One publisher, five editions, no ghostwriters.

Why this house exists

I started it after two unrelated frustrations collided. The first: every "murder mystery party" kit I bought made someone perform a monologue nobody signed up for, and half my friends would rather leave than act out a role at a dinner table. The second: every time I inherited a volunteer job — a treasurer’s binder, a school folder — the handoff was somebody else’s mess, undocumented and half-finished.

Both problems have the same shape: a document that should have existed already, didn’t. So I started writing them, one at a time, and printing them at home to check they actually worked before anyone else saw them.

What "written by a person, made with AI tools" actually means here

I write the outline, the solution, and the constraints for every title myself — who’s guilty, what the clues have to prove, what a 13-year-old should and shouldn’t read. AI tools speed up layout, art, and first drafts of the text I’ve outlined. Nothing goes to print without me reading every page and playing the case at a real table first. Every listing says which parts used AI — that declaration lives on the product page, not buried in a policy nobody reads.

How I test before I sell

Every murder mystery’s solution has to survive a genuine test group before it’s listed — not a proofread on a screen, a real table with people who don’t know the ending. If the guilty party gets guessed in round one, or nobody gets there by the accusation, the case gets rewritten. That’s the bar, on every title, before it goes up for sale.

Why five editions instead of one shop

A party game and a treasurer’s handoff kit don’t share a reader, a tone, or an occasion — putting them on the same shelf does a disservice to both. Each edition gets its own color, its own audience, and its own reason to exist: Mysteries & Games for hosts, Docket & Ledger for the volunteer who inherited the books, Chalk & Compass for teens and the parents and teachers around them, Family & Keepsakes for the books you fill in together and keep, Vision & Planning for a vision board and a plan to follow. One publisher, five shelves, so you find the right one without wading through the other four.

Where to buy

Printables are sold on Etsy, books on Amazon. Every future version of a file you’ve bought is free.

Reach me

publisher@thecasefilepress.com — I read and answer every email myself, usually within a day.