Viewers Rise to Rank of Detective

Calling all amateur sleuths. Test your deductive reasoning in “I, Detective,” a brisk and arresting Court TV documentary that challenges viewers to solve a real-life crime.

Tonight’s case centers on Sydney Reso, a respected Exxon executive who mysteriously vanished from his New Jersey home, where his car was found with its motor running at the end of his driveway in 1992. Did he run away? Was he kidnapped? If so, can his wife be considered one of the suspects? And if she wasn’t involved, who was and why?

After establishing the crime, this half-hour program then asks viewers to examine the evidence. Along the way, there are multiple-choice questions to be pondered. An example: As a detective faced with these facts, what would you do? (A) Set up roadblocks. (B) Treat it as a missing-persons case. (C) Call homicide investigators. If you said B, give yourself a gold star. If you did not, forget about filing that application with the FBI.

Also featured are interviews with detectives and other law enforcement officials who recount specific details of the investigation and why they arrived at various conclusions. On this occasion, for instance, police questioned Reso’s wife before moving on to other suspects.

It’s a surprisingly interesting process that plays well at 30 minutes, with armchair detectives likely to be caught up in the case as they would be while watching a good whodunit.

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“I, Detective” can be seen tonight at 9:30 on Court TV.