Customer Reviews

Five-Minute Crimebusters: Clever Mini-Mysteries

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Mini-mysteries usually give the reader a brief story in which there are buried clues. If they are ferreted out, the mystery is solved and the crimebuster has succeeded.

Some of these mysteries had reasonable answers, but other solutions were marginal at best. (If an outside computer was able to contact one owned by a company, an employee must have provided the code, since hackers apparently don't exist.) More annoying was the use of filler--lots of pictures that don't help solve the crime and may confuse it. (That computer story has a pictured electromagnetic (?)card, but its distincti ve design isn't a clue. Another one depicts three villagers, two of whom appear to have dwarfism. We're to decide whether they are truth-tellers or liars, so does the genetic condition provide a clue? Nope.)

That last story brings up the most annoying kind of filler. Mystery generally implies a crime; crimebusting implies solving a crime. As the book continued, more and more stories had neither. Instead there were the tired old stories about villages of truth-tellers and liars, getting animals across a waterway safely, "logic problems" ("The heaviest baby was born two days later than the Shirley baby, etc. ....Match the names, birthdates and weights.) These are a different type of puzzle, and the last type must be a shock to children and adults who haven't tried them before and don't know how to use a diagram for help to a novice. I suspect that the author was up against a deadline and inserted whatever he could to stretch the length. If you want assorted puzzles and lots of pictures, this is fair. If you want mini-mysteries and crimebusting, try the book by Hy Conrad, Crime Files titles by Jeremy Brown, and the braingle.com section on mysteries.

These short "mind benders" are great puzzling fun! Now that I've finished this book, as well as Five-Minute Whodunits, I'm ready for another. Is there a third Stanwick book in the works?

My son was sent this as a Christmas present. He's hardly the world's most enthusiastic reader, but he has recently become hooked on Alfred Hitchcock films such as Dial M for Murder, and this book was absolutely the best present he got this Christmas -- he says so himself! (First time he's ever said reading material was a good present!)

I find that this book has a challenging but understandable vocabulary for younger readers, the stories are short and don't tax a child's staying power, yet they are engaging. If you're looking for standard mystery stories these aren't them, but if you're looking for something that is engaging, likely to extend a child's vocabulary without turning them off, and offers the fun of logical deduction (without turning it into a school exam), this is it. My son likes making short films with his friends, and the stories here are ideal for just that sort of effort: with a minimum requirement for scenery or costume, easily read and memorized dialogue and a bit of intrigue like the 'big' films, they can't be beat. I'm going to ask the giver of this gift to get him the others for his birthday in April.

I bought this for my niece who was 6 and very with it and smart, she loved this book. Really challenges critical thinking and was fun to do with her... fun to play with her on this level and also, she loved to take it and do it on her own. Success!