The short version

Players: 8 to 14 with the Standard edition, 8 to 20 with Full Cast — and the host can play too.
Play time: about 2 hours 15 minutes.
What you get: a printable PDF kit — a spoiler-safe host guide, one character booklet per character, clue cards for a 3-round clue system, and party printables (invitations, name cards, a suspect/evidence board, voting slips, awards certificates, and a solution envelope with a reveal script).
Printing: print it at home — the pages are ink-light and black-and-white friendly.
Delivery: checkout is handled by Stripe, and your personal download link arrives by email within seconds.
Price: $39 Standard · $54 Full Cast — or all five kits in Full Cast editions in the Complete Collection bundle for $159.
Content note: PG-13 themes — a death aboard a train and an old partnership betrayed. Nothing graphic, no gore.

The setup

Aboard the Night Express in 1936, jeweler Ambrose Field is found dead in his berth at dawn — and the train's own paper remembers everything: a bell register, a conductor's punch log, a berth plan, and a consignment of twenty-four sapphires that no longer weighs what the waybill says. Murder on the Night Express is a printable murder mystery party kit for 8–20 players (about 2 hours 15 minutes), built around the records of one night in Sleeper B — numbered compartments, timed calls, counted stones — with a solution that turns on arithmetic any player can re-add. Like every Murder Mystery Kits title, it was cold-solved twice from the clues alone before release: print it, hand out the booklets, and let your guests work the night back together.

What's inside (98 pages Standard · 112 pages Full Cast)

Host guide

Setup checklist, running timeline, casting guide (who should play whom), and spoiler-safe instructions — the host can play a character too.

Character booklets

One per character: background, secrets, costume hints, per-round objectives, and scripted reveals.

3-round clue system

Searchable/physical clues plus character-revealed clues — the bell-call register, the conductor's ticket-punch log, the berth plan — all mapped on a clue matrix so the culprit is uniquely determined.

Party printables

Invitations, name cards, suspect/evidence board, voting slips, awards certificates (best actor, best detective), solution envelope, and the dramatic reveal script.

Look inside

Actual pages from the Standard edition PDF. The sealed solution and reveal pages are never shown, and character booklets appear with their public pages only — nothing here can spoil your night.

Cover page of Murder on the Night Express, printable murder mystery kit — Standard Edition — Cover — Standard edition

Host guide opening page of Murder on the Night Express — spoiler-safe running instructions — Host guide — spoiler-safe, so the host can play too

Character booklet opening page from Murder on the Night Express — Herbert Pym, the conductor: who you are and your public persona — Character booklet — every guest gets their own (public pages only)

Round 1 clue cards from Murder on the Night Express — dining-car seating chart, carriage plan and the sapphire waybill — Round 1 clue cards — the first envelope, opened at the table

Choose your edition

Edition	Players	Pages	Price
Standard	8–14 players	98 pages	$39	Buy Standard — $39
Full Cast	8–20 players	112 pages	$54	Buy Full Cast — $54

Full Cast adds optional expansion characters — if some don't show up, the plot still works; their absence never breaks the mystery. Not sure of your headcount? Full Cast covers every group the Standard does, plus six more.

Cold-solved twice, guaranteed fair. Two independent solvers worked this kit from the clues alone and reached the same culprit, and an adversarial pass tried to convict the strongest innocent and failed — all on the exact text that ships. And if a verified logic error ever surfaces, you get a refund or replacement and the kit is pulled and fixed for every buyer. How delivery and printing work →

Running more than one party? This kit is also in the Complete Collection bundle — all five kits in Full Cast editions for $159. And try the free 6-player mini-mystery, The Locked Study.