The year started like any other at the Ravenwood School of Myth and Magic. A new class of witches and wizards had arrived wide eyed and eager to start their magical studies. As the weeks passed the young scholars settled into the daily drudgery of an aspiring spell caster’s school life – poring over arcane tomes, struggling to cast the simplest of spells, and endlessly scrubbing potion cauldrons.

But it wasn’t until after the winter break that the real work began. The classes got harder, the reading lengthier and the cauldrons somehow dirtier. One professor in particular seemed to relish in making the students’ lives difficult, taking it as his personal challenge to weed out those who couldn’t keep up. Needless to say, he was not the most popular of teachers.

Even so, it came as a shock when the professor blew up.

That morning’s class started as any other, the students rushed to take their seats while the professor eyed the clock, surely hoping for a late student to whom he could assign extra cauldron scrubbing. The professor reached for his spellbook to start the lesson, opened the grimoire… and disappeared with a bang and a puff of smoke. All that was left was a pile of smoldering ash and a room full of stunned students.

Disliked though he may have been, the general consensus is that the departed professor was at least competent enough to open his spellbook without exploding. The faculty’s investigation points to one inescapable conclusion – the spellbook was tampered with.

Was this a prank gone wrong, or something more sinister? A tragic accident, or Murder Most Magical?

The Ravenwood Detective Agency is calling all agents, witches and wizards, novice and veteran alike to investigate. Join us January 25th & 26th for A Murder Most Magical, as we return to the wizardly world!

The Illuminati. Skull & Bones. The Brotherhood of Funny Hats. Everyone has their own personal favorite secret society. Some believe they are real. Others are certain.

It’s an entirely different thing to not only know such societies are real, but to know that one is targeting you.

Such is the feeling at the annual meeting of the Ravenwood Detective Agency. The meeting started as any other. A remote location. Only agents allowed on site. In other words, complete security. Which made it all the more surprising when the Chief Detective keeled over dead at the breakfast table. Out of his overturned coffee mug fell a metal coin. On closer inspection the coin bore the image of a large black bird, clutching a banner with the letters R.A.V.E.N.

The shadowy group of assassins known as the Research Acquisition Verification and Elimination Network had often been whispered of in quiet corners, but few thought they really existed. Yet here was cold hard proof that they not only existed, but had somehow struck at the heart of the Ravenwood Detective Agency.

How had R.A.V.E.N. infiltrated the Agency’s secure location? Everybody on site was a trusted Detective. Did that mean R.A.V.E.N. had double agents within the Detective Agency itself? Is your fellow agent feeling the same icy chill down his spine? Or is she confident in the knowledge that her membership in R.A.V.E.N. will keep her safe?

The Ravenwood Detective Agency is calling all agents, novice and veteran alike, to flush out the secret society members within its ranks. Join us February 1st & 2nd for Death by R.A.V.E.N., and be sure to bring your secret decoder rings!

It has been a year since a loose collection of vampire hunters descended on Ravenwood Castle, in search of the mysterious – and thought to be long dead – Count von Ravenwood. It was a long and difficult hunt, but at its end the hunters had emerged victorious. The Count was sent to his final rest, and with his death the Curse of von Ravenwood was lifted.

The year since the incident has not been good to the vampire hunters. Monster hunting is far from a safe profession, those engaged in it are used to losing the occasional colleague. After all, sometimes the monster wins. But an inordinate number of hunters have fallen in the last twelve months. Even more curious, many have died not in the midst of a hunt, but in their own homes. When it became apparent that all of the fallen hunters had participated in the von Ravenwood incident the hunters knew it couldn’t be coincidence.

Was someone – or some thing – hunting down those who had hunted Count von Ravenwood? Was it possible that von Ravenwood himself had someone survived? Those hunters that remained knew they had no choice, they had to return to Ravenwood Castle to seek answers and secure their own safety.

Has a new monster taken up residence in Ravenwood Castle? Or is the legendary Count von Ravenwood still alive and kicking? The Ravenwood Detective Agency is calling all agents and hunters to investigate. Join us March 8th & 9th for The von Ravenwood Murders, and be sure to sharpen your stakes!

Everybody loves a good treasure hunt. An archaic map. A hastily scrawled X to mark the spot. And a fellowship of hunters to find that spot – and the treasure there hidden.

One such map has led one such fellowship to a particular castle in the woods. After years of studying this particular map, our fellowship has come to two conclusions. The first, that the map belonged to the legendary Captain Ravenbeard, and documents the location of his treasure vault containing plunder from an immensely successful career in piracy. The second, that the map’s “X” marks a spot somewhere within the grounds of the present day Ravenwood Castle. The group plans to gather at the castle on a sleepy winter weekend and commence the final leg of their hunt.

The group arrives at breakfast the first morning to a grisly sight – one of their own, dead at the breakfast table. The apparent murder weapon, a bloody cutlass found beside the body. Under the blade is a simple message scrawled in fresh blood, “Ye landlubbin’ scallywags shall never find me treasure!” Further investigation turns up a torn piece of parchment clutched in the victim’s hand, all that remains of the fabled treasure map.

Could it be possible that a 200 year dead pirate is somehow defending his treasure hoard? Or is a much more modern day marauder attempting to plunder the loot for him or herself? Could one of the fellowship’s own really be attempting to hornswaggle his fellows?

Dead men tell no tales, so the Ravenwood Detective Agency is calling all agents, corsairs and privateers to answer these questions and more. Join us March 15th & 16th to find the long lost Captain Ravenbeard’s Treasure! All hands on deck and batten down the hatches!

There’s something special about a writer’s retreat. There’s nothing better than getting away from the distractions of daily life, spending time in a peaceful and inspiring environment, and focusing on the craft. And what more appropriate and inspiring setting could one find for writing murder fiction than a secluded castle in the woods? At least, that’s what the brochure for the 2019 Mystery Writing Retreat said.

And to be fair, the retreat began just as advertised, right up until the fiction became a bit too real. It all started with a scream, which, again to be fair, is a perfectly understandable reaction when one discovers a body at the table. This particular body was that of one of the retreat’s guests, and was found hunched over a sheaf of papers containing what appeared to be his most recent work, pen still clutched in his hand. The second body was found later that same night, pen in hand, notebook with recently completed story at her side.

A single untimely death could be written off to bad luck, but two such deaths under similar circumstances? It didn’t take a mystery writer (or a whole gathering of them for that matter) to see that there was something strange happening.

Was there a lethal case of writer’s block going around, or was foul play afoot? The Ravenwood Detective Agency is calling all agents, authors and critics to investigate. Join us April 12th & 13th for Sherlock Holmes and the Poison Pen, and find out if the pen is truly mightier than the sword!