No comments about The Sun Two-Speed Crossword Book 4 (Crossword).

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No comments about The "Daily Telegraph" Cryptic Crosswords (Crossword).

4 comments about Random House Guide to Cryptic Crosswords: How to Solve America's Trickiest Puzzles, Plus 65 of Cox & Rathvon's. . . (Other).

1. The American crosswording public is largely unfamiliar with the cryptic crossword, and are baffled when one turns up. No more! Cox and Rathvon introduce us to this clever and entertaining form of wordplay, taking a very effective phased approach, teaching us the tricks one by one until we're ready to set off on our own. The book also includes eight practice puzzles and 65 full-sized puzzles, graded by difficulty. Anyone who loves word games will want this book. But beware! You'll become hooked on cryptic crosswords; don't say I didn't warn you!



2. Cox and Rathvon are the best in the biz at cryptic crosswords, and this is an excellent introduction to their work. They have written a very clear and helpful explanation for how cluing works in cryptics, and also a variety of puzzles to practice with, ranging from those for rank beginners to some "variety" cryptics that will challenge savvy, experienced solvers.



3. For those of you who are getting bored with conventional crossword puzzles and want to try something different, try a cryptic crossword. It combines the grid and clues of a regular crossword with a bit of wordplay to make it tougher and more interesting. This book provides excellent instructions on how to solve one, with plenty of examples and 8 warm-up puzzles. Next come 15 standard block cryptic puzzles for you to practice on. Then comes the type of cryptic puzzle that Cox and Rathvon are known for: their variety cryptics. These puzzles have a extra twist to them, such as missing clues or grid letters, words changing direction or position in the grid, modified letters, and other devilish permutations to keep you on your toes. These 50 variety cryptics are taken from the pages of the Atlantic Monthly. Finally, Cox and Rathvon provide a couple of chapters on the rules and strategies for creating your own cryptic puzzles.

   Once you get the hang of it, solving cryptics is like eating potato chips... you simply can't stop. So you will be happy to know that there is a companion book to this one, called "Atlantic Monthly Cryptic Crosswords," that picks up where this one leaves off and provides another 45 devilishly difficult variety cryptics for you to enjoy.




4. This is the book that got me started on cryptic puzzles. I had read various free pamphlets offered by newspapers and magazines that ran British cryptics and I had looked at online guides. It didn't all come together until I worked through this book. One nice thing is that, in addition to explaining the various types of clues and how to solve them, the authors provide lots of progressively more difficult practice puzzles that slowly but surely get you into the whole cryptic puzzle mindset.
   
   One minor drawback... This book may not completely prepare you for the difficulty of The Times of London puzzle and other British cryptics. Perhaps the authors could do a follow up volume that would prepare Americans for a few of the eccentricities of British puzzles?
   
   Still, this is the best introduction to cryptics I have encountered. Warning: Once you learn how to do the cryptics, traditional puzzles, even challenging New York Times puzzles, may seem a little dull.

1 comments about Sit & Solve Movie Crosswords (Sit & Solve Series).

1. The ONLY good thing about this item was that it was so small that it was able to fit in my purse. Out of the whole book, I wasn't able to finish one puzzle. The clues were hard, had nothing to do with the answers and overall, confusing. I do not recommend this one for anyone, not even my worst enemy!!!

No comments about The "Daily Telegraph" Book of Codewords.

No comments about A Crash Course in Cracking Cryptic Crosswords (Crossword).

No comments about Sit & Solve Commuter Crosswords (Sit & Solve Series).

5 comments about The Crossword Murder (Crossword Mysteries).

1. I don't do crosswords, I hate them, however the five puzzles do not interfer with the enjoyment of this story. Rosco and Belle are great fun and this is a great story



2. 5/9/03 I purchased the book at a small suburban bookstore ,which specializes in fiction due to the creative jacket of the book(which has a hand filling in the crossword spaces with a red Bic pen... ...the 306 page paperback was not a total intrigue.. Its many puzzles(Pgs 68,126,180,234,260 and a post script puzzle Pg 297)(and "answers" Pgs 301-306)..as well as a little humor in the use of a few Nursery Rhymes as "thoughts to ponder"(Yankee Doodle Dandy/Peter,Peter Pumkin Eater) and the mention of a few current people/entity(s)(e.g. Pg 189 "..calling his office or car phone would be useless and dialing 911 seemed not only a tad hysterical but also premature"),places,things*(e.g.Pg 137 "her chin resting in the palm of her left hand as her right hand drummed the 'Herald's'crossword puzzle with the tip of a red Bic* pen" &(Pg 284/285) a raft of '3' letter Hawaiian words:"lei,hoi,ava,hee,hui,koa,aku,imu,poi" & 4 letter Greek of "Ares,Hera,Leda,Cora,Nike,Hebe,Zeus,Eros,Gaia,Eris,Letodo" spark curious interest ongoingly on everything but solving the mystery.



3. I picked up this book while shopping one day, intrigued by the fact that it included some crossword puzzles and I am a fan of them. After reading the book, I realised the crossword puzzles were extraneous and that I did not have to do the puzzles to help figure out who committed the murder.
   Private investigator Rosco Polycrates is hired by the mother of a murder victim (crossword editor for a local newspaper) to investigate the death, which is first ruled natural causes. He has the help of sexy (of course) but married Anabella Graham, the crossword maven for the rival newspaper.
   The writing was lively in some spots, but amateurish in others, particularly in its characterizations of the secondary characters, who mostly came across as stereotypes - ugly secretary in love with handsome boss, prissy society column writer, cheating aging sex goddess married to older man, etc.
   Not for sure if I will pick up the second in the series or not.



4. In this series opener of the pseudonymous Nero Blanc's crossword mysteries, private eye Rosco Polycrates investigates the murder of crossword editor Thompson Briephs. Briephs is a scion of the local aristocracy, the son of imposing patrician Sara Briephs and the nephew of her brother, democratic senator Hal Crane. Briephs is also a bit of a loon. Eschewing his family's more traditionally tasteful lifestyle, Briephs lives alone on an island in a house that was built to his specifications, a labyrinthine, red-walled replica of an ancient Minoan palace. This is unlikely in the extreme, of course, but it does provide an excuse for numerous classical references in the book, including a quotation from Sophocles' Ajax: "Silence gives the proper grace to women."
   
   The character quoting Sophocles with disapproval is a crossword editor herself, Thompson Briephs's counterpart in a rival newspaper. Anabelle Graham is beautiful and intelligent, capable of reciting a list of four-letter Greek goddesses even in trying circumstances, and she is, unfortunately for Rosco, married. As the solution of Briephs's murder depends on the solution of a series of crossword puzzles--anticipating his demise, Briephs left clues--Belle becomes involved with Rosco's investigation and interested in the private eye himself.
   
   Although The Crossword Mystery strains credibility in its description of Briephs's island home, the book is a good read, and the hesitant flirtation between Rosco and Belle is fun to watch. Crossword enthusiasts in particular will enjoy the book: it includes six puzzles for readers to solve along with Belle, among them Harrison Briephs's posthumous cryptics.
   
   Reviewed by Debra Hamel, author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece



5. If you'd like the intersection of non-gory murder mysteries and crossword puzzles, this series would be a natural for you. Nero Blanc is a pseudonym for a husband-and-wife writing team (black and white, for the squares on a crossword grid, get it?). After seeing the documentary "Wordplay," I went looking for more information on the world of crossword puzzles and stumbled across this series. I then read an interview online in which the husband explains that, separately, his wife's style is flowing and lyrical, while his work is in international thrillers, with gritty characters, and quick and often coarse "tough guy" dialogue. Well. I give this book a C-. The story line is actually quite good, but the dialogue is totally hokey most of the time. Moreover, one minute the characters are acknowledging, internally if not otherwise, their respective smarts, and then you turn the page and they are expressing amazement that someone could possibly know or have figured out the most basic, obvious thing. There's a budding romance embedded in the story, and one minute the characters make "flawed adult" sense, which I can buy, and the next minute they have the reasoning powers of a 2-year-old, which I can't. In other words, by dividing the writing tasks they way the authors seem to have done, not only does the style seem to change for inexplicable reasons and at inexplicable times, but consequently even the personalities of the characters bounce around, which really undermines their credibility. I'm going to give the series one more try to see if the authors' second outing was any better, but that's as much reading time as I'll allocate to this series if I don't see marked improvement.

No comments about 100 Baffling Crosswords.