Murder at the Saracen's Head

I spent last night with my family in a local pub called The Saracen’s Head, indulging in a murder mystery evening with an emphasis on forensic evidence. My son described it as ‘industrial espionage’ on my part, but I prefer to think of it as agreeable research, lubricated by a couple of drinks.

The Saracen’s Head is a rather old pub in Warburton which I last visited years ago, when my daughter had a birthday party there. It claims past associations with Dick Turpin and was a pretty good setting for the event – the mystery was one of a package supplied by an events company called Crimescene Nights.

This particular puzzle involved the sudden death of an actress just before curtain up on the night of a performance of Macbeth. The concept is that each table splits into two teams, one of forensic experts and the other of detectives, investigating separate sets of clues.

Like pub quiz nights (in my experience) this event was rather dragged out to encourage participants to keep returning to the bar. I’m not sure the story-line was quite strong enough to justify two and a half hours, especially as the culprit seemed obvious from her first appearance in the evidence files (though admittedly the team whose answers we marked concluded that the victim committed suicide, which definitely made me gape.) But it was a fun way to pass Friday night. And no, my team didn’t win!