The Sona Mahal Affair: A Vintage 1949 Bombay Murder Mystery Case File

Bombay, 1949. A monsoon night. The most powerful man in Indian cinema is dead in his own private screening room.

Seth Jehangir “Sethji” Sethna — the man who could make a star out of nobody and end a career with a single phone call — has gathered the glittering film world to his Art-Deco sea-villa on Malabar Hill. By the end of the night he means to name his heir and reveal the tell-all memoirs everyone is terrified of. By the end of the night he is dead, slumped in his velvet armchair as the reel runs out. It looks like his weak heart. The police surgeon finds aconite.

Five guests had reason enough to want the old man silent. One of them carried that wish up to his glass. The Sona Mahal Affair is a premium, print-and-play murder mystery you solve like a real detective — no host, no acting, no spoilers. Just you, the dossiers, and the evidence.

What's inside

• A 25-page case file in glorious 1949 Art-Deco style — a true sibling to The Ravenscourt Affair
• Five suspect dossiers — each with a motive, an alibi, and a secret
• A full victim dossier including the crime scene and a typed police-surgeon's post-mortem
• Witness statements & a minute-by-minute timeline to test every alibi
• An evidence locker of 10 exhibits — chemical reports, a handwritten note, a trunk-call docket, a poison register, an old gossip clipping, and more
• A deduction worksheet and a wax-sealed solution you open only when you're ready to accuse

How it plays

• Players: 1–6 — a sharp solo evening or a party of rival detectives
• Time: 2–3 hours
• You bring: sharp wits, a pencil, and a strong cup of chai

The Casebook promise

Every clue is fair. Every alibi checks against the clock. The killer can be proven — not just guessed. The obvious suspect is the trap; the truth is there for the sharp-eyed to find.

Case No. 2 in The Casebook Co. series of Murder Mystery Case Files. Ships as a premium physical case file.