Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have about a decade of experience playing in, authoring, and hosting puzzle events, so I was immediately drawn to this book. I really, really wanted to love it, but the puzzle quality bugs me. The puzzles are almost all "enigma" type puzzles where you need to have a key insight in order to solve, which are notoriously difficult to balance well. I don't mind this, nor do I mind the large amount of red herring material sprinkled liberally throughout the book and every puzzle. But I draw the line at puzzle steps that are simply not clued, forcing you to try dozens if not hundreds of things which seem equally incorrect before stumbling across the solution. There are also a few outright bugs in some of the puzzles, or at least, things that are deeply misleading about the format of the final answer, which feel pretty unfair. Because of these aspects, I can't give it 5 stars. But all this being said, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and was totally taken in by it. Every puzzle is unique, and some of them make very cool and innovative use of the book format, so much so that I fear a sequel would not be able to have as many surprises. There's also an online forum to discuss puzzles and get hints if you get blocked and don't want to spend weeks trying to think about things from a new perspective on your own. I even bought a few extra copies to give as gifts. If you enjoy puzzlehunt type events or know someone who does, you'll probably love this book.