Hunt A Killer: Baker's Dozen; All-In-One Murder Mystery Box Game - A Contestant is Planning to Poison a Judge - Can You Rise to the Occasion and Catch the Killer Before the Final Course is Served

I had balked at buying any of the Hunt A Killer games because the price seemed so high for a one time play. This one is a perfect intro to the series, without the huge price tag, and was a ton of fun for my family. I don't know when we might opt to go all-in for one of the bigger sets, but this was definitely a wonderful teaser for the genre.

I'd give this a million stars if I could.I'm a longtime Hunt A Killer fan. I have many sets and have solved nearly all of them (they come with different difficulty levels -- this one being the easiest as it's one diamond on a scale of five).You basically are given a cute box full of tons of papers -- clues to help you solve a murder or a mystery or even attempted murders (all fictional). You get so many clues, photos, envelopes with hidden ciphers to decode, recipe cards that are sliced up for you to figure out how to put back together again (and actual yummy recipes), secret things hidden in pockets, letters to others, note papers with secret meanings... and so much more than that! It's an experience and you've GOT to try these games at least once. They're so fun and everytime I receive one in the mail my family goes wild, begging to look at the contents and play along and solve it with me.This particular set is special in that it has cute goodies in it: a real apron, a chef's hat, a spatula, a matching oven mitt, and even a small, old-fashioned jar of real jam! Keep in mind that the spatula and oven mitt are for props only (but the apron and chef's hat are just fine to use in the kitchen). The thing I love about all these boxes is they ALWAYS come with keepsakes, including but not limited to things like bottle openers, lock boxes with padlocks and keys, and other awesome things like that.This is my favorite set by far (I've play nearly 5+ boxes so far and love them ALL), mostly because it's so aesthetically pleasing and fun to look at as well -- all pale pinks and browns that give a real adorable look and everything matches. There's so many cute details you'll notice. I almost don't want to touch it because I'm so in love with it. It's also such a fun place to start if you're new to Hunt A Killer.10/10 and absolutely worth every penny.

There are a few codes to break and some reading. That’s it. You get some “cooking” supplies that come with a warning that says you shouldn’t actually use the items for cooking. The items were also unrelated to the mystery. I don’t understand why it was so expensive.

Hunt a Killer is very hit or miss. Warning, Spoilers ahead. On one hand I’ve done many with my mother and father and they were very fun. On the other hand some puzzles can be disproportionately hard to solve. In this case you get cheap cooking supplies you can’t use to cook, two of which have nothing to do with solving the mystery. Secondly, one puzzle key to solving the mystery is nearly impossible to figure out given it is written backwards and there is no indication of this.My final gripe is that in most Hunt A Killer there is a folder with the answer and a satisfying resolution to the story. For this however there is a website where you must text your commissioner the answer to the case. Not only did this website not work at all (I had to find the resolution online), but the resolution is entirely unsatisfactory. All we get is that the suspect was arrested and admitted to it. Nothing else. (SPOILERS) There is a whole storyline wherein one of the judges is unknowingly the father to one of the contestants. Multiple puzzles, in fact the majority of them, point to this story. This leads to nothing! Not only is the contestant not the killer but we don’t get a resolution to their story. (SPOILERS OVER)By far I would call this the worst hunt a killer I have ever done, and on top of that the most expensive. Do NOT buy this. There are better hunt a killer boxes to buy with much better stories.

We received this game to review, and we were all very excited to try it but with our family’s school and work schedule, we could never set aside the time to do it. Then we got to Memorial Day weekend, and we excitedly opened the box and started to undertake our mystery. Unfortunately, it became quickly apparent that one of our packages got two copies of one card but was missing the other that appeared to be critical to the case. We decided to pack everything up the way it had come to us and shelve it for another day. There was a card included that said what to do if there was a missing piece. I emailed the address and told them what was missing. We went on to other games and activities assuming that we wouldn’t hear anything back until a few days after the weekend was over. Wrong! Their customer service responded very quickly during the holiday weekend and emailed me a PDF of the missing document. All companies make mistakes sooner or later but how they handle their customer service is always a big thing to me. Great customer service like this breeds loyalty for me. As for the mystery itself, everything about this set is immersive from the box that looks like it comes from a bakery to the clues, props, and items included. This is a very fun activity for friends or family get-togethers.

My son got me a hunt a killer set for mother's day a couple years ago, and I've been hooked ever since. This one is fun whether you do it alone or make a full family game of it. I won't say these are easy to figure out, but they're definitely fun. This one is comparable in price to what I've seen in the Hunt a Killer stuff, so I'd say it's a good value. I won't go into game play so I don't spoil anything, but if you like solving the mysteries, I'd say this is good one to check out.