The Inquest review – tangled cold case enthrals amateur sleuths

Available online
Viewers collaborate to chase clues and solve a deadly mystery in the follow-up to last year's Jury Duty

Online adventure and puzzle games - the socially distanced cousin of both the escape room and the interactive performance - have emerged as one of the successes of Zoom theatre. They have surprise and engagement on their side, creating genuinely unpredictable, shared live experiences at a time when such experiences are in short supply. The Inquest, a follow-up to last year's Jury Duty, created by Jury Games, delivers on all these fronts.

The show's premise is knowingly responsive to current circumstances. All of us on the video call have been invited to participate as jurors in a remote inquest - a new, Covid-safe initiative to help clear the backlog of unsolved cases. Our mystery involves the drowning of a student in Cambridge 10 years ago. Was it suicide? An accident? Or something more sinister?