Murder Mystery Party | Classic Mystery Jigsaw Puzzle, Death on The Istanbul Express, 1,000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle, Orange

I received this puzzle as a Christmas present. I already had another mystery puzzle from this brand that I loved as well. This puzzle had a good story and took a long time to assemble. One thing to know is that the picture on the box is not the photo that is on the puzzle. It is a mystery puzzle, so you will be building it without a photo reference.

The quality of the puzzle pieces were good. We enjoyed the little mystery that went along with it.

Jigsaw fit together well. Had all pieces plus one duplicate edge piece.

My wife and I enjoyed completing and solving this 1000-piece puzzle.

I added an image because I’ll admit there were moments where I got frustrated and wished I could take a quick look to get an idea of what the puzzle was. BUT with that being said, really the part that I loved was that I DIDN’T know what the image was. Once I got a decent amount put together, I couldn’t stop working on it. Took me a little while to do but this is the first puzzle I’ve done probably ever, beyond small ones when I was a kid. Thoroughly enjoyed the experience and loved the mystery of not knowing what the final image was. The story was eh, but reminded me of the Poirot mysteries which I love. Bought another from this brand as soon as I finished this one and can’t wait to get started on it! Only con - I had one corner piece missing, but honestly I moved the puzzle around the house on a board to work on and could have lost it along the way so I won’t fault the manufacturer on that and it didn’t take away from the enjoyment of the puzzle.

I've done a few mystery puzzles before, both from this company and from others. I enjoy the experience of assembling a puzzle without a reference picture, but the corresponding stories and mysteries almost always disappoint. Same goes for this one. On top of that, the art is just poorly photoshopped images stacked on top of each other - see attached image for the most egregious example. What is up with the left edge of that purse?The story:The setting and characters are pale imitations of Hercule Poirot and Murder on the Orient Express. There's been a murder aboard a train, and a famous Belgian detective who happens to be a passenger must solve the case. It's a quick read, and the writing is just OK.Solving:I had fun assembling the puzzle. Many mystery puzzles are too dark and lack contrast, but this puzzle has distinct colors and patterns that make solving quick and fun. Pieces go together nicely and I had no missing pieces.Artwork:Not a fan. Poorly photoshopped such that sometimes it is difficult to tell what exactly you're looking at - unnatural shadows, objects chopped off at the edges, no real depth of field, and weird "watermarks" where the imprint of a barely-visible object is superimposed on a random part of the image, obviously unintentionally. While the colors and textures make for a fun solve, the finished product is not aesthetically pleasing. Definitely not one to glue and hang on your wall.Mystery/solution:The "solution" does not require deduction, critical thinking, or logic. In fact, if you try to implement these, you will overthink it and miss the obvious. I spent half an hour trying to figure out if there was more to what I was seeing - is the similarity between X and Y meaningful, or just the result of cheap composition? In the end the answer is literally just written on the puzzle. Womp, womp.Overall:If you're curious to try this type of mystery puzzle, you can do worse. But don't set your expectations too high. And only buy it on sale.

Well, I've done four of these 1000 piece mystery jigsaws, and this was the most enjoyable one of all. I didn't tear my hair out; didn't obsess all night over a gob of pieces that were exactly alike (sure seemed to be); fought off an urge to sweep the whole thing onto the floor; read the story a couple of times (doesn't help); and finally ended up with a very satisfying experience as well as a petty interesting picture. These puzzles may get easier with improved technique, but technique won't help if so many of the pieces are similar in pattern and color. Then it's mostly a hard slog, but worth your time.I've learned to sort the pieces immediately into like colors and patterns, and I rotate my position regularly so I can see each part with "new eyes." It helps that the bottom on the puzzle has identifying info (production/publishing co. and date). And I measure each section of the frame as it gets built, so I can correctly position all four sides. Believe me, this helps. Some of the puzzles I worked with are horizontal and some vertical.The first one took a couple of months, working off and on (grrrrr); the second and third took just over three weeks and some aggravating moments; the Orient Express lasted me nearly two weeks, working with considerable enthusiasm and not one moment of gritting and grinding my teeth.

It was fun and interesting. The story and the puzzle