystery, and none of our guest had ever done one before either. It took some prep, but I loved every part of the planning and party process, and this kit helped so much! We will be hosting an annual Playing with Murder party now!
murder_hostest –
Headline Pretty fun!
Nickname murder_hostest
Menu Highlights Just a bunch of frozen appetizers from trader joe's. And lots of drinks - dark and stormys.
Theme Highlights Mardi gras beads, masks, string lights, balloon arch in purple, yellow, green
My first time hosting a murder mystery party, and it went well! This was for a group of graduate students (23-30), it was a great way to get to know our classmates instead of the typical icebreakers or house parties. I had three friends help and we all played the role of Tony (the host) since we had 24 people attending. It was helpful to have the four of us all “in” on the story to help with questions from the guests and setting the scene.
The instructions could be clearer and took some time to read through and understand what we needed to do during the party, particularly during the murder scene.
Make sure you assign the key roles to people you know can pull it off. The scavenger hunt was too easy for our guests but we had a fairly small space. I was nervous everyone knew who the murderer was too quickly but we were lucky that our guests all got into their characters and really elaborated on their talking points which created more complexity.
CJClass –
Headline Fun night at the library!!
Nickname CJClass
We hosted this party at the library on Valentine’s Day, it was a lot of fun. There were 22 people who participated. This packet was really easy to use and it’s great that it includes the sound bites they help create an even more immersive experience. I will definitely be using these packages for more events.
Michelle –
Headline Amazing
Nickname Michelle
Menu Highlights We served chicken gumbo with red beans and rice
Theme Highlights Candles, feathers and masks
Our party was amazing! Everyone had so much fun and wants to do it again. The script and rules were very easy to follow.
Mebike –
Headline So much fun!!!!!
Nickname Mebike
We hosted this as a dinner party for some friends! It was amazing. Everyone had so much fun and wants to do it again!!
The Revolution Group parties –
Headline Fun, fun, fun
Nickname The Revolution Group parties
Menu Highlights We made Hurricane jello shots n cocktails. Big hit.
We did the Murder Mystery Mardi Gras, Masks & Murder. It was alot of fun.
We kept flickering the lights to simulate the power outages and everyone was getting into their characters. Definitely want to purchase another murder mystery.
Patti –
Headline A million laughs and a memorable night!
Nickname Patti
Menu Highlights Beer cheese dip with andouille sausage, clam chowder, oven roasted shrimp, jambalaya and a purple Mardi Gras punch.
Theme Highlights I decorated with the typical Mardi Gras colors, including table coverings, center pieces, and chocolates with gold, green and purple wrappers (peanut butter cups, Andes Mints and Hershey kisses. I shopped a lot of the clearance sections of Hobby Lobby, Michaels and TJ Maxx. I made most of the clues as described in the game from items from the Dollar Tree and craft stores for a very minimal cost. Having real clues to search for added to the excitement of the game. Searching at your local 2nd hand stores may help, too!
This party was part of an annual get away with family. We had age ranges from 10-82. It was a hit! Everyone got into their characters, dressed up and enjoyed the whole event! There were 21 of us so we could have used a bigger space, but we made it work. The whole game was easy to follow, even for the younger kids. Being the facilitator, you really need to read the instructions carefully and often! We will definitely do another party again next year.
Christine Dickenson –
Headline Mardi Gras Celebration
Nickname Christine Dickenson
Menu Highlights • Shrimp Etouffe, Creole Jambalaya, Cajun Cornbread, Gumbo, Large Fresh Garden Salad, Chicken Creole Deviled Egg, Spicy Crab Dip, Fried Dill Pickles, Crab Cakes, two King Cakes and Hurricanes
Theme Highlights Spray painted wine bottles with gold glitter paint and hot blued mardi gras sequined masks to them - added beads around the top and filled with mardi gras sprigs
We just hosted a “Mardi Gras, Masks, Murder!” party last night. We had 18 attendees and it was a hit! Everyone got into character and made the evening so enjoyable!
Donna –
Headline Fantastic!! Can’t wait to do another one!
Nickname Donna
I bought the game for a friends 60th birthday party and it was fabulous! We all had a fantastic time! It was so easy to follow and so great getting into character! The guest ranged in ages 22-60 and everyone really enjoyed themselves!!
ARPridge –
Headline A Great Way to Mix up New Years Eve
Nickname ARPridge
We decided to try something new for New Years Eve and did the Mardi Gras Murder Mystery. It was a lot of fun, and everyone had a good time getting into character. (A little alcohol also helps!) It was a fun way to spend the evening, and everyone is already planning what we should do for our next one!
Crystal Castle aka Tony Cour –
Headline Epic!!
Nickname Crystal Castle aka Tony Cour
Menu Highlights Bourbon chicken, dirty and jambalaya rice, catfish nuggets, seafood salad, shrimp Cocktail as an appetizer
Theme Highlights I ordered Mardi Gras themed decor from amazon and party city. See pics
My Mardi Gras Murder Mystery birthday celebration was a hit! Everyone even the skeptics had an amazing time! Hey me if the biggest highlights was the Voodoo Queen Dominique LaBlanche!
AMBRAw –
Headline Fun fun fun
Nickname AMBRAw
Menu Highlights pizza, sandwiches, salmon roll, cheesecake
It was a fantastic party as usual and because we are close to Christmas the majority of the people decided to dress up Christmas style. I love the games of playing with murder, I think I’ve played pretty much all of them. Everybody were super happy during the night and as all the game here it was super easy to understand also for time comer, there were around 8 people that has never played before
Gigi –
Headline Fun
Nickname Gigi
Menu Highlights shrimp cocktail cajun deviled eggs bacon wrapped weenies pinwheels festive brownies masquerade themed cookies and cupcakes
Theme Highlights We decorated in a Mardi Gras theme and I provided masks for everyone.
The party was a hit with our friends and the prep work and characters were fun. The only negative feedback we got, and agreed with, was that the clues were not connecting. They seemed random and putting together the end result with the murderer(s) was difficult, unless you got very deep into a couple of the characters.
Amanda –
Headline Let the Good Times Roll!
Nickname Amanda
Menu Highlights Gumbo, po’boys, red beans and rice, banana cream pie
Theme Highlights Scoured peddlers malls for cheap “artifacts” to place around the “mansion.” Set up candles (real and electric) throughout the space. Turned our family room into the dining hall with a large table to seat 12 guests and had others eat around our kitchen table. Periodically shut the lights off, reminding everyone of the rolling blackouts headed our way. We decorated our front yard with purple, green and yellow streamers and beads to set the tone. He found a thunder sound machine to set up in the front so people knew a storm was coming. We also had a real tarot card reader set up to read peoples tarot cards. THIS was a huge hit!! Everyone loved having their tarot cards read!
We picked this Mardi Gras themed kit for our second murder mystery party. I sent out character information a month in advance and set up a Facebook event to communicate with all the attendees and keep up the excitement and anticipation. We served Gumbo, Debris Po’boys and red beans and rice finished with banana cream pie. We transformed our dining room into the study and even found a desk online for $5 to add to the room. Everyone had a blast!
Lois Cochrane and Judy Heathcoe –
Headline Rene spent his 18th birthday as a Zombie!
Nickname Lois Cochrane and Judy Heathcoe
Menu Highlights We are from New Orleans living in Alabama. We made authentic New Orleans food for our Alabama guests. Including a King Cake imported from New Orleans.
Theme Highlights The decorations were elaborate with pictures of New Orleans all over and Mardi Gras balloons and masks and beads. The jazz music helped a lot.
Video https://youtu.be/8FYS9BaQ9sU
When Rene turned 18, he wanted a party like no other. He wanted a murder mystery party. We are from New Orleans so it was easy to transport our guests back in time to Post Katrina New Orleans. Our friends and family fell into their parts as soon as they put on their masks and the party became more like a play. The well planned theme worked out so well with instructions every step of the way and there was no fumbling even though some things were modified to fit our situation. The whole evening was more fun than folks had had in a while and people are still talking about it. I hope for the opportunity to do it again.
Flyingfrog75 –
Headline Teen boy 16th birthday party.
Nickname Flyingfrog75
Menu Highlights Only cajun thing we had was homemade King cake. The kids arent big on cajun cuisine. We had pretzel brats, sausage dip, fuit, spinach dip and miscelaneous finger foods. Sherbet punch. Misc desserts.
Theme Highlights Decorated house like Mardi Gras, curtains, candles, beads and all.
My son and his friends are in drama. Gave everyone their charaters sheets 2 weeks before. They were all so excited. They came dressed up and in character upon arrival. They stayed in character the whole time, played up all the gossip etc. They really strethed the game out for a few hours because they were so into it! Best birthday ever!!
Flyingfrog75 –
Headline 16th birthday party for son
Nickname Flyingfrog75
Menu Highlights The only cajun item we had was a king cake. The birthday boy requested pretzel brats, beef and sausage dip, potato salad and misc desserts and apps.
Theme Highlights Rearranged living room and brought all 'fancy' chairs, lamps, side tables out to make it seem more nice for the 'ball', since its the governor's mansion. Hung gold, green, purple draperies every where. Lots of tables with cloths, colored paper lanterns, candles and beads. We blacked out windows for out power outage for the murder,kids were running around in the dark with flashlights trying to solve the crime. We used the whole house and outside as the game area, made it much more realistic and fun!
This was my son’s 16th birthday party. He and his friends are in drama and had a field day with this. I let the kids pick their characters a few weeks before the party. I gave everyine their character info and act 1 sheets 2 weeks before so they could prepare. All kids came dressed and ready as their characters. It took about 4.5 hours to complete because they were having so much fun with all the side objectives and gossip. This was such a sucess that now the drama booster club wants me to host another as a fund raiser. I highly recommend this mystery. We’ll be trying another soon.