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Post by novastar6 on Mar 4, 2017 20:00:21 GMT
Do you like reading these? Are there ever any that have you stumped?
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Bargle
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Post by Bargle on Mar 7, 2017 23:43:40 GMT
Yes, I do read them from time to time. I seem to hit about 50/50 on solves. Considering how many mysteries I've read, that's a poor percentage.
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Post by theravenking on Apr 2, 2017 22:03:18 GMT
I haven't really tried that many.
There was a great one by John Sladek which I really loved as a kid. It took me many hours, but eventually I managed to figure out most of the solutions.
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Post by Nalkarj on Jun 20, 2017 20:50:08 GMT
I haven't really tried that many. There was a great one by John Sladek which I really loved as a kid. It took me many hours, but eventually I managed to figure out most of the solutions. What was Sladek's? I've read Black Aura and "By an Unknown Hand," and intend to read Invisible Green and some of his sci-fi work, but I've never heard that he did a solve-it-yourself mystery.
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Post by theravenking on Jun 21, 2017 15:17:19 GMT
The title is The Book Of Clues, it has 24 solve-it yourself mysteries, there are also pictures and plans and all kinds of fun stuff included.
The only other book of this kind I own is by Ken Wilbur, but I didn't enjoy it that much.
I started reading Mystery Weekly Magazine recently and they usually have a solve-it-yourself mystery at the end of every issue.
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Post by Nalkarj on Jun 21, 2017 15:40:46 GMT
The title is The Book Of Clues, it has 24 solve-it yourself mysteries, there are also pictures and plans and all kinds of fun stuff included. The only other book of this kind I own is by Ken Wilbur, but I didn't enjoy it that much. I started reading Mystery Weekly Magazine recently and they usually have a solve-it-yourself mystery at the end of every issue. Thanks for letting me know, Raven King. I'll be on the lookout for it. As far as solve-it-yourself mysteries go, I do own the sequel to The Baffle Book (which I miraculously found very cheap at a used bookstore in Portsmouth, New Hampshire), which inspired some of Carr's plot ideas in the early '30s.
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Post by Nalkarj on Sept 7, 2017 18:41:55 GMT
novastar6, Bargle, theravenkingHave any of you ever read anything by Hy Conrad? I found his solve-them-yourself mystery collection Historical Whodunits in a used bookshop, and it's a grand little book--with plotting that is both fair-play and far more intricate than one might expect from this kind of story. "Death in the Serene Republic," probably the best story in the book, offers an ingenious variant on Christie's main trick in Evil Under the Sun; other tales--"The Chalice of Cana," "Dead Man's Chest," "Fire and Rain," "Hollywood and Crime"--are equally clever. Problem is, I haven't read anything else Conrad's written that is anywhere near as well-plotted and well-written--does anyone else know this author?
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Post by novastar6 on Sept 7, 2017 22:18:07 GMT
novastar6 , Bargle , theravenking , et al. Has any of you ever read anything by Hy Conrad? I found his solve-them-yourself mystery collection Historical Whodunits in a used bookshop, and it's a grand little book--with plotting that is both fair-play and far more intricate than one might expect from this kind of story. "Death in the Serene Republic," probably the best story in the book, offers an ingenious variant on Christie's main trick in Evil Under the Sun; other tales--"The Chalice of Cana," "Dead Man's Chest," "Fire and Rain," "Hollywood and Crime"--are equally clever. Problem is, I haven't read anything else Conrad's written that is anywhere near as well-plotted and well-written--does anyone else know this author? Never heard of it, I'll have to look into it.
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Bargle
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My incredibly life-like self-portrait
@bargle
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Post by Bargle on Sept 8, 2017 11:59:04 GMT
novastar6 , Bargle , theravenking , et al. Has any of you ever read anything by Hy Conrad? I found his solve-them-yourself mystery collection Historical Whodunits in a used bookshop, and it's a grand little book--with plotting that is both fair-play and far more intricate than one might expect from this kind of story. "Death in the Serene Republic," probably the best story in the book, offers an ingenious variant on Christie's main trick in Evil Under the Sun; other tales--"The Chalice of Cana," "Dead Man's Chest," "Fire and Rain," "Hollywood and Crime"--are equally clever. Problem is, I haven't read anything else Conrad's written that is anywhere near as well-plotted and well-written--does anyone else know this author? I haven't read anything by him. My local library has a copy of another book of solve-them-yourself mysteries by him, "Whodunit Crime Puzzles" I'll add it to my 'To be read' pile.
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Post by Nalkarj on Oct 23, 2017 19:48:36 GMT
Hi, theravenking I was able to get The Book of Clues via interlibrary loan--some good fun, even if there's a bit too math and code-breaking for my tastes (which is intriguing, as both of Sladek's mystery novels, the superb Black Aura and the decent Invisible Green [which I have now also read], are very non-mathematical in nature). My favorite tale was probably the first, "An Arab Death," with that superb clue about Muslim prayer, facing Mecca --which I kicked myself for not seeing before it was revealed. "Berringer's Beach" had a similar clue (which I saw this time) about Mormons. "Earl on Troubled Waters," "The Case of the Curious Codicil," "Too Many Georges," and "The Smoldering Letter" also have some nice clues (I was happy that I got the main clue in the second one, which referenced Invisible Green!). Thanks for the recommendation.
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Post by theravenking on Oct 23, 2017 21:39:01 GMT
Hi, theravenking I was able to get The Book of Clues via interlibrary loan--some good fun, even if there's a bit too math and code-breaking for my tastes (which is intriguing, as both of Sladek's mystery novels, the superb Black Aura and the decent Invisible Green [which I have now also read], are very non-mathematical in nature). My favorite tale was probably the first, "An Arab Death," with that superb clue about Muslim prayer's being directed towards Mecca --which I kicked myself for not seeing before it was revealed. "Berringer's Beach" had a similar clue (which I saw this time) about Mormons. "Earl on Troubled Waters," "The Case of the Curious Codicil," "Too Many Georges," and "The Smoldering Letter" also have some nice clues (I was happy that I got the main clue in the second one, which referenced Invisible Green!). Thanks for the recommendation. I have yet to read Black Aura, but I have to admit being a bit disappointed in Invisible Green. It had a really nice set-up, but for me it failed to deliver.
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Post by Nalkarj on Oct 23, 2017 22:24:54 GMT
theravenking If I may ask, what specifically disappointed you about it? I read it remarkably quickly--Sladek has a talent for keeping the reader turning the pages, and it's such a short book--and was slightly disappointed too, though I liked it on the whole. To be sure, the murder-by-inflatable-boat is remarkably silly, though I think Sladek intended it that way (and I was happy with how fairly clued it was). I agree that the set-up was better than the solution, though even the set-up doesn't deliver on the promise of that eerie little ditty Sladek put at the beginning: I was also disappointed in how the motive ended up being a minor variation on Christie's The ABC Murders; I was expecting Sladek to come up with something original, as Ellery Queen did for Cat of Many Tails. Still, like the Player Queen, I protest too much; on the whole, I enjoyed it a lot. And I'm not ashamed to say that Thackeray Phin may well be my favorite fictional detective of them all (well--tied with Holmes)... By the way: do let me know if you get a chance to read Black Aura. I think it's one of the great puzzle-plot novels, and with a sarcastic and witty sense of humor to boot.
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Post by hi224 on Oct 27, 2017 12:50:38 GMT
I don't feel I am smart enough.
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Post by theravenking on Mar 16, 2020 16:13:27 GMT
theravenking If I may ask, what specifically disappointed you about it? I read it remarkably quickly--Sladek has a talent for keeping the reader turning the pages, and it's such a short book--and was slightly disappointed too, though I liked it on the whole. To be sure, the murder-by-inflatable-boat is remarkably silly, though I think Sladek intended it that way (and I was happy with how fairly clued it was). I agree that the set-up was better than the solution, though even the set-up doesn't deliver on the promise of that eerie little ditty Sladek put at the beginning: I was also disappointed in how the motive ended up being a minor variation on Christie's The ABC Murders; I was expecting Sladek to come up with something original, as Ellery Queen did for Cat of Many Tails. Still, like the Player Queen, I protest too much; on the whole, I enjoyed it a lot. And I'm not ashamed to say that Thackeray Phin may well be my favorite fictional detective of them all (well--tied with Holmes)... By the way: do let me know if you get a chance to read Black Aura. I think it's one of the great puzzle-plot novels, and with a sarcastic and witty sense of humor to boot. Oh, I loved Thackeray Phin, but just like you I found the motive for the crimes to be a let-down and to me it seemed like a mash-up of two different kind of books. It starts out as a realistic thriller and then becomes an almost fantastic story.
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Post by divtal on Mar 16, 2020 18:23:37 GMT
I love them, and I do fairly well. The best ones have the main "clue" written into the narrative as an inconsequential comment. If it isn't pretty obvious to me, I go back to re-read, in search of it.
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Post by poelzig on Mar 24, 2020 7:34:07 GMT
Like Encyclopedia Brown?
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