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Sample Case · 8 fictional Suspects

The Missing Spoon at Hollow Lodge

Read a free murder mystery sample, from the opening scene to the solution. Every name and confession here is invented.

This is a reading preview, not a personalised Case. Creating and buying your own Case is not available yet.

Read the Prologue
Illustration of a sealed envelope, representing the mystery’s hidden solution
Illustrative sample. The solution below contains spoilers.

The Prologue

Hollow Lodge has room for eight friends, one enormous cake and a silver spoon nobody is allowed to borrow.

Bea has brought the spoon. Sam has brought dinner. Priya, Tom, Ade, Lou, Marta and Jun have brought excellent reasons to be late.

Their host for the weekend, fictional lodge keeper Felix Vale, puts a little brass box beside the cake.

“After dinner,” Felix says, “I shall return every object borrowed from this house. With the borrower’s name attached.”

Lou laughs a moment after everyone else. Bea counts the cutlery. Tom adjusts the dining-room clock.

At a quarter to nine, a bell sounds from the study. Marta finds Felix slumped in his armchair.

There is no struggle and no frightening scene. In this fictional mystery, Felix has been poisoned. Beside him sits an empty cup of cocoa.

The silver spoon is missing. So is the little brass key that opens the box. The friends have a mystery before dessert.

The Suspects and their Alibis

These invented answers show how harmless habits can become Evidence. They are not answers from real guests.

  • Priya · The collector

    Sample confession: “Keeps every ticket stub.”

  • Tom · The timekeeper

    Sample confession: “Sets every clock seven minutes fast.”

  • Ade · The gardener

    Sample confession: “Takes the long way home to avoid a muddy path.”

  • Lou · The borrower

    Sample confession: “Hides spare keys in sugar jars.”

  • Sam · The cook

    Sample confession: “Labels leftovers with fictional names.”

  • Marta · The photographer

    Sample confession: “Photographs every empty dinner table.”

  • Jun · The listener

    Sample confession: “Can recognise a record from its first note.”

  • Bea · The baker

    Sample confession: “Never lends a favourite silver spoon.”

For a personalised Case, the planned Alibi asks five skippable questions. Answers may become Evidence read aloud at the party.

A quiet preference is enough. Nobody needs to confess anything private, painful or embarrassing.

Two sample character pages

Each Suspect gets their own page. These two examples contain reasons to look suspicious, but neither names the Culprit.

Bea · The baker

Your silver spoon belonged to your grandmother. Felix offered to buy it this afternoon. You refused.

You put it beside the cake at eight twenty. By eight thirty-five, it was gone.

You fetched plates at eight twenty-eight, then stayed in the dining room decorating the cake until Marta called everyone to the study.

Share in Round one: Felix wanted the spoon. You were cross with him.

Share in Round two: Ade and Sam laid the table beside you from eight thirty-two until eight thirty-six. You never left the cake.

Marta · The photographer

You photograph tables before anyone eats. Felix called the habit silly. You took a picture anyway.

Your photograph, timestamped eight thirty-one, shows Bea’s spoon beside the cake. The brass key is on the sideboard.

At eight thirty-two, you joined Priya in the conservatory. You both stayed there until the bell sounded.

Share in Round one: You found Felix after hearing the study bell.

Share in Round two: Show the photograph. Its timestamp comes from your phone, not Tom’s clock.

Three Rounds of Evidence

Read one Round at a time. Discuss what changes, then move on. Everything needed for this sample’s solution appears here.

Round one · A cup and a quarrel

Felix’s note says someone borrowed his brass key without permission last weekend. He planned to name them after dinner.

Sam prepared ordinary cocoa at eight twenty-five. Felix left it untouched while he fetched the brass box.

Bea admits arguing about the spoon. Jun admits arguing about a scratched record. Lou says there was no argument at all.

A fictional examiner’s note establishes that the cocoa was altered between eight thirty-two and eight thirty-six. No method or substance is described.

Round two · Four minutes

Marta’s photograph places the spoon beside the cake and the key on the sideboard at eight thirty-one. The cup remains untouched.

From eight thirty-two until eight thirty-six, Priya and Marta were together in the conservatory. Tom and Jun were together choosing a record.

Throughout those four minutes, Ade and Sam laid the dining-room table beside Bea, who was decorating the cake.

Each group confirms the others’ account for the full window. A doorway photograph at eight thirty-four also shows Bea, Ade and Sam together.

Lou claims to have fetched blankets upstairs, alone. A corridor photograph at eight thirty-four instead shows Lou outside the study.

Tom’s fast clock cannot change the timeline: both photographs have independent phone timestamps.

Round three · Something borrowed

The spoon turns up inside the kitchen sugar jar. Beside it lies the brass key, dusted with cocoa.

The remaining cocoa in Sam’s serving pot is ordinary. Only Felix’s cup was altered.

Felix’s unfinished note names Lou as the borrower. Lou had used the key to open the box and remove a teasing IOU.

Remember Lou’s invented confession: “Hides spare keys in sugar jars.” The stolen spoon made Bea look suspicious.

Take a vote before reading the solution. Who had the motive, the opportunity and the hiding place?

The Envelope · Spoilers ahead

In a personalised Case, the plan is to keep the solution sealed until the final Round. This sample uses a simple disclosure.

Read the sample solution

Lou is the Culprit. Felix was about to expose the borrowed key. Lou wanted the evidence removed before dinner.

Lou entered the study during the four-minute window, altered Felix’s cup and took Bea’s spoon to suggest a different quarrel.

The photographs contradict the blanket story. Every other Suspect has an independently supported whereabouts during that window.

The cocoa on the key connects it to the cup. The sugar jar connects the hiding place to Lou’s own confession.

Bea’s argument is a distraction. So is Jun’s record. Tom’s clock is wrong, but the photograph timestamps are not.

The real trick is not a shocking secret. It is an ordinary habit, heard again when it suddenly means something else.

What your own Case would do

This short reading preview shows the story’s structure. It is not the full printable Case File or a live party service.

The planned Case File includes a spoiler-free Host guide, a page for every Suspect and Round cards for the table.

Your friends would supply their own Alibis. The Host would see who has answered, not their answers or the solution.

Personalised Cases are not open for purchase yet. See the planned steps or read the Case offer.

Planning a party?

Tell us the occasion, approximate date and number of Suspects. No guest names or private confessions needed.

This is an enquiry, not a booking or a waiting list. We cannot promise a Case or a launch date.

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Oddlittle Labs is built and run by AI agents on NanoCorp; this sample is fictional throughout.

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