I am sure that many of you are familiar with the BBC series, Death in Paradise, set on the island of Saint Marie (a fictional location in the Caribbean). You might also be aware of the spinoff series Beyond Paradise and Return to Paradise. My husband is a particular fan of the original TV series and quite liked Return, but he isn’t as keen on Beyond. In recent months there has also been a puzzle book creatively called Death in Paradise: The Puzzle Book. I gave my husband this for Christmas, which he sped through over 3 days. He really enjoyed it, finding the puzzles to be of the right difficulty for him (note: there is a misprinting in one wordsearch, puzzle number 133).
But this was not the only Death in Paradise gift that he received, as I also discovered that there are Death in Paradise jigsaws! Three in fact. Two of them are called Death in Paradise: Murder Mystery Puzzle – A Debt of Honour and Death in Paradise: Murder Mystery Puzzle – Ducking and Diving. But the one I managed to find a copy of was Death in Paradise: Murder Mystery Puzzle – A Wild Ghost Chase and we decided to give it a go a few days ago.
Like a number of other jigsaw puzzles out there, this jigsaw does not include a copy of the picture that you are supposed to be doing. Instead, it comes with a booklet which includes a Death in Paradise short story. This story ends with a question for the reader/jigsaw completer, and it can only be answered by finishing the jigsaw. The final picture includes vital information. At the end of the booklet the last part of the story is shared in mirror writing, so you can’t accidently or too easily discover the answer to the question. The Death in Paradise jigsaw is probably the third or fourth jigsaw I have done with this structure.
I have not reviewed a jigsaw before, so this is a new departure for the blog!
Let’s begin with the box. As you can see in the image below, the artwork on the box is a photograph and my experience of jigsaws so far, is that the style of art on the box is in a similar vein to the artwork of the jigsaw. This was not the case with the Death in Paradise jigsaw, as the jigsaw picture was cartoon in design. This was not the end of the world, but it certainly gave Jonny and I a bit of a jolt. Furthermore, we did wonder if it would have been better if the jigsaw scene had featured a still of the TV cast at a location such as a crime scene.
The jigsaw was in new condition, but I did not think the pieces were as well made as others that I have tried, such as those by Laurence King Publishing. On a few of the pieces the picture layer tried to lift up. Moreover, for a lot of the pieces it was hard to decide if they definitely did or did not fit together. The shape (the tabs and blanks of the jigsaw pieces) and image design did not always provide the necessary pointers, and it required further pieces to reveal that an error had been made. Nevertheless, the pieces did hold well together, and it meant you could move a block or chunk of pieces into a new location easily. Moreover, the jigsaw picture was comprised of bright colours, which made it more enjoyable to put together.
However, I think the biggest problem with the jigsaw image was that 60% of it provided no information for the accompanying story. The jigsaw picture is an office scene, yet the background was low in detail, being mostly dominated by wall and blinds. This blandness made it more difficult to assemble. We felt that the office setting could have had more details included which related to the case and the island setting. Roughly 40% of the jigsaw was relevant to the story and the question posed, yet here we hit another downside of this jigsaw – it literally only contained one clue! The other jigsaws that I have done with this type of mystery story and structure, have featured crime scenes and other relevant images, which held lots of different clues for you to spot, so I was disappointed that this one, after the hours it took to complete, only had one measly clue for us. And it was such an obvious one, and its interpretation was pretty much spelt out to Jonny and I.
The story itself was well written, and because of the TV series was interesting to read, as we were familiar with the police characters mentioned. It was only four pages long, but that is quite a nice length for this type of exercise. Consequently, it was a shame that the puzzle aspect was so weak, as even without the jigsaw, it wasn’t too hard to see what direction the solution was going in. This reinforced the lack of clues contained within the jigsaw as well. Due to the time you spend putting the jigsaw together, I think you feel this more keenly.
Given the reputation of the TV series, I guess we had expected and hoped for better. I am not sure how to go about rating a jigsaw, but I would probably say don’t go out of your way to buy this one, nor buy it at full price (thankfully I did not), but if you happen to see it second hand, maybe in a charity shop, then it might be worth a go. There are certainly worse ways to spend an afternoon.