Five-Minute Mysteries: 37 Challenging Cases of Murder and Mayhem for You to Solve [Paperback]

Ken Weber (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2, 1989 | Age Level: 10 and up

Thirty-seven cases of murder and mayhem you can solve in under five minutes!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ken Weber is an expert craftsman of the short, compelling tales of intrigue. He has written six previous Five Minute Mysteries books, and Games magazine selected one as a best book of 1989. He is also the author of One-Up Trivia, a unique take on trivia books. He lives in Toronto, Canada.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Running Press (May 2, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0894716905
• ISBN-13: 978-0894716904
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #736,418 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A non-traditional approach to logic puzzles., June 28, 2004

By 

M. E. Volmar - See all my reviews

This review is from: Five-Minute Mysteries: 37 Challenging Cases of Murder and Mayhem for You to Solve (Paperback)

This book contains thirty-seven puzzles aimed at testing your logic, perception and knowledge, and which only take around five minutes to read and solve.
Organized in a numbered format and placed in the first section of the book, the puzzles are presented as a short story of a mystery or an unsolved crime-case, posing, at the end of each, a question or two for the reader to answer. The assortment of mysteries offered includes murder, theft, blackmail and deception, among others; and they are often clever, engrossing, and even funny. These mysteries will test both your reading and comprehension skills, as well as your problem solving abilities.
The solutions, sequentially arranged in the second section of the book, can usually, and frequently too easily, be arrived at through the clues contained within the mysteries. Only a few exceptions, which rely on what seemed to me as somewhat esoteric facts, not necessarily familiar to every reader, are a bit frustrating. But, since each solution gives both the answers to each mystery and line of reasoning used in figuring them out, some light is shed on those obscure facts.
One thing lacking in this book is an introduction or foreword, which might have given this volume a better overall presentation, the author a way to explain his purpose in putting this book together, and the reader a chance to get to know a little more about the author.
Overall, this book is a good and entertaining way to get launched into the world of the games of logic.
--Reviewed by M. E. Volmar

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Challenge yourself or your child, December 3, 2000

By 

"wgerstmyer" (Concord, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Five-Minute Mysteries: 37 Challenging Cases of Murder and Mayhem for You to Solve (Paperback)

Most of these terse stories are sharp and clever in their ability to give you the clue that will "solve the case" right within the short tale. The few that do this poorly you can easily forgive in that at least a couple of stories will force themselves on your mind or create a bit of trivia that you will never forget. For parents with young readers these mini-mysteries are especially useful in identifying those readers who can sort through a varity of information and discern what is needed or what is false. For voracious readers you will find these are similar to, and condernsed versions of, the famous "Encyclopedia Brown" and "Mini-Mysteries" series of tales by Sobol (which were aimed expressly at youth).

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unique, engaging, but can be esoteric, March 11, 2001

By 

Lynn (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Five-Minute Mysteries: 37 Challenging Cases of Murder and Mayhem for You to Solve (Paperback)

If you like solving puzzles, but want something different from the traditional word or logic puzzles that you are used to, you'll like this book. The idea of making each puzzle a mystery that needs to be solved is both clever and engaging.

One of the nicest things about each mystery is that it does only take about 5 minutes to read through, making it easy to pick up the book at any time and complete an entire mystery.

The biggest problem with the book is that the solutions oftentimes rely on facts that I find a bit esoteric, such as how certain airplane models are built. But, not all of the mysteries are like this. I would recommend this book to any puzzle lover.