Case 0018 · November 1, 2026

The Last Reel on Quay Street

Halloween in Galway. The session ended, the door was locked, and the river kept the rest.

Tonight's case — free to play Difficulty: ●●○○○

Play this case Google PlayGet the Android app

No graphic violence, no jump scares: a fair whodunit puzzle, about ten minutes a night.

The briefing

Every night after closing at the Salmon Weir Tavern on Quay Street, landlord Seán Mulkerrin locked the front door, played one last reel on his button accordion, and stepped out the back door onto the quay to look at the river. On Halloween night he never came back in.

The rest of the briefing is waiting in the case file.

The victim

Seán Mulkerrin, age 67Pub landlord and accordion playerSeán had run the Salmon Weir Tavern for thirty-eight years, and half the musicians in Connacht had learned their tunes in its back room. He kept a shelf of old session tapes behind the bar that he would not lend to anyone, and he never let a night end without one more reel.

The suspects

Niamh MulkerrinFiddle player · Daughter
Pádraig FahyBarman, lives in the flat upstairs
Ronan KeoghMusic promoter · Buyer from Dublin

How to play this case

DifficultyGentle (2/5)
The suspects3
TimeAbout ten minutes

3 suspects and 14 pieces of evidence wait in the file. Sweep your flashlight across the scene, listen to every voiced statement and pin what doesn't add up. You have three accusations to name the killer, the method and the motive; after that, the morning paper tells the whole story.

About this case

Case 0018, “The Last Reel on Quay Street”, opened on November 1, 2026. Difficulty: Gentle (2/5). It puts 3 suspects and 14 pieces of evidence in front of you, all connected to Seán Mulkerrin. Like every Midnight Casebook file, it is a fair puzzle: there is no trick ending and no outside knowledge needed — everything that points to the answer is somewhere in the scene, the evidence or the statements.

Case notes

The Last Reel on Quay Street opens on Halloween night in Galway, at the Salmon Weir Tavern, where Seán Mulkerrin had been landlord for thirty-eight years and half the musicians in Connacht learned their tunes in the back room. The late session is over and the front door is locked. As always, the old man plays one more reel on his button accordion and steps out onto the quay to look at the river. This time he never comes back in, and a Garda patrol later finds him drowned in the Corrib below the quay wall.

Three people remained at the pub: his daughter Niamh, a fiddle player; Pádraig, the barman who lives in the flat upstairs; and Ronan, a music promoter who came from Dublin as a buyer. The file asks you to reconstruct the minutes after closing, weighing who was where once the music stopped, who knew about Seán's nightly habit, and who stood to gain.

With fourteen pieces of evidence and a difficulty of two out of six, this is a gentle, atmospheric case, well suited to a first night of detective work.

Questions about this case

Is “The Last Reel on Quay Street” free to play?

Yes. It is tonight's case, so it is free for everyone until the next case opens at midnight. Play it in your browser or in the Android app — no account needed to start.

How hard is “The Last Reel on Quay Street”?

“The Last Reel on Quay Street” is rated Gentle (2/5) on the Midnight Casebook scale. Difficulty follows the week: Monday's case is the gentlest and the weekend's files are the toughest, and most players close a daily case in about ten minutes.

What if I get stuck on “The Last Reel on Quay Street”?

Hints open one at a time: the first points to evidence worth a closer look, the second to a contradiction, the third explains one part of the puzzle. Free players get one hint per case, plus an extra one on hard cases during their first seven solves; Casebook Pro unlocks all three. Each hint costs 10 points and each wrong accusation 20, but time never counts against you.

Do I need to download anything to play “The Last Reel on Quay Street”?

No. Like every Midnight Casebook case, it plays in any modern browser at midnightcasebook.com/play, and there is also an Android app. Sign in with Apple or Google when you want to keep your streak, scores and badges on every device.