Review of "Five-Minute Whodunits," by Stan Smith

 Review of

Five-Minute Whodunits, by Stan Smith, ISBN 0806994029

Five out of five stars

Basic logic puzzles or key fact lead to solution

 Approximately two pages of text and an illustration of one-half a page are all that the reader is given regarding a puzzling situation, almost always a crime. In some cases, the presentation is in the form of a logic puzzle, where there are a small number of people, and you are given specific characteristics about them. By applying that data, it is always possible to discern the answer, as is usually the case with such puzzles, the answer is obvious after the fact.

 Some of the mysteries are solved by recognizing the one key fact in the description. Since there are few facts in the description, this type is generally easier to solve than those where you must go through and eliminate scenarios.

 This is a book that will challenge your powers of logical deduction. Generally speaking, it is better to only read and solve a few at each setting. For me, after two or three, the urge to peek ahead at the solution became very strong.