Customer Reviews

Crime And Puzzlement: 24 Solve-them-yourself Picture Mysteries (Bk.1)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Man, these books were my _favorites_ in middle school. Fifteen years later, the original still hasn't lost its sheen. Looking for mystery picture puzzles with charm and wit? Plunk your $8.95 here. Adults will like them as well as teenagers.

Each puzzle greets the reader with a detailed mise-en-crime scene (or piece of evidence) and a few short but vivid expository paragraphs. Each of the subsequent yes-or-no questions prompts the armchair detective to examine a different aspect of the evidence closely, leading her down the path of deduction toward the proper conclusion ("Do you think Rubitsh had been fishing?" "Is there evidence of a fight?"). Not that these will always make the solution apparent, of course, but if you don't care for the hand-holding, you can, as the text suggests, dive right for the final question. Do, though, stick to working through the entire question list for the toughies; it points your eyes to the details which pack the pictures and might otherwise escape notice. (Bonus: the questions are a useful aid in teaching logic to younger readers - if the perp used an everyday object from the scene as a weapon, for example, was the crime likely premeditated or spontaneous?)

Competently-constructed mystery puzzles litter the market, though; the style is why these books have stuck with me for fifteen years. Cabarga illustrates with homey detail but also deliberately co-opts the dramatic lighting and shading (and occasional fedoras) of '40's noir. (There's even the tiniest splash of Art Deco.) As a result, every focal point has stage presence and a little "Maltese Falcon" mystique. Treat's writing lays out exposition crisply and cleanly, but he also grabs you with wry humor dropped coolly and off-the-cuff, mixing the droll with the daffy ("As the clock struck five, ninety-year-old Mrs. Mirabel Fallwell dropped out of the window of her spacious twelfth-floor apartment. On the fourth stroke she struck." "Romano Rubitsh was undoubtedly the most hated man in Endicott County, and his life was often threatened, even by children."). As I can personally attest, even if you've already solved every puzzle, the prose and illustrations are a pleasure to revisit. Together, the artists create menace and atmosphere, painting in the corners and making these goofy little scenarios come to unique life in the space of an investigation.

(About that menace - as several of the puzzles evince, Treat and Cabarga understand that intrigue and mystery can benefit from a *touch* of the macabre. The curtain from Mrs. Fallwell's apartment window flies ripped in the wind, still fluttering from her lapsed grip; a burlap hood shadows the mouth and eyes of a strangled bookworm while a smiling Santa doll perches on his chest; the childlike scrawl and misspellings in the "note from a desperado" convince us that, yes, something "terribel" will happen to Josephine if the villain is not stopped. Nothing's overtly gory, mind you, though much is certainly unnerving. The cover intro gives a good sample; flip through in the bookstore if you're a parent on the fence. Again, middle-school kids should be safe.)

My fellow reviewer faulted "Crime & Puzzlement" for taking latitudes with logic; I can only surmise that he was Johnnie Cochran. I can find precious little here that is unintuitive. I find plenty, though, that is evocative, entertaining, and proof that puzzles don't have to be dry, perfunctory scraps to be tossed away after the blanks are filled in. The title's been in print for almost thirty years, yet it still stands as one of the most innovative iterations of the craft.

Lawrence Treat presents 23 (not 24 as the book's cover claims) pictures of crime scenes and invites the reader to solve the crimes. To aid the reader, Treat presents lists of questions that more often than not make the solution obvious. Still, the book represents an hour or two worth of mental exercise, and the reader is of course under no obligation to read the questions that may telegraph the solutions. For an inquisitive and mentally-active teenager, this book might be a great deal of fun. The most significant criticism of the book is that in a few cases, Treat relies on probabilities that are not close enough to certainties. In other words, at times the solution depends upon one or two educated guesses that could very well be wrong. However, as an exercise in deductive thinking, reading the book should provide a young adult with an afternoon well spent. (The twenty-fourth puzzle is not a crime to be solved but instead a pair of pictures in which the reader is to find the differences between the two.)

Some of the 24 are complete, coherent, and the solutions are logical and clever. Others seem completely arbitrary (a half price ticket means someone is a senior citizan? A stool only falls forward if someone falls out of a window? After a couple of puzzles, the author's sense of humor begins to grate and interfere with the puzzle genre -- I was looking for puzzles I could present to students that they could try and solve (and so had a definite solution), not quasi-puzzles with elaborate solutions that do not necessarily follow from the scenario and illustration. I was disappointed.

This was one of the favorite activities I put together as an Activities Coordinator for the seniors, ages 65-94 yrs old. Just before dinner we would gather and I gave each resident a copy of the crime. We read it together and went over the forensics. They had fun and it stimulated their thinking, connecting, visual, and hearing skills. Exercise for the brain can be fun!

I used to do these books when I was younger. I am now teaching history. One of the first activities we do is how historians are like detectives and I have used some of the crimes from the book to get my students to open their eyes, make decisions, etc. It is a great tool to get them thinking.

Crime and Puzzlement: 24 Solve-them-yourself Picture Mysteries
Book 1
The design of the book and the title caught my eye. I enjoy solving puzzles. I was looking for something new to motivate my students. I found it! It starts off rather simple and then becomes more challenging. This book can become an alternative to the electronic games of today. It is a great way to motivate your students. I made them detectives and they had to solve the mystery. There are several different ways to use this book. It can be used a reader to improve comprehension or as a group activity. Whatever, if you love to solve puzzles, mysteries and aspire to be a detective, this book is definitely for you. I highly recommend it.

I first found this book at my local library and enjoyed it so much I decided to purchase the first three books in the series.

Each puzzle consists of a crime scene sketch as well as a description of the events leading up to the situation depicted in the picture. Through a series of brain-busting questions, your goal is to deduce what really happened. In the back of the book there are solutions to each mini-mystery so you can check your answers (or cheat).

The clues are really ingenious - for example: the placement of silverware on a table may tell you the killer was left-handed, the direction of shards of glass from a broken window may indicate that the robbery was staged, or the collection of items left in an abandoned hotel room may allow you to recreate a description of a man no one has seen.

Great fun for mystery/puzzle enthusiasts!

* A NOTE TO PARENTS: The book does feature murder and death throughout and may not be suitable for the youngest of amateur detectives.

I just love these books. It's an easy read, but it makes you think and use your reasoning and observation skills.