Review of "101 Puzzles in Thought & Logic," by C. R. Wylie Jr.

Review of

101 Puzzles in Thought & Logic, by C. R. Wylie Jr. ISBN 0486203670

Four out of five stars

 While these puzzles are a bit challenging, they are all of the type where persistence will always allow you to solve them if insight fails. The first section of over sixty problems have a form similar to the following:

“In a certain bank, the positions of cashier, manager and teller are held by Brown, Jones and Smith, although not necessarily respectively. The teller, who was an only child, earns the least. Smith, who married Brown's sister, earns more than the manager. What position does each man fill?”

 Making a simple table, eliminating the obvious impossibilities first and then working through the remaining options will fairly quickly reveal the solution.

 The remaining problems are generally alphametics. For example, number ninety-two is

 SPEND
  - LESS
----------
MONEY.

 These problems are solved by eliminating the obvious assignments, for example, S, L, and D and Y cannot be zero. Once these impossibilities are eliminated, moving through the possibilities will eventually lead to a solution.  Of course, some of the puzzles can be solved more quickly if you recognize a specific relationship between the digits.

 If you are interested in mental challenges that are easy enough to always solve with effort and hard enough to make you work for it, this is a book that will fill that ecological niche.