Crime and Puzzlement 2 [Paperback]

Lawrence Treat (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1982 | Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

If you cut your detecting teeth on Crime and Puzzlement, you'll sink them into Crime and Puzzlement 2 with glee . . . Once again, You are the Detective! Alone (or was he?) in his locked room, Torrick the truckdiver succumbed, but to what, and why? Arthur, on his way downstairs for another drink, slipped, or did he? Siegfried Jones was obviously knifed on his way to the operating room, but by whom? Read the story. Ponder the picture. Seize the pencil in fist and solve it yourself! With the applause for Crime and Puzzlement still ringing in his ears, Lawrence Treat has conjured up an even more addictive and fiendishly delightful encore. Who finished Isabella Spiegel? Why did Mr. Grange topple dead from his saddle, and what was the catch in Mr. Fishhead's alibi? It's up to you, the armchair detective, to find out!

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: David R Godine (May 1, 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879234407
• ISBN-13: 978-0879234409
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.8 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #72,220 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #53 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Entertainment > Puzzles & Games > Puzzles

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great read!, January 11, 2009

By 

C. Nakamura "Just another Mommy!" (Hawaii) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Crime and Puzzlement 2 (Paperback)

Great book. Not like the others. You have to use your reasoning and observation skills to solve these mysteries!

4.0 out of 5 stars In this puzzle game, everyone is guilty until proved innocent., March 3, 2008

By 

racapowski (Great Falls, MT USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Crime and Puzzlement 2 (Paperback)

The Crime & Puzzlement series is a winning combination of novel and puzzle. Each installment offers twenty-four illustrated crime scenarios the reader is challenged to solve, sketched by introductions with enough wit and narrative talent to breathe life into the characters and engage the imagination in what other hands would be an impossibly limited space. It's an accomplished, compact take on the mystery, and the series deserves attention from devotees of the genre and fans of brainteasers alike.

Consider this an endorsement for both the series and this volume. Excuse me, then, while I explore the differences between this first sequel and the original.

A fellow reviewer indicted the original Crime & Puzzlement for being too easy, seemingly geared for a teen audience. I did not agree. I do not think, however, that he would find the same fault in the sequel, which is a good deal tougher. Care has been taken to include a good mix of challenge - we still have a couple puzzles that rest on things like handedness or follow-the-footsteps, but we also have a number of conundrums that really require you to think like a culprit or witness to uncover inconsistencies with the evidence that are otherwise not at all apparent. We have stuff like "Say It with Flowers", where one must forage a thicket of clues to piece together the previous presence and actions of an unknown party. We have puzzles like "Stretcher Case", simple if you know for what to look, but providing a neat "a-ha" moment if you initially don't. Included also is the deftness of "Tear It", which seems ridiculously simple until it completely blindsides you. In a devious twist, for a couple cases, the Socratic series of questions that usually leads you to the solution actually serves to distract you from a crucial flaw in the case's premise. This second time around, author Lawrence Treat feels comfortable in playing with the medium he pioneered and upping the deductive ante.

For some puzzles, though, the challenge is a bit artificial. Are you familiar with the term "crosswordese", used to denounce crossword clues reliant on previous knowledge of unreasonably obscure facts rather than wordplay or logic? We have too much crosswordese here. At twenty-nine years old, I cannot list the distinguishing characterstics of a bean leaf or blossom or venture how an arsonist would gauge the prevailing wind to determine where to set his blaze. While this isn't a children's series, it does appeal to a wide age range, and basing several entire solutions on such unintuitive facts rather than deduction limits the potential audience. There were also a couple cases where I disagreed with the solutions (regarding "The Custer Dinette": how did she know he was *poisoned*, and how is that less indicting than what the book presents as the clincher?) or where the evidence and conclusions seemed a bit tenuous. (For example, it seems naive to insist that drug-addled criminals would never considering murdering someone they've lured to a remote location and mugged, opting instead to lug him around as a hostage.)

Illustrator-wise, Leslie Cabarga of the dramatic shading is gone, replaced by the capable Kathleen Borowik. Her artwork lacks Cabarga's Art Deco panache but boasts the well-gauged line strength, clean compositions, and lived-in detail the puzzles demand. (I also like how she used rough, undoctored sprays of ink in one puzzle to portray realistic fire damage in an otherwise straightforwardly-drawn kitchen.) The original Crime & Puzzlement, though, had a nice streak of the macabre - nothing unseemly, but enough to give certain puzzles a nice creepy thrill. Though the happy chef clock overlooking the housewife kitchen murder here is a fine concession, Crime & Puzzlement 2 typically lacks the original's sense of mischief, and the collection seems a bit less lively for it. Secondly, while generally strong, the art does indeed derail the puzzle in a couple cases. A certain object we are meant to perceive as cracked looks merely artistically jaunty; how a car is parked in the middle of the highway instead of off the road so as not to impede traffic is supposed to be a major clue, but said "highway" is drawn as a single-lane dirt back road that would have no other travelers for hours, rendering that consideration irrelevant.

Regardless of the new pluses and minuses, we still have Lawrence Treat's sharp prose - like the art, a little less daffy here, but still droll and evocative - and another helping of the uniquely involving puzzles not found anywhere else. It's a different mix than than the first Crime & Puzzlement, but if you enjoyed the original, you shouldn't hesitate to pick this up.

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT BUY!, February 4, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Crime and Puzzlement 2 (Paperback)

I have always loved mysteries, and this book allows you to be the supersleuth. To solve these short mysteries you look at the picture of the scene of the crime and answer questions to figure out the culprit. I LOVED THIS BOOK!