A wide shot of a Cosykiller case file spread across a dark wooden desk — magazine, hurricane lamp, photographs and ciphers

The short version About Cosykiller

We make murders
in a box.

Cosykiller case files are narrative murder mysteries you solve on your own terms. We write the story, research the period, source the paper, commission the photography, print the documents, pack the boxes ourselves, and post them from a small workshop in Grimsby.

Where we came from

Fifteen years of other people's murders

Cosykiller is part of RHG Events Ltd — a family of small brands that have spent the last fifteen years making murder-mystery games for parties, holidays, schools, stag and hen weekends.

Some of those games are broad and silly. Cosykiller is the quieter one — for the kind of people who think the highlight of a Sunday is a slow argument about motive.

  • 15 Years writing mysteries
  • 5 Cosykiller cases on the shelf
  • 40+ Countries we've posted to
A Kickstarter mock-up of an early Cosykiller case, surrounded by letters, ciphers and photographs

What Cosykiller is trying to be

The richest box of paper you can buy

Every case we post aims to be the most tactile, most cross-referenceable murder mystery you can fit in a single box. Four principles we never compromise on.

  • The paper feels right

    Letters on laid writing paper. Telegrams on telegram stock. Newspaper cuttings on actual newsprint. The texture is half the clue — we refuse to print everything on the same white card.

  • The period is researched

    Victorian vocabulary, 1920s stamps, 1950s postal marks, the right typeface for the right decade. If it sits in the box, someone has argued about whether it would have existed in that year.

  • The objects are evidence

    Dried botanicals, coins, buttons, matchbooks, pressed flowers. They're not props and they're not packaging. If it's in the box, you're meant to read it.

  • Everything cross-references

    A name in a letter turns up on a passenger manifest. A date on a telegram matches a newspaper headline. Solving is the joy of noticing — and we write backward from the solve.

A finished Cosykiller box, wrapped in brown paper and kitchen string, waiting to be posted

Why Cosykiller

Three things
other case files don't do.

Case-file games are a busy shelf. Here's what ours do that the others mostly don't.

  1. 01

    Six to eleven hours of mystery

    Most case-file games run three or four hours. Ours run six to eleven. Long enough for false trails, dead ends, and the one extra document that makes you change your mind on the solve.

  2. 02

    Eighteen years of murder writing

    We've been writing mysteries for parties, schools and stag weekends since 2008 — first as Red Herring Games, now as Cosykiller too. The plots aren't sketches. They're proper whodunits with motive, means and an alibi worth testing.

  3. 03

    No app, no website, no expiry

    Every answer is sealed in the box — the final solution, the three hint envelopes, and the "things most people missed" page. Nothing to download, no account to sign into, no support URL to go dead in 2031.

A Cosykiller case laid out on a workshop bench — case file, portrait cards, hurricane lamp and a brown-paper parcel

Who "we" actually is

A small team in Grimsby

Five people with particular obsessions, a workshop full of paper stock, and a kettle that never stops.

  • The writer

    Argues about Victorian vocabulary. Reads five period novels before writing a line of correspondence.

  • The illustrator

    Specialises in forged period documents — letterheads, telegrams, letters of credit, municipal stamps.

  • The sourcers

    Two people who spend too long on eBay sourcing vintage stamps, ticket stubs and matchbooks we can base our replicas on.

  • The packer

    Emma hand-wraps every box with brown paper and kitchen string. The string is not for show — it keeps the lid down.

We reply to emails — usually within a day, sometimes two — at hello@cosykiller.com.

Ready?

Pick a case.

One of them has your name on it.

Browse the cases