Operation Goshawk - Cheltenham

A reunion at the races. A friend dead at the foot of the stairs. The truth is in the group chat. Who did it?

Operation Goshawk is a print-at-home murder mystery in the style of a real UK police file. Old friends reunite for Gold Cup week in a Cheltenham townhouse; by morning the woman who organised it is dead, staged to look like a drunken fall. The post-mortem says otherwise. Three friends had a reason to want her quiet, and the answer is hidden in their messages.

This is a chat-log whodunnit: you crack it by reading the group WhatsApp, the private DMs, and what people deleted at 3am. No app, no host, no acting.

What's inside (chat-heavy PDF case file)

• The friends' group WhatsApp, plus private iMessage, Instagram and Snapchat threads
• Investigator's brief, persons sheet, chronology & 999 log
• Crime-scene report and a real Cheltenham (Montpellier) map
• Home Office post-mortem and a fingerprint report
• Witness statement, a recorded suspect interview, and a rideshare receipt
• A Means / Motive / Opportunity worksheet, and a separate sealed solution

The details

• Difficulty: Medium - tricky but fair.
• Players: 1-6 · Play time: approximately 75-100 minutes
• Format: instant digital download, print-ready A4 PDF
• Setting: Cheltenham, Gold Cup race week

Fair-play promise: every clue you need is in the file. Read the chats, follow the timeline, and the answer is provable before you break the seal.

Digital download. All persons, companies and events are fictitious; a game prop, not a genuine record.