The game is murder, p.1
The Game Is Murder, page 1
BERKLEY
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Copyright © 2025 by Hazell Ward
Readers Guide © 2025 by Hazell Ward
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Cover design and illustration by Nathan Burton
Book design by Alison Cnockaert, adapted for ebook by Kelly Brennan
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ward, Hazell, author.
Title: The game is murder / Hazell Ward.
Description: New York : Berkley, 2025.
Identifiers: LCCN 2024054749 (print) | LCCN 2024054750 (ebook) | ISBN 9780593952443 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780593952467 (ebook)
Subjects: LCGFT: Detective and mystery fiction. | Novels.
Classification: LCC PR6123.A714 G36 2025 (print) | LCC PR6123.A714 (ebook) | DDC 823/.92--dc23/eng/20241129
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024054749
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024054750
Ebook ISBN 9780593952467
The authorized representative in the EU for product safety and compliance is Penguin Random House Ireland, Morrison Chambers, 32 Nassau Street, Dublin D02 YH68, Ireland. https://eu-contact.penguin.ie.
pid_prh_7.1a_152576549_c0_r0
Contents
Dedication
Epigraph
Preface: The Reader Is Warned
8 Broad Way Schema
Act 1
Chapter 1: A Murder Is Announced
Chapter 2: The Documents in the Case
Chapter 3: The Long Divorce
Chapter 4: The Thirteen Guests
Chapter 5: The Case of the Footloose Doll
Chapter 6: Flowers for the Judge
Chapter 7: Love Lies Bleeding
Act 2
Chapter 8: A Whisper in the Gloom
Chapter 9: The Poisoned Chocolates Case
Chapter 10: The Best-Laid Plans
Chapter 11: The Big Bow Mystery
Obligatory Map of the Crime Scene
Map of Ground Floor
Chapter 12: A Losing Game
Chapter 13: A Question of Proof
Act 3
Chapter 14: A Tragedy at Law
Chapter 15: The Three Taps
Chapter 16: Footsteps in the Dark
Chapter 17: Behind That Curtain
Chapter 18: Clouds of Witness
Chapter 19: Ibn Hakkan Al-Bokhari, Dead in His Labyrinth
Chapter 20: Artists in Crime
Chapter 21: Cards on the Table
Chapter 22: The Hollow Man
Chapter 23: The Casino Murder Case
Chapter 24: Not to Be Taken
Chapter 25: The Clue in the Diary
Chapter 26: The Step on the Stair
Chapter 27: The Ten Teacups
Chapter 28: One, Two, Buckle My Shoe
Chapter 29: The Glass Key
Chapter 30: The Daughter of Time
Chapter 31: The Purloined Letter
Chapter 32: The Corpse in the Car
Chapter 33: A Blunt Instrument
Chapter 34: The Verdict of Twelve
Chapter 35: The Weight of Evidence
Chapter 36: An English Murder
Chapter 37: Ordeal by Innocence
Chapter 38: Anatomy of a Murder
Chapter 39: Curtains
Chapter 40: The Man of Last Resort
Chapter 41: Dead Man‘s Folly
Appendix A: The Responsibilities of the Author and the Reader
Appendix B: The Penalty Clause
Acknowledgments
Readers Guide
Discussion Questions
About the Author
_152576549_
For Carren.
You can’t put a price on the value of a sister.
But if you could, that price would be half a penny.
And you would owe me.
Forever.
I Expect Pratfalls
Even if, heaven forbid, a novel should be based on real people or real events, the story that is captive in the pages of the book is always fictional. Its characters are fictional. Its setting is fictional. Its plot is fictional. It cannot be any other way, since fiction is held to a higher standard of truth than mere life.
Preface
The Reader Is Warned
WARNING: This is not one of those books where you can skip bits. This book requires effort. A lot of effort.
If you are the sort of reader who habitually ignores the Big Paragraphs, or skims over the Descriptive Bits, you might as well put this book down, right now, and get yourself a nice cozy crime novel instead. In here, details matter.
So, if we are going to do this, let’s do it right.
This is how it’s going to be. We will give you all the information you need.
Everything you need to know.
No holds barred.
All the cards on the table.
You can ask us any questions you like. Except, of course, whodunnit? Because that would be cheating. And we don’t like cheating.
This book is about YOU. You are the detective here. It’s up to you to follow the clues.
And why not? Why should we have to do all the work?
So, the question is, are you smart enough?
See, you are nodding yes, but there is a little part of you that is thinking, Probably not.
But hey, it’s only a book, right? So, really, what does it matter?
Wrong! This is life or death. My life. Your death. Or the other way around, maybe. Who knows? My point is, life is serious, isn’t it? So WAKE UP!
Keep your wits about you and pay attention.
OK, so at this point you are thinking, I have no idea what this book is about, and that cozy crime novel idea is sounding mighty tempting. I can understand that. Sometimes we want to take the easy path. I get it—I do. So if you want to go, go. No hard feelings.
Au revoir. Arrivederci. Bye-bye.
If you’re still here—and, of course, you are—it’s Matrix time.
You know what I mean. Red pill or blue pill? Red? Blue? Red? Blue? Red? Blue?
Come on—make your mind up.
You picked red. So predictable.
OK, then. How deep it goes…
Act 1
Guilty!
1
A Murder Is Announced
People that trust themselves a dozen miles from the city, in strange houses, with servants they don’t know, needn’t be surprised if they wake up some morning and find their throats cut.
—Mary Roberts Rinehart, The Circular Staircase
The lights are on at 8 Broad Way. The steps have been swept and the brass door knocker has been polished. For this is an occasion. Walk up the steps and tap lightly upon the door. They are expecting you.
The night has long since drawn in, and there is a biting November wind of the sort that turns the tip of your nose a deep raspberry pink. Your breath mists beneath the portico lamp. Stamp your feet and rub your hands together while you wait. It’s not really cold, but the Georgian town house and the dark London street are reminiscent of a Dickens novel. Be David Copperfield. Hope for the best and make the most of every situation.
Footsteps on a tiled floor. Someone is coming. Get out your invitation. This is it. Good luck.
You are invited to a Murder Mystery Party!
A murder will take place at: [Address] Here
On: [Date and Time] Now
It is 1974. The world is changing. The Summer of Love is over, and a new world order is emerging, brasher, louder and angrier than before. Gone is the old deference to Class and Money. Harold Macmillan’s assertion that the country had never had it so good is long forgotten, and James Callaghan’s Winter of Discontent is coming.
The working classes are on the march.
For the upper classes, things are no longer rosy. In the rarefied atmosphere of the Berkeley Club, gentlemen may cling to the old traditions, as a shipwrecked mariner to a life raft, and in the Georgian town houses of Belgravia, ladies may polish the escutcheons on their family silver and, in muttered tones, invoke the spirit of Enoch Powell as the savior of the Established Order, but the end is coming, and the dukes and earls and baronets all know it.
Even in the aristocratic sanctuary of 8 Broad Way, change is coming. And for one inhabitant, at least, change will be deadly.
RSVP
* Please try to
* Arrive promptly
* Bring booze
* * *
—
Walk up the stairs to the drawing room. It is full of guests. Watch as conversation sputters into silence as you enter, and then, with a polite hiccup, smoothly resumes.
Champagne? Perhaps not. Look around the room. The faded velvet curtains are drawn against the night and look magnificent, though perhaps a year or two past their best. The furniture, too, is old, very old, but it commands the room as though it has grown into the house, as though it were bought new a century ago and has never since moved from its appointed spot.
A chandelier glitters and lamps are lit around the room, casting their warm yellow glow over the guests, dripping them in gold.
Greet the host. He is a little odd, to be sure, but they say that that which in the commoner is merely odd is, in the aristocrat, an interesting eccentricity.
“Welcome.”
—Welcome, welcome.
“My brother and I are so glad you agreed to attend this little party of ours.”
—Our little murder mystery.
“Well, less of a party and more of an experience, so to speak. I see you chose not to indulge in fancy dress for this occasion, and I congratulate you on your perspicacity. Most people, in the circumstances, would have dressed in bell-bottomed jeans and hippie beads. I can assure you that no one in this affair would ever have attired themselves in such a manner. My father’s only concession to the age was a rather unfortunate mustache. In his dress, he remained, thankfully, remarkably conservative. As, of course, did my mother.”
Watch as your host claps his hands to ensure he has the full attention of the room.
“Ladies and gentlemen, tonight we will be examining a real case, one involving our own family—the Verreman Affair, as it is usually referred to in the press. We will shortly review the real evidence and consider the solution as it was presented by the prosecution in a court of law. You have each been assigned a part, and we hope that you will play it with gusto. Tonight, overacting is positively encouraged.
“A man has been accused, and, as you will see, has been, in some manner, convicted. However, this case is one of the most singular cases in legal history, and the court of law he was convicted in was not a criminal one. More on that later.
“I have my own theory about what occurred.”
—Me, too! I have a theory. Oh yes, I do.
“I’m sure we all have theories. But we will not tell you our theories yet! My brother and I will listen to the evidence presented here tonight and contribute what information we can from our own firsthand knowledge of the case, and of the persons involved. In your turn, we hope that you will all regale us with your stories, and whoever plays the Great Detective will reach a definitive conclusion so that we can finally lay this matter to rest.”
—Finally.
“Some of you we have met before. Others are new acquaintances. All are friends here.”
Raise your glass in acknowledgment of the toast.
“For those of you who haven’t yet worked it out, I am David Verreman, and, of course…”
—I’m Daniel. The other brother.
Applaud lightly.
“Thank you. And, of course, the convicted man I spoke of was my father. Tonight, the task of our Great Detective will be to discover not so much whodunnit but whether our father dunnit.”
—I’m the brother no one talks about.
“Ah! The dinner gong.”
—The dirty little secret.
“If you’re all ready, shall we go down to dinner?”
—The one no one talks about…Contracts!
“And, er, yes, I almost forgot. Ladies and gentlemen, you should have received a contract with your invitation. Can I just check you have all signed and dated your contracts, and sent them back? If you have not received a contract, can you raise your hand?”
Did you miss something? Was there something written on the back of that invitation? Better raise your hand.
“Ah. Anyone else? No? Good. There you go. Do take your time reading it. I can always tell dinner to wait.”
—I’m hungry.
Skim through the contract quickly; then sign it.
“Excellent. OK, then. If that is all of them, let’s go down, shall we? I’m starving.”
2
The Documents in the Case
It is not for me to suspect but to detect.
—Anna Katharine Green, The Leavenworth Case
The Contract
The Agreement
1. Reading the testimony that follows this agreement constitutes acceptance of this binding agreement between you, the reader of this document, hereafter known as The Reader, and the author/curator of this document, hereafter known as The Author.
The Document
2. This document constitutes the entire scope of this investigation.
2:1 All information relevant to the investigation must be contained within this document.
2:2 Any solution to this investigation by The Reader and/or The Author must be based exclusively on information contained within this document, and not on any theory unsupported by the evidence within this document.
Withholding of Information
3. The Author must not unreasonably withhold information from The Reader.
3:1 All information should be provided to The Reader in a timely manner.
3:2 If The Author acquires new knowledge relating to the investigation, it must be shared with The Reader as soon as possible.
3:3 It is The Reader’s responsibility to assess the value and weight of information contained within this document. The Author cannot be held responsible for inaccurate conclusions derived from accurate data.
Persons of Interest
4. The Author must inform The Reader of all suspects, witnesses or persons of interest in a timely manner.
4:1 The Author must inform The Reader of any new suspects, witnesses or persons of interest as soon as possible after their discovery.
Solutions and Resolutions
5. In entering into this contract, The Author and/or The Reader undertakes to provide a complete solution to the problem under investigation. Unsolved mysteries are not permitted.
5:1 The solution/resolution at the end of this document must be derived exclusively from the facts, as presented within this document, and be consistent with the behavior and character of the suspect, as described in this document.
5:2 The solution/resolution, when explained, must be logical and must not be reliant upon chance or coincidence or be derived from divine intervention of any kind.
5:3 The culprit must have had clear Means, Motive and Opportunity, and this must be demonstrated by The Author and/or The Reader in their solution.
5:4 When demonstrating their solution, The Author and/or The Reader must explain their deductive process, including:
5:4.1 How they examined and assessed the evidence.
5:4.2 Their preliminary assumptions.
5:4.3 Their investigative and deductive reasoning, with results, including all working theories and rejected theories.
5:4.4 The reasons for the elimination of suspects from suspicion.
5:5 The evidence against the culprit, as identified by The Author and/or The Reader, must be compelling, and all parts of the investigation must be resolved.
5:6 The evidence against the other suspects must be less compelling than the evidence against the identified culprit.
5:7 The motive of the culprit, when demonstrated by The Author and/or The Reader, must be readily understandable, logical and human.
[And if you think that’s confusing, try googling this: “Marx Brothers Sanity Clause.”]
