Summary: 3.0/5.0
I recently attended a murder mystery dinner at the Adams Mystery Playhouse in Denver. While we were successful in solving the mystery and the actors were clearly enjoying themselves, the mystery-solving aspect of the evening was underwhelming.
The Mystery
We attended the "Death by Chocolate" mystery. The first puzzle was distributed as we arrived. We were sent on a scavenger hunt as we waited for all the participants to arrive. The end result of this puzzle was a single word. The event featured the traditional "scenes" leading up to and following the "murder," mingling with the actors, and an opportunity to walk around and read clues spread throughout the room. Unfortunately, most of the evening was filler content, literal song and dance that was marginally appropriate to the theme, but mostly included for the sole purpose of running out the clock. It was as if every other segment was an intermission to the mystery.
Over the course of the dinner, each suspect accumulated an equal number of clues that pointed to him or her as the culprit. Normally, this would not be cause for complaint. However, there was no real brainwork involved in determining which evidence was pertinent and which was misdirection. Ultimately, the final solution to the mystery was based upon listening attentively for that word from the first puzzle to be spoken during the course of the dinner. The suspect to whom that word was mentioned was the murderer. This was was extremely disappointing and anticlimactic. Did the organizers really have that little faith in the audience's ability to solve a legitimate mystery? My suspicion is that this method was chosen to allow the cast to rotate the murderer and make it more difficult for audience members to spoil it for future participants. While I can understand that intent, it felt cheap as an attendee hoping for a more challenging mystery experience.
Conclusion
Overall, the dinner was still an enjoyable experience. However it did not seem to be targeted at mystery enthusiasts, but instead a more casual, or less-than-sober, audience. If you're looking for a light-hearted event with a vague mystery theme to attend with friends, this could be a fun choice, but if you're looking to do some more active mystery solving, you may want to look elsewhere.