Joy Swift | |
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| Born | Joy Angela Swift 2 October 1956 Blundellsands, Liverpool |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Merchant Taylors' Girls' School |
| Occupation | Businesswoman, writer and events organiser |
| Years active | 1981–present |
| Website | Joy Swift |
Joy Angela Swift MBE (born 2 October 1956) is a businesswoman, writer and events organiser from Liverpool, who is best known as the inventor of the murder mystery weekend. [1]
Swift was born in Blundellsands, Liverpool, to Norman and Thelma (née Lake), Swift is the youngest of three children. Her father Norman was the fourth generation to run the family owned timber merchants business.
Swift went to college to study graphic design but she left to take up full-time employment at the Liverpool Echo. Swift left three years later to join a small chain of hotels.
In 1981, she came up with the idea of an interactive murder mystery that would allow hotel guests to become sleuths. [2] Swift hired local actors to play the main characters and on 30 October 1981, she staged her first murder mystery weekend. In 1983, Swift staged her first murder mystery weekend outside of the UK in New York.
In 1989, Michael Aspel hosted a televised interactive murder mystery set at a wedding called Murder Weekend, devised and written by Swift, [3] which invited viewers to solve a whodunnit to win a prize. The five episodes were entitled Dream Of Monks A-Coughing: A Funeral's In The Offing, Dream Of Gulls A-Screeching: Heed The Parson's Preaching, Dream Of Toms A-Snarling: A Quarrel With Your Darling, Dream Of Vipers Hissing: Your Favourite Dog's Gone Missing and Dream Of Yaks A-Mooing: Sign Of Your Undoing and were broadcast over three nights on ITV from August 18 to 20. [4] The cast included and David Delve, Eric Allen, John Hudson and Jason Salkey. [5]
In April 2007, Swift published her first paperback, The Joy Of Murder. [6] The book included a biography of Swift, behind-the-scenes anecdotes and a solvable whodunnit. In October the same year, Swift travelled to Egypt to stage four week-long murder mystery cruises billed as Death On The Nile. [7]
In November 2007 as part of Liverpool's 800th birthday celebrations, Swift created a solvable whodunnit for her local newspaper entitled The Great Echo Murder Mystery. [8] She wrote an historical plot that was printed each day as a two-page police evidence board of clues. Readers submitted their solutions in writing and 10 winners attended the denouement, where the murderer was revealed.
In May 2011, Litmus Films produced a six-minute segment for Japan's national broadcaster NHK about Swift and her murder mystery weekends. [9] Two years later, Swift wrote and co-directed a 90-minute interactive murder mystery for NHK, which screened on the channel over three nights. [10] Viewers attempted to solve a whodunnit at the same time as three studio experts.
In 2020 during the global Covid-19 pandemic, Swift created a unique realistic online whodunnit for sleuths around the world, Murder Mystery Investigation . The first online game was launched, titled Cold Case #1 - Lockdown. In 2021 the second online game was released, titled Cold Case #2 - Family Ties.
In the 2001 New Year Honours, Swift was appointed a member of the Member of the British Empire (MBE) for services to tourism as the inventor of the murder mystery weekend. [11] [12] [13] [14] She collected her MBE from Prince Charles at an investiture on 2 May 2002.
In 2006, Swift collected a Prestige Award for Excellence in Tourism and Leisure Services at a ceremony hosted by Sefton Chamber of Commerce.
At the inaugural Independent Travel Awards, announced on 25 September 2015, Swift was nominated for the Reader’s Choice Award with David Attenborough, Patrick Leigh Fermor and Michael Palin. [15]
In 2016, Murder Weekends were nominated for Best Special Interest Holiday Company in the Daily Mirror Travel Awards.
In 2021 Joy Switf's Original Murder Mystery Investigations Cold Case #1 - Lockdown was a finalist and Cold Case #2 - Family Ties won Gold at the EscapeTheRoomers Player Choice Awards for Online Games
A whodunit or whodunnit is a complex plot-driven variety of detective fiction in which the puzzle regarding who committed the crime is the main focus. The reader or viewer is provided with the clues to the case, from which the identity of the perpetrator may be deduced before the story provides the revelation itself at its climax. The investigation is usually conducted by an eccentric, amateur, or semi-professional detective.
Simon Anthony Lee Brett OBE FRSL is a British author of detective fiction, a playwright, and a producer-writer for television and radio. As an author, he is best known for his mystery series featuring Charles Paris, Mrs Pargenter, Fethering and Blotto & Twinks. His radio credits have included The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue and Just a Minute.
Anthony Joshua Shaffer was an English playwright, screenwriter, novelist, barrister, and advertising executive.
Michael Terence Aspel is a retired English television newsreader and host of programmes such as Crackerjack, Aspel & Company, Give Us a Clue, This is Your Life, Strange but True? and Antiques Roadshow.
Crime is a typically 19th-, 20th- and 21st-century genre, dominated by British and American writers. This article explores its historical development as a genre.
A mystery film is a genre of film that revolves around the solution of a problem or a crime. It focuses on the efforts of the detective, private investigator or amateur sleuth to solve the mysterious circumstances of an issue by means of clues, investigation, and clever deduction.
The Doe Network is a non-profit organization of volunteers who work with law enforcement to connect missing persons cases with John/Jane Doe cases. They maintain a website about cold cases and unidentified persons, and work to match these with missing persons.
Cozy mysteries, also referred to as "cozies", are a subgenre of crime fiction in which sex and violence occur off stage, the detective is an amateur sleuth, and the crime and detection take place in a small, socially intimate community. Cozies thus stand in contrast to hardboiled fiction, in which more violence and explicit sexuality are central to the plot. The term "cozy" was first coined in the late 20th century when various writers produced work in an attempt to re-create the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.
A mystery dinner is a popular type of dinner theater in which the play is a murder mystery, and the diners are invited to solve the mystery as they eat and watch the play. In many mystery dinners, there is no separate stage from the eating area; instead, the actors are mixed in with the diners — and often improvise dialog with diners — creating a more immersive atmosphere.
The Kennel Murder Case is a 1933 American pre-Code mystery film adapted from the 1933 novel of the same name by S. S. Van Dine. Directed by Michael Curtiz for Warner Bros., it stars William Powell and Mary Astor. Powell's role as Philo Vance is not the actor's first performance as the aristocratic sleuth; he also portrays the character in three films produced by Paramount in 1929 and 1930.
Sleuth 101 was an Australian comedy "improvisatory whodunit game show" television series, broadcast on ABC1 in 2010. The series revolves around a murder-mystery that must be solved by a celebrity guest detective. Each episode features a guest detective, four suspects, a crime scene, evidence and witness accounts - just like real detective work. The show is hosted by comedian Cal Wilson, who occasionally gives subtle hints towards the crime. Each week, the guest detective must solve the murder using his or her evidence. There are some similarities to the 1970s British series Whodunnit!, the 1990s Australian television game show Cluedo, and the 2010s British series Armchair Detectives. A second series was originally being negotiated by the ABC, but later cancelled.
Whodunnit? is an American murder mystery-based reality television show broadcast on ABC. The series premiered on June 23, 2013, and concluded its first season on August 18, 2013. The series was not renewed for a second season. The series is hosted by Gildart Jackson, who plays the mansion's butler, Giles.
Nancy Drew: The Deadly Device is the 27th installment in the Nancy Drew point-and-click adventure game series by Her Interactive. The game is available for play on Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X platforms. It has an ESRB rating of E10+ for moments of mild violence. Players take on the first-person view of fictional amateur sleuth Nancy Drew and must solve the mystery through interrogation of suspects, solving puzzles and discovering clues. There are two levels of gameplay, Amateur and Master sleuth modes, each offering a different difficulty level of puzzles and hints, however neither of these changes affect the actual plot of the game. The game is loosely based on two books, The Crime Lab Case (2000) and In and Out of Love (1997).
Lady of the Dunes is the nickname for an unidentified murder victim discovered on July 26, 1974, in the Race Point Dunes in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Her body was exhumed in 1980, 2000, and 2013 in efforts to identify her and her killer; to date, these efforts have been unsuccessful.
Paleri Manikyam: Oru Pathirakolapathakathinte Katha is a Malayalam-language mystery novel by T. P. Rajeevan. It was originally serialised in Mathrubhumi Weekly and was published as a book by Current Books. Paleri Manikyam was first written in English when the author was residing in Iowa, United States. He wrote it in Malayalam after coming back to Kerala. However, the English version, titled Undying Echoes of Silence, was released in August 2013 only.
Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee, or Little Miss Panasoffkee, is the name given to an unidentified young woman found murdered on February 19, 1971, in Lake Panasoffkee, Florida, United States. She has remained unidentified for 50 years.
Armchair Detectives is a British gameshow whodunnit series that debuted in 2017. The show was commissioned for BBC One Daytime and is produced by Tiger Aspect Productions. Hosted by Susan Calman, the series is produced by Carly Brooks and Daniel Twist executive produced by Andy Brereton. The show follows in the footsteps of other similar shows, including Whodunnit? (1972–78), Cluedo (1990–93) and Sleuth 101 (2010). In November 2018, the series won a BAFTA Scotland award for Best Entertainment series..
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