Who doesn’t like a good mystery!?!?! Timothy James Benzie loves them and It’s A Mystery! is his accolade to them. He loves them so much that he has another show in this year’s Fringe, Solve-Along-A-Murder-She-Wrote. 

It’s A Mystery! is not just a love letter to murder mysteries, but a well researched thesis (after all Benzie does have three Arts degrees) into the genre – books, movies and television series.

He shares his knowledge of what makes a good murder mystery with quite a bit of humour, a little mild audience interaction (no-one is made to look silly and more importantly no-one gets killed) and all of his bubbling personality. Benzie is a charming guy who willingly, energetically and wonderfully shares his passion with us for what seems a very quick hour.

Benzie takes his audience through a well prepared presentation of the rules (Agatha Christie deliberately broke a few of these) and structure of murder mysteries, and the various types. He even gets us involved in a murder mystery of his own creation (as previously stated, no-one gets killed, harmed or maimed).

Murder mysteries tend to involve an outsider looking in on a collective group and Benzie melds this beautifully and emotionally into his own life experience. Something that this reviewer totally connected with. This emotional subtext is totally relevant and does not contaminant the overall fun in any way, but rather completes the package. I’m not saying anymore – to do so would be akin to saying “The murderer is…”.

It’s certainly not a mystery that It’s A Mystery! is an entertaining, fun and unusual look at one of the world’s most popular genres – even the Bible and Where’s Wally? can be considered mysteries, but I’m not telling you why – go and find out for yourself.