Storm at Wye Inn
July 1988: a storm seals an Art Deco hotel on the Great Ocean Road. By morning, the proprietress is dead behind a door bolted from the inside.
An Australian print-and-play murder mystery for one to six players. Read the police file, question the suspects, crack the locked room — at your own kitchen table, in an evening.
Get the case — $19 →Instant PDF download · Secure Stripe checkout · 14-day refund
A locked office. A dead proprietress. A hotel no one could leave.
Friday, 22 July 1988. The Great Ocean Road is gone at Kennett River. The phones are dead, the power's out — and nobody leaves Wye Inn tonight.
The storm takes the coast road in the afternoon and the lights by evening. Sealed inside a faded Art Deco hotel above Wye River: a handful of guests, the staff who keep the place standing — and Mrs Marjorie Fenwick, its proprietress of twenty-seven years, who retires to her office and bolts the door, the way she does every night of her life.
When the door is forced the next morning, both bolts are still home on the inside. The window hasn't moved. Nothing is taken. And beneath her head, set like a pillow, is an object that has no business being there at all.
You're handed the complete police case file — the reports, the exhibits, the interview transcripts, a 1926 floor plan, two newspapers a quarter-century apart. There's no narrator and nobody pointing: the documents do the telling, the way a real file would. Somewhere in the paperwork is a 1963 tragedy everyone stopped talking about, and the answers to the only three questions that matter — who, why, and how do you kill a woman inside a locked room?
It plays fair. Every clue you need is on the page — if you're reading closely enough to catch it.
You don't need anything but the file and an evening.
No app. No subscription. No one to post anything to. Buy it once, and it's yours to print and replay.
Download
Three PDFs land the moment you pay.
Print or read on screen
Whatever suits you — paper for a group, screen for solo.
Work the evidence
Comb the reports, transcripts, plans and registers for the slip.
Name your killer
Who did it — and the motive, and the method.
Open the solution
See exactly how close you got, and how it all fits.
Three files. A whole case in your hands.
The dossier
The complete police file: reports, exhibits, six suspect interviews, a 1926 floor plan, an aerial photograph, telephone message slips, the shire's own registers — and two newspapers, twenty-four years apart.
One sealed nudge
A single hint, kept in its own file. It points you back at the right documents without naming anyone. Open it only if the file has you beaten.
The full reveal
Who, how and why — laid out with the evidence trail that proves it, so you can see every clue you spotted and every one you walked past.Don't open this one until you've made your call.
Real pages from the file.
Everyone was inside when the road went. One of them did it.
The assistant manager who keeps the place standing, a retired coroner, a novelist in residence, a widow of private means, a journalist down for a story, an accountant down from Melbourne. Everyone has something they'd rather you didn't find. A few of the faces you'll sit across from:
Rick MurrayThe assistant manager
Dr Malcolm ThwaiteThe retired coroner
Annika HolstThe novelist
Mrs Whitley-CarrThe widow of private means
Davis ChenThe journalist
Hello — I'm Nathan. I publish Morning Post, the daily newsletter you may have read this morning.
Our first case took readers to the Western District, 1983. This one is a different animal: a proper locked-room puzzle, the kind they don't write much any more. A storm-sealed hotel, a police file you read cover to cover, and a door that was bolted twice on the inside.
There's no narrator telling you where to look — just the documents, exactly as a reviewing officer would get them: the reports, the transcripts, the floor plan, the registers. It's written to play fair. The weight of the story is in a buried 1963 secret and a quarter-century of quiet grief — no gore.
If you crack it without opening the clue, I'll tip my hat to you.
One case. One evening. One locked room.
On its own, or as part of the set — buy once, print as many copies as your table needs.
Storm at Wye Inn
A locked-room mystery from the Great Ocean Road, 1988.
- Instant PDF download — case file, clue & solution
- Print at home or play on screen
- 1 to 6 players · 90 minutes to 2 hours
- A fair-play locked room — every clue is on the page
- Australian, written and set on the Great Ocean Road
The First Cases
Every case so far — plus the one you can't buy.
- This case, plus The Vanishing at Blackwattle Station & Vanishing on the Ghan
- Curtain at the Theatre Royal — the bundle-only bonus, free with the set
- 12 PDFs · instant download · print & replay
Instant PDF download · Secure Stripe checkout · 14-day refund
Before you take the case.
If yours isn't here, email me — I read every reply.
What exactly is a print-and-play mystery?
It's a whole murder case, delivered as a PDF. You read the dossier — police reports, exhibits, suspect interviews, plans and registers — work out who did it, then check a separate solution file to see how you went. There's no app, no subscription, and nothing to wait for in the post. Print it out and spread it across the table, or read the whole thing on screen.
How many people can play?
Anywhere from one to six. Solo, it's an evening with a pot of tea. With a partner it's a different sort of night in. With friends, a book club, or the family at Christmas, print a few copies and let everyone chase their own theory — then compare notes before you open the solution.
Do I have to print it?
No. It reads perfectly well on a computer, tablet or phone. But it's lovely on paper — many people print the case file, three-hole-punch it into a folder, and pass the exhibits around. For a group, a printed copy each works best.
How hard is it?
Three and a half out of five — it makes you work. The file plays completely fair: a careful reader can crack the locked room from the documents alone, and the answer holds up when you check it. If you get stuck, the clue file is a single sealed nudge — it points you at the right papers without naming anyone.
Is it grim or gory?
No. The death is handled with restraint — the weight of the story is in a buried secret and a quarter-century of quiet grief, not blood. It's an adult mystery in the tradition of Australian detective fiction, and it's perfectly at home on the dinner table.
Won't I spoil it for myself?
The solution is a separate file for exactly that reason. Read the case, make your call, then open it. The clue file is one page and self-contained, so you can take the nudge without seeing the answer.
Do I need to have played the first case?
Not at all. Every Morning Post Mystery is a complete, standalone case — different setting, different decade, different kind of puzzle. You can start anywhere.
Is it Australian?
Through and through. It's set in an Art Deco hotel above Wye River on the Great Ocean Road, in the winter of 1988 — written in Australian English, with the texture of the place and the period: the storm-cut coast road, the message slips at the front desk, the shire works register, the country weekly. The characters and events are invented.
What if I'm not happy?
14-day no-questions-asked refund. Reply to your Stripe receipt and we'll sort it within 48 hours.
Who's behind this?
Morning Post — Australia's daily newsletter for grown-ups, read every morning across six capital cities. Published by Just Media Network Pty Ltd (ABN 62 638 812 236).
The road is cut. The room is locked. The file is yours.
One police file. Six suspects. One locked room.
Storm at Wye Inn
A locked-room mystery from the Great Ocean Road, 1988.
Instant PDF download · Secure Stripe checkout · 14-day refund
Or take the set: all four cases for $49.
Storm at Wye Inn is a work of fiction. All characters, names, businesses and events are invented; any resemblance to real people or actual events is coincidental. Wye River, Apollo Bay, Kennett River, Lorne and the Great Ocean Road are real places, used atmospherically only. It is a game for entertainment.
Published by Just Media Network Pty Ltd (ABN 62 638 812 236), trading as Morning Post. © 2026.