As the season of giving draws nearer and thoughts inevitably begin to turn to gifts for friends and family, take your pick from two wickedly clever puzzle books that will put even the best of brains to the test.
The Official Agatha Christie Puzzle Book
Agatha Christie Ltd
Do you have the flair, order and method of Hercule Poirot, or the unassuming shrewd intelligence of Miss Marple? Agatha Christie fans and armchair sleuths can put their detective skills to the ultimate test with this brilliant book packed full of one hundred puzzles and a killer mystery to solve!
If you’re game for the whodunnit, with what and why, brush off your moustache, collect your knitting needles and put your little grey cells to good use in the case of the missing librarian. With perplexing puzzles left scattered throughout the library to solve, can you complete them and follow the trail of the crime?
To whet keen puzzlers’ appetites, readers begin the fun by unscrambling these anagrams of the Agatha Christie classics you’ll come across inside the book … DRUM ON THREE EXPERT SENIORS; FORUM FOR FINDING DAFT TYPO; RARE MUD INDUCES ANON; BAD SCRUM THERE; DAME DOLLY FANS; HE HATED NO INLET.
Enjoy word searches and crosswords with a devilish twist, solve secret codes, piece words together to work out codes, complete number games, immerse yourself in logic challenges, and see if you can beat the clock with this new and official puzzling series of events. And don’t despair if the little grey cells let you down… all the answers are (thankfully) at the end of the book!
(Laurence King Publishing, paperback, £16.99)
Lateral: 100 Fiendish Questions to Make You Think Differently
Tom Scott and David Bodycombe
Why are Swiss army knives red, which type of alcoholic drink – when added to ice – becomes something a child could consume legally, and what sort of person would be interested in buying exactly 1.91 US dollars?
If your puzzler brain likes to think outside the box, look no further than this fiendish treat from ‘brain boxes’ Tom Scott, host of the Lateral quiz game podcast featuring weird questions with wonderful answers, and the deviously clever David Bodycombe, a professional quiz writer and quiz consultant.
Lovers of lateral thinking and logic puzzles, or anyone who simply enjoys learning fascinating and bizarre facts, will have a field day with Lateral: 100 Fiendish Questions to Make You Think Differently. Can you outsmart questions like why do Australians with swimming pools always make sure there’s a float available and tied to a nearby tree, where in London might you find a regularly scheduled passenger train that nobody will ever board, and why was the small Californian town of Yreka once famous for its local bread supplier?
Thinking differently is the only way forward as you answer each of the 100 off-the-wall questions which have been designed to make you think sideways in order to answer them. So whether you’re in the mood for a solitary challenge, picking questions at random with a friend, or looking for the next big hit for game night, Lateral is your ideal think-outside-the-box choice!
(Macmillan, paperback, £16.99)
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