Baker Street Puzzles

Rating:
Summary: A Big Disappointment
Review: As a devotee of "British-style" crosswords, I found this title when I entered "cryptic crosswords" as my keywords. As a reader and writer of mystery fiction, I was intrigued by the Sherlock Holmes connection implied in the title. Imagine my surprise and disappointment when I discovered nothing cryptic or crossword about this collection, but merely a set of formulaic "brain-teasers" with a Holmes-Watson gimmick! (You know the sort of thing: John is two years older than Mary, but when she reaches his age, she'll be twice as old as Herbert and half as old as Oscar; how old are they?) Solving such problems are the only use I make of high school algebra, these days, but there was a reason I chose to major in English! Someone who enjoys this sort of problem would give this collection a higher score than I did, but would find it no substitute for the Mensa or even GAMES magazine ones.