Tricky Logic Puzzles for Adults:
130+ Difficult Puzzles
to Challenge Your Brain,
by Steven Clontz
Rockridge Press
2/25/2020
Games & Activities
Logic & Brain Teasers
180 pages
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With Tricky Logic Puzzles for Adults, Steven Clontz, a math educator and a researcher, offers us a very addictive book. He has constructed here puzzles in “five of the most engaging formats”: Sudoku, Masyu, Nonograms, Calcudoku, and Logic Grids. Plus what he calls Cryptic Puzzles, which can be a combination of all of the above, with a hunt added to it. They are really fun, as you need to identify a word, etc.

Maybe you are familiar with Sudoku only, or maybe not this format either. I recently met someone who told me he could not play this, because he wasn’t good at maths. Actually, it’s all a logic game, you don’t have to count.
But you do need both logic and basic maths in Calcudoku – a nasty combination if you want my opinion!! The Japanese teacher who invented this is a genius!

But no worry, if you know nothing here, the author has a nice page of introduction for each of the five activities, plus a warm-up exercise, with tips.

Then the puzzles go from easy to more difficult (and after puzzle #12, no more tips!). Thankfully, there’s a hint at the bottom of each page if you are really stuck, smartly printed upside down – though if you are like me and can very quickly read upside down characters, you will simply have to hide that part!
And don’t you dare look at the answers at the end of the book!
But you are allowed to look at page 174, after the answers, where the authors lists five websites and communities here to keep training your little grey cells.

I have filled in many Sudoku grids in my life, but I had no idea that these puzzles appeared for the first time 100 years ago in  French newspaper. I wonder which one.
I also liked that the author explained the Japanese etymology of the words of these games. I totally understand why Masyu would mean “evil influence”, these are really hard for me!

I didn’t know Nonograms, I loved them, maybe because I’m also an artist.

But I have to admit that even the warm-up of the Logic Grid made me sweat!

You can visit the author’s website  and follow him on Twitter @StevenXClontz for more puzzles.

I promise you many hours of fun and work with these. Who needs TV? Turn it off, and challenge yourself!

VERDICT: Awesome book for adults ready to develop their logic skills with fun.

In full compliance with FTC Guidelines, I received this book free of charge from the publisher through The Callisto Publisher’s Club. I was in no way compensated for this post as a reviewer, and the thoughts are my own.