There’s been a murder!

For Christmas I bought my partner Andy a murder mystery break, which included dinner bed and breakfast at the Ramada Hotel in Grantham, Lincolnshire.

We’ve hosted murder mystery dinner parties at home several times and really enjoyed them but this was a new experience to us. The company putting on the show was ‘Murder 57’.

Grantham is about 90 minutes from Birmingham by car – we’re both Lincolnshire lads originally so we knew where we were going and set off mid-afternoon to allow us some time in the room before heading for dinner.

On arrival at the hotel, we were greeted by a friendly receptionist who provided us with all of the information for the night and the menu for the evening, which we needed to return with our choices within the hour. We were given keys to our room, 1002, a superior double on the second floor. A scissor lift provided disabled access to the floor (unfortunately necessary due to Andy’s bad leg!)

The room was in the eaves of the building and had been recently refurbished – it was very comfortable with two single beds zipped together to make a very generous double. A lovely wet room with a good rain-forest style shower head. Only issue with being in the eaves was I bumped my head a couple of ties when using the table and chairs – but that’s my fault – should be more careful and less drunk!!

Over a glass of wine we chose our meal options – vegetable soup or pork terrine for the appetizer – we both chose terrine. Braised beef or chicken in sauce for main – we had one of each and either chocolate cheesecake or lemon tart for dessert – again we had one of each.

After showering it was time for dinner – we stopped off at the bar on the way and got two glasses of Prosecco to take in with us – unusually it was cheaper by the glass than by the bottle!

Our table, table 10, was central to all the action. Our table companions for the night were a mixed bunch, with a couple who had done several murder mysteries and another couple who were expecting to see a play! Because of this they didn’t really want to get involved with the proceedings which was a shame.

The mystery itself was well played, with a good mix of actors taking the various parts.

The meal was nice enough and fairly well executed for mass catering. Only observation here would be that more potatoes and veg could have been provided – there wasn’t enough to go around – I had just one potato with my main course!

Drinks on the night were pretty reasonable, £24 for a bottle of Rothschild Viognier.

Unfortunately we didn’t manage to solve the murder, perhaps due to there only being a couple of us on the table engaging with the actors.

Nevertheless, it was a really entertaining night and we slept well.

Breakfast this morning was standard hotel buffet – really tasty sausages!

I really enjoyed our stay and we’re looking for another event to attend .