Murder Mystery Activity - w/out the Murder: Who Poisoned Sherlock Holmes

This interactive classroom activity promotes collaboration, logic, inference, critical thinking, character analysis and fun in your classroom. Students work to solve a mystery involving some of the greatest literary characters of all time.

This is a great group activity, classroom team activity, or center activity. It is a great way to introduce units on mystery, character, literature or just for a fun and engaging activity. It is also great for classroom parties or bonus time.

This resource includes two ways to play.

Brief Overview of “Who Poisoned Sherlock Holmes?"

The characters of great literary works, including Jane Eyre, Harry Potter, Jay Gatsby, Jo March, Gandalf, Holden Caulfield, Nancy Drew, Hermione Granger, Hamlet, Katniss Everdeen, Juliet Capulet, Simon, Jonas, Victor Frankenstein and Sherlock Holmes gathered at UKTMU (You Know Too Much U) for the Annual Library Association Convention. All have been nominated for the honor of best literary character of all time. The award is more than the prestige of the title. It also comes with a monetary prize of $4 million. The prize is to be given on the last day of the convention.

At dinner last night, this particular group of notables sat at the table of honor. Some knew each other – Juliet, Hamlet and Othello often hang together in the pages of anthologies and Harry and Hermione are old buds. Others were just meeting for the first time.

What they didn’t know, until halfway through the main course, is that Sherlock Holmes had spent the last several weeks gathering information about each and every one of them. Some of the information, Sherlock stated was damaging enough to disqualify that particular character from the competition. He knew if he revealed that information, he would be sure to win the prize. Then he laughed – actually laughed - and said: “Good thing I am of strong moral character. Or am I? One never can tell.”

The characters looked around the table, wondering who the great detective was referring to, and if he would reveal such a secret. Most worried that something in their past, a character flaw or momentary action, could be what Sherlock Holmes was referring to.

After the party, the group returned together to the villa they were sharing. The villa was on a large estate with a lake, horse stables, cottages and a house that could be considered a hotel if not for the meticulous European decor.

At the villa they went their separate ways.

At 8 a.m. the following morning, the county sheriff knocked on the door. The engagement begins.

Other Resources:

Frankenstein Novel Unit - Class, Digital, Hybrid

Frankenstein Novel Unit - Google Drive Edition

BUNDLE: Frankenstein Novel Unit - Google, PPT, PDF fillable, Teaching PPTs +++

"Frankenstein" ENTIRE NOVEL in High-Low Readability Passages-Distance Learning

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