Mystery Puzzle – My Jigsaw Journal

Irons in the Fire – Bepuzzled – 135 pieces

Normally “mystery” puzzles aren’t my thing. Not because I don’t care for the mystery aspect of it, but because almost every single one I’ve ever done or looked at has had terrible quality. This was a thrift store purchase though, and for some reason I was willing to take a chance on it this time.

It’s a good thing too, because this is the best quality puzzle from this brand that I’ve ever seen. The pieces were thick (like, Ravensburger thick) and fit together well, if slightly loosely. It’s a double-sided puzzle, so one side is shinier and feels a little more stiff; but that is how double-sided puzzles are, no matter the brand. Overall, the quality was impressive.

**I’m going to say that I’ve done a few Bepuzzled puzzles before, and my impression is that overall the quality is underwhelming, and at times REALLY bad. My opinion is only for this puzzle, not the brand.**

Here’s the mystery…. Four business partners are golfing; Howie, Will, Flip, and Duff. Someone has been selling company secrets and a private detective has been hired by Howie to find out who. Howie gets attacked and kidnapped after the round of golf, and what is found is the following picture. (There’s much more info to the story, but this is the gist of it)

I’m giving the solution below, so stop reading here if you have this puzzle and don’t want any spoilers.

What the police found was everything in disarray, but four clubs laid out neatly in a row next to his open cell phone. The 3, 5, 4, and 7 irons in a row – using the number/letter combinations on the phone – spell out who was stealing company secrets and who arranged to have Howie taken.

Flip.

I had a great time with this puzzle, and found that it was very difficult to stay away from. Even when I needed to take a break and rest, all I wanted to do was get back to the board and continue the assembly. That’s not always a good thing for me physically, I love to puzzle so much that when one is this engrossing I tend to push myself farther than I should because I want to get back in the puzzle room and get back to assembling. (I always pay for it later, not a good thing. But I keep doing it, because I just can’t help myself. 🤷‍♀️)

Safari Park 2

The picture on the box tells me the types of animals I might be assembling, the color of the car and the clothes the characters are wearing. It also tells me what the premise is – What If the animals were more enterprising than we realized? That what the puzzle image will be. The box also shows one character as they will be in the finished puzzle, and this is always the character I photograph. I try to make sure that I don’t spoil these mystery puzzles for anyone who might have them in their to do pile. It’s such a bummer when they get spoiled for me, I never want to do that to anyone else. You’ll notice that the character I photographed is heavily cropped, if more was shown it would spoil some of the premise.

Normally I don’t show anything other that the one character from these puzzles, but there was something really funny that I just had to show you…

Safari Park 1

I’ve got no eye deer if you find this as funny as I do; it cracked me up!

What If? and Wasgij? puzzles make me very happy. There’s a mystery to solve and I have some hints to what the finished image will be but have to figure it out myself. There’s a real sense of satisfaction and accomplishment when it’s finished. And it’s nice to bring order to the chaos using only the colors and shapes of the pieces.

If you haven’t tried these puzzles I absolutely recommend both series. They both are excellent quality brands and the images are entertaining and great for puzzling. I have so many of them still to do, and I’m looking forward to every single one of them. 💗