Sherlock Holmes Puzzles: Lateral Brain Teasers

Wow! What an interesting set of challenges. Between myself and a few friends I have gone through the largess of these activities in such a short space of time. We had a lot of fun answering the questions by trying to access our lateral thought processes and create logical explanations for things that are perhaps naturally illogical or hard to explain.
What a joy!
We also, collectively, appreciated how at the end of the book we have "suggested" rather than exclusive answers... Meaning that while we, in our giggles and fun, achieved a much broader range of answers - if there was reason then we had succeeded!
What a delight!

This was a brilliant book. It reminded me of the books we had for when we were on long journeys in the '80s. Great fun and good for keeping the mind active.

I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was as I had another of this Authors books and I didn't enjoy it.

The answers at the end are suggested rather than definitive so you could have your own ones. Main drawback was having to scroll through the whole book to get to the answers, would be much better in hard copy form.

Thanks to Netgalley and Quatro Publishing - Well Fleet Press for the ARC. My review is my own opinion.

Lateral thinking requires the puzzler to ignore pure logic and challenges them to look beyond what they see. In some instances, you need to use your imagination. Often with these puzzles there is more than one solution and the solutions themselves can raise more questions.

This book includes a mixture of language and numerical puzzles of varying degrees of difficulty. The harder puzzles were challenging but certainly kept me engaged. As the title suggest, there is reference to Sherlock Holmes, with the premise being that the reader has been tasked with helping his side kick, Dr John H. Watson, in solving the puzzles set to him by Holmes.

If you enjoy puzzles that are that little bit different and make you “think outside the box”, then this is a book for you. There are 100 puzzles in total with the solutions printed at the back. I certainly enjoyed it and would recommend it to any puzzlers.

Many thanks to Quarto Publishing Group – Wellfleet Press and NetGalley UK for the review copy.

Sherlock Holmes Puzzles: Lateral Brain Teasers is a new volume in the Sherlock Holmes Puzzles series. Released 27th Oct 2020 by Quarto on their Wellfleet Press imprint, it's 128 pages and available in paperback format.

These "lateral thinking" brain teasers are not one-answer-fits-all puzzles. They require the reader to use imagination and creativity to formulate solutions to indefinite questions: "what could be behind this door?", "what other phrases can be abbreviated with the acronym b.i.r.d.?" and more along those lines.

The thematic thread which ties the puzzles together is Holmes and Watson. They're honestly extraneous to the puzzles, they're only there to lend flavor. There are several different types of puzzles repeated throughout the book with new words and phrases. The book does include a solution chapter with at least some answers to the puzzles.

It's an interesting concept. I think this would make a nice library selection, or a good lockdown gift for a puzzle fan.

Three and a half stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes

Fun logic puzzle book! Colorful illustrations make the book fun to look through. The sherlock theme throughout the book adds another fun element to the book of teasers.