A Body Under the Tree
Ashworth Hall, Gloucestershire · Christmas Eve 1952
“The presents are still wrapped and nobody wants to be the one to move them.”
- Players
- 6 to 12 adults, plus the host
- At its best
- 6 to 9 guests
- Runs
- 2 to 3 hours with dinner
- Setting
- Ashworth Hall, Gloucestershire, 1952
- History
- Original fiction
- Suits
- Clever, note-taking tables. Classic whodunnit
- Best for
- Christmas and Christmas in July
- Difficulty
- Easy to moderate
- Acting
- None needed. Short lines to read where the story needs them
- You need
- A TV or laptop, and a phone each
- Delivery
- Instant access. Printable pack included
- The host
- Plays the victim, then runs the inquiry
- Price
- A$39, one payment
- Content
- This story involves family money, poisoning, and old grievances. It does not depict graphic violence.
A country house on Christmas Eve with the family all home, which is the problem rather than the pleasure. The decanter goes round after the others have gone up to change. In the morning there is a death, a house full of relations, and no police able to reach the place until the roads clear.
That is as much as the file will give you. The rest comes out on the night, one piece of evidence at a time, and the room will be well into the evening before the shape of it shows.
What you get
Fully scripted evening
Every act cued, every scene set, your lines where you need them. No prep, no printing, no experience required.
Clues arrive in stages
Evidence and private dossiers drop to your guests' phones as the night unfolds, one act at a time.
You play the victim
Set the table, welcome your guests, then haunt the evening while they work out who wanted you gone.
6 to 12 players
A core cast carries the case, with flexible roles as your table grows. Latecomers can join as observers.
App-hosted
The case runs from any screen in the room. Your TV is the stage, the phones are the wings.
Ashworth Hall and everyone in it are invented. This is original fiction, written in the shape of a 1950s country-house Christmas.
Unlike our eight Case Files, which reopen real cases with real inquests, this file is invented from end to end. There is no historical verdict to look up and nothing to spoil by reading around it. The solution is fair, the evidence is all in the room, and your table settles it.
Want a real one? The eight Case Files are genuine historical cases, with real inquests and verdicts still argued over.
Take it to trial.
This case can end at the reveal, or it can go to trial: the person your table accused stands in the dock, your guests become the jury, and nobody learns who really did it until the verdict is in.
The trial for A Body Under the Tree is coming soon. Trials are released case by case, starting with The Masque at Carfax Hall. When it arrives, the trial can also be played on its own, as a jury case.
Host A Body Under the Tree.
Host it at your own table. Nothing to print, no script to learn, and you play the victim, so you finally get to attend your own party.