MR BETTS INTRODUCTION

Read the following aloud to the group

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Mr Betts the Bookmaker, also known as “Bertie Betts” and “Honest Albert”. I am one of the Happy Family cards and famed throughout the racecourses of England as the only bookmaker to give the punters honest odds. I am going to be your guide for tonight’s entertainment.

(Nod at the cards on the table)

Know what’s going on down there? They’re investigating a murder. The King of Hearts, sometimes known as “the suicide king”, is dead. He is known by that name because of the way he holds his sword as though he is stabbing himself in the head. But today he lies dead and the wound could not have been self-inflicted. Someone has taken a sword and tried to hack off his head from behind. And Mr Justice Joker is determined to find out whodunnit. It must be one of the other picture cards. After all, they are the only ones with hands!

So how is this game going to pan out? Well in most murder mysteries the winner is the person who spots the murderer. But this one is going to be a bit different. As cards are traditionally used for gambling and because I’m a bookmaker, I have decided to give this game a twist. And so tonight’s winner is going to be the person who wins the most money on Mr Bett’s Homicidal Handicap!

(Put Betting Sheet No 1 on the table) - click here to see betting sheet

Yes, here’s a betting sheet. At various points of the game I’ll be allowing you to have a bet on who you think the murderer is. You will be having four bets in all. I will be paying out at the odds stated on each sheet. As more information is revealed I will be changing the odds accordingly. If you bet on the murderer you will get paid off at the full odds. But because I’m that rare thing, a kind and generous bookmaker, if you bet on a would-be killer, or an accomplice (witting or unwitting), I will pay you off at half the stated odds.

OK, let us have the first round of betting now. The King of Hearts is obviously a non-runner, but all the other suspects are currently at ten to one. As you haven’t heard any evidence yet, this bet is pretty much a blind guess. I suggest that you scan the faces of the playing cards, look at what they represent in the world of fortune telling, and decide who you think looks most suspicious. Then, when you've written your choice at the foot of the betting sheet, we can get on with round one....