I've always been a huge fan of puzzles and brain teasers. My curiosity was piqued when I came across <em>Crime Puzzles: Short Forensic Mysteries to Challenge Your Inner Amateur Detective</em>. Part of a series of <em>60-Second Brain Teasers</em> by M. Diane Vogt, this was certainly an intriguing collection, though I think 60 seconds is a bit of an exaggeration. Whether because the answer is too simple you find yourself second-guessing whether it could possibly be correct or you're just not picking up on something, these puzzles will probably take more than 60 seconds.

<b>What can you deduce?</b>

As much as I adore puzzles, I don't personally feel like these were very <em>puzzle-esque</em>. Sure, you have to figure out the answer to the question and determine based on minimal knowledge what occurred. But, at the same time, much of it relies on outside background information that not everyone may have. Not only that, but there's not really much <em>puzzling</em> going on, at least in the way I would like. You're really just presented with a scenario and prompted to answer a question. It's not like the kind of puzzle you have to work at.

Frankly, I kind of just felt like any time I was able to determine the answer it was either because the answer was quite obvious or because I'd gotten lucky. Few of the puzzles actually left me feeling impressed. I also found myself second-guessing answers often, thinking that the simple solution was <em>too</em> simple. Other times, the answers were so obscure it just seemed silly.

<b>the entertainment factor</b>

Okay, so despite my complaints, this book was actually a lot of fun? I was definitely looking for something else when I picked it up, but I did genuinely find several of the puzzles engaging and entertaining. Plus, there are some pretty cool pieces of artwork decorating each scenario that I enjoyed well enough.

I feel like these puzzles could be enjoyed in a number of circumstances from long car trips and bedtime reading to a party with friends. It's fun, just not quite as fun as I'd hoped.

<em>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</em>

A backdoor introduction to deductive reasoning, the puzzles are meant to be digested quickly and provided minimal information. Some readers may be frustrated by the lack of detail or direction as to the background inferences and knowledge required to suss out the puzzles, the sheer number (65) and variety of subjects should hold a reader's interest. The book would be ideal for a long car trip to entertain curious youngsters with a penchant for sleuthing. They will learn much about the science of criminal detection.

I really enjoyed some of these puzzles and especially the crime element, but some of the puzzles weren't about logic or noticing the small details etc, some were just based on your knowing certain scientific facts, like identical twins having the same DNA but different prints etc, and I feel this let it down as these weren't puzzles, just a fact you either know or don't, and unless someone watches a lot of forensic files like me, I doubt they'd know them

**I received an e-ARC from NetGalley for an honest review**

Overall, the idea behind the book is a great one, and it's something to pass the time. The answers to the puzzles can be found at the back of the book, so luckily you won't be left hanging if you can't figure out the answers.

The print layout and illustrations were nice, and the colors were engaging, making for a book that was nice to look at for longer periods of time.

I know that the puzzles are really just 60 second brain teasers, but I really wanted there to be more to it. This book seems geared more towards younger ages, or someone who has never watched more than a couple of episodes of crime shows. I wanted to love this book, but unfortunately, it just didn't click with me.

I really loved the idea behind this book - I'm a huge fan of crime novels and (through this and my own reading) have learnt a lot about murder investigations. I hoped that this would be an entertaining way of learning more about crime scene investigation and forensic science.

In lots of ways, this book is fun. It looks beautiful and each of the puzzles is laid our clearly. The answers are in the back of the book - but I really think this is one that works better as a physical book than an e-book as it was a pain to find the solutions when you have to scroll through the whole book.

Personally, I didn't find the puzzles particularly tricky - I think this would be a good introduction to forensics but probably isn't for those with a lot of prior knowledge (I'm not a scientist - just an engaged crime reader!) I can imagine that these puzzles would be fun to do with teenage children but sadly my children are too young to test this theory!

Overall, I think this would be an engaging and fun book to dip into if you want to test your observation skills and learn about forensics. It didn't quite hit the spot for me but would make a nice gift for armchair detectives.

I received a copy of this book to review from Netgalley. Thank you for the opportunity.
This book was fun and an interesting way to pass the time. It is creative and encourages critical thinking. I did the puzzles with my family and we all enjoyed it as it was suitable for all ages.
I would recommend this book to all fans of puzzles and detectives.

This is really more of a YA workbook, not so much a book for adults. The graphics are charming, but the "brain teasers" are not so much.

This is a fantastic book of crime brain teasers! I got through this so quickly but wished I'd saved it to do a few a day.

The puzzles really make you think which both fun and educational.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this E-book to review.

Thought-provoking and educational.

I quite enjoyed this book. It is well written and seems to be based, in large part, on real crimes. The puzzles range from quite simple to fairly challenging, but obviously the experience will be different for each reader. The answers are all available, at the back, so the reader is never frustrated, and the puzzles are all cleverly designed to have only one right answer.

The only flaw, for me, was that one of the puzzles was USA-centred, so I could not realistically have spotted the solution, but even that puzzle taught me about observation. There are also snippets of information in the puzzle answers, about forensic science and practices.

An enjoyable set of tests for the amateur sleuth.

I’m sorry, but I don’t see who would spend $13 in this book. If some of these “mysteries” were on the back of the paper, maybe I’ll entertain myself reading through them; as it is, I won’t be recommending this book to anyone. I spend part of the morning and the majority of the afternoon reading these ‘cases’ out loud trying to get my mom engaged but we just couldn’t care enough: the cases are just TOO basic and simple, or too incoherent, to the point where the ‘solutions’ are just more info in most of cases.

Now, all of that I can overlook, but there were instances when serious topics where badly handled. That way, in at least two instances girls were being stalked by a man and: the first one, a 20 years old, tell her friend her boyfriend is stalking him and getting violent (shows bruises which yeah, lack of vitamin and heart problems or whatever, he didn’t need to touch her, ok?), and the second one is actively being followed and that is clearly stated by the case but the moment she asks for her brother to stay on the phone while she enters her house the author claims “she knew she sounded like a total idiot” and NO, YOU DON’T SOUND LIKE AN IDIOT FOR BEING SCARED OF A MAN WHO IS FOLLOWING YOU AROUND and breaking and entering into your home. What on earth.

So, yeah. Lovely cover. Cool edition, though the fact that the solutions are in the back is difficult for e-readers, but I’m not recommending this boring, either easy or ridiculous, book.

This had the potential to be a good book; I love a good puzzle. But, the layout was not conducive to a puzzle book - read a puzzle, then spend 30secs scrolling through the ebook to find the solution only to find it on a page with adjacent puzzles, so I had to cover half the page so I wouldn’t see them! My suggestion - put each solution on a page after the puzzle!

This book is pretty different from what I expected. Although the puzzles are intended to be short, I thought a lot more detail was needed to comprehensively analyze the situation! Some of the solutions also required some outside knowledge, so it was a little confusing to know what the puzzle was getting at at first. These crime puzzles probably aren't great for over-thinkers like me, but they were still fun to read and think about every once in awhile. I wish the author would have to fewer but more in-depth puzzles, or maybe a mix of both.

A humdrum look at crime scenes, where we're supposed to think around things and work out the answer to a question – thankfully not always whodunnit it, but who witnessed it, was it even murder, or what? Unfortunately, the piece fails on a couple of levels. One, the scenarios are presented to us in a blandest of styles, and while it doesn't quite equate to an autopsy or police report it's almost as cold and unengaging. Second, the solutions aren't always wonderful – and while I admit to the following middle paragraph containing spoilers, it doesn't in any way contain sour grapes. Just problems.

Take Case Five – the cleaner found dead in the swimming pool. There's little wrong with the solution to the problem, but seeing as the key to the house allegedly disappears, how the heck can the authors pretend that is not relevant?? Scenario number 7 involves USA-only knowledge, boo hiss. Case 14 proves unsolvable because the word "shelter" as a clue is one of two needed; spoiler alert – it's not a homeless shelter here.

Those might be enough for a 'three strikes and you're out' declaration, but on the whole the solutions are a mixture of the unknowable and the patently obvious. I still think that's a fault only on a par with the writing style – the book tries to wear an edutainment hat, and in trying to act as a source of forensic knowledge as might be used by crime-fighters, comes across as dry as old rope. One and a half shuriken, then, embedded where they shouldn't be, perhaps.

I loved this book! Thank you to Net Galley and Quarto Publishing Group for allowing me to read and review. As someone who is fascinated with true crime stories and getting to bottom of a mystery, I was so excited to see if I could solve the puzzles in this book. With each story getting progressively harder, I was able to really feel challenged with some and excited by getting others correct. Definitely a must read for all us amateur detectives out there!