Montague Island Mysteries and Other Logic Puzzles

I have been searching and searching for great logic puzzles - 99% of the books I have gotten are way too easy. This one is PERFECT! I love that sometimes I get stumped, have to set it down, and come back again with fresh eyes. There are so many unique elements to these logic puzzles that it keeps the entire book fresh and fun. I wish there were more than four in the series!

Loved it! I love logic puzzles and it's harder than the puzzle books I normally get. I liked that there was a running mystery through the whole book too. I considered buying it for my 14 year old who is just starting to show interest, but glad I didn't. This is not for beginners. I got her a puzzle book with different levels from easy to difficult. This one is mostly difficult puzzles. But definitely make sure you study the way things are worded. It makes a big difference in the ability to solve the puzzle. Edited to add: those reviews saying there are errors are wrong. They're just not doing it right. ALL of them are solvable. You just have to think outside the box. For the reviewer that said puzzle 2.3 had clues that don't fit--all the clues fit if you're reading it correctly. And the reviewer that said there was an error with the last puzzle and the clue should've been worded differently--it is completely correct. And the reviewer that said there were errors in puzzle 12.1 and that it should say that Jessica and Karen had 3 not 2 puzzles that they both "attempted but failed to solve" is also wrong. There are 3 puzzles they didn't solve, but one them wasn't attempted by one of them because they made the puzzle and no one who made a puzzle tried to solve their own. Bottom line: there are no errors but it IS very difficult.

This is a truly fantastic book for a very specific audience. You have to love the most challenging logic puzzles. If you've ever bought a Dell or Penny Press magazine dedicated to just logic puzzles and enjoyed it, you will love this book. If on the other hand you prefer easier puzzles, or a wider variety of puzzles, or are new to puzzle books in general, I'd recommend starting with a different puzzle book first. I've played or partially played dozens of puzzle books. I had this one on my shelf for a while before finally deciding to give it a try. I'm now about a third of the way in and am completely hooked. I just added books 2, 3, and 4 in the series to my Wishlist. :^) I didn't think I would care for the narrative element and the overarching mystery, but I'm actually really enjoying it, and it's making this book "stickier" than it might otherwise be. I'm also very pleased with the choice of binding, so you can easily lay it flat and write in it if you choose to. (I normally avoid writing in puzzle books at all costs. But because of the binding, I decided to just dive in and write in this book and am very glad I did, as it makes the solving experience much more pleasant. And if I really care to have an unblemished copy later, it's not very expensive so I could buy a 2nd copy.) I was torn about giving this book 4 or 5 stars. It's really a fantastic expression of what it's trying to be -- a series of high quality logic puzzles connected by a narrative and mystery element. In the end, I rounded down as there are a few things that my ideal version of this book would do differently. These are: 1. I'm not a huge fan of narrative in puzzle books, so I'm glad this book doesn't have a ton of connecting narrative. But the narrative it does have is stilted and dry, not evocative or enticing. So far, there is zero detail to distinguish any of the characters from one another, they might as well just be A, B, C, etc.. (Compare to, for example, Maze of Games, another book with very hard puzzles but with warmer and more compelling fiction.) Or put it another way, the narrative feels like it was written by a master logician who's been writing and editing logic puzzles for decades. :^) 2. It's a bit repetitive. I enjoy logic puzzles, but there's a reason I no longer buy those Dell or Penny Press magazines with ~100 logic puzzles in a single magazine. I prefer puzzle books with a wider variety of different kinds of puzzles. (That being said, I'm definitely hooked on this series and will likely solve them all!) 3. The puzzles are definitely tricky. Maybe I'm getting soft in my old puzzling age, but I'm not finding it quite as fun as I used to to beat my head against the trickiest logic puzzles out there. One aspect of the trickiness: in many puzzles, facts are given by characters in the book, and when a character is a guilty party in that particular puzzle, anything they say may be false (or of course, it may still be true too). I'm loathe to make an assumption as to the guilty party/parties then have to backtrack, so often this means reading and re-reading all the clues multiple times until I can find an entry where I can narrow down and determine that at least some innocent guests and therefore rely on their information. Awesome, but also a bit tiring. One thing that might help here that many puzzle books have done is provide a dedicated message board of some sort where players can ask one another for hints. But at least solutions are given within the book itself along with complete logical proof of what the answer must be the one unique answer. (There are generic puzzle-related message board websites, e.g. puzzling.stackexchange.com, but I prefer a forum dedicated to a specific book.) The above being said, I want to specifically refute what another reviewer said. While I'm only 1/3rd of the way through the book, so far, I haven't found a single bug. The puzzles are tricky and they can be frustrating, but so far, every time there was an ambiguity in how to interpret a given clue or set of clues, there was a way to logically deduce and prove a unique solution. As with many logic puzzles, the wording is very precise and must be interpreted correctly, and it's easy to make a mistake or miss a nuance of the given wording. But being very careful, I have been able to solve every puzzle so far w/o hints. Most other puzzle books will have at least a few unfairly clued puzzles that you can't solve without an extraordinary leap of intuitive, and you'll find other people complaining about said puzzles online. Not here. You can positively determine the answer of every puzzle. The upside of have a puzzle book of 100% logic puzzles.

This is an exceptional puzzle book. There are traditional logic grid puzzles, but many creating logic games with interesting structures. Even the traditional puzzles have challenging prompts and interesting takes on the ways you need to thinkvthrough them. I cannot recommend enough!

I am not a genius, but I have also done a lot of logic puzzles. Often times, these sort of books (for example, stuff from Brain Games) are annoyingly easy, or you get stumped by unclear wording rather than challenging logic. Montague Island has 3 good things going for it that put it above many comparable puzzle books. 1. There is a plot. Loosely. Usually, at best, you get thematic books that reskin puzzles to be "Cold Case" themed or "Sherlock Holmes" themed. There is a consistent cast in Montague Island, and going through the puzzles linearly feel more rewarding, like you are progressing a plot rather than tackling an isolated puzzle. 2. The puzzles are more challenging. They are not insanely hard, but they do force you to use logic more than most of these books do. I don't recommend it for a first time logic puzzler, but if you are relatively familiar and comfortable with basic puzzles, you'll like this. 3. All puzzles have DETAILED solutions at the back of the book. Rather than simply showing you the solution (ex: Ms Peacock used Rope in the Kitchen), the solution walks through how you would arrive to the solution through the clues given (ex: Clue 2 states that Ms Peacock used either the Candlestick or Rope. However, we can eliminate the Candlestick when we look at Clue 4 with Clue 1. Therefore, Ms Peacock must have used the Rope). These kind of solutions really help you learn *why* you were stumped, and make you better at logic puzzles. As soon as I finish this book, I plan to buy the rest of the 4 books in this series. I highly recommend this for puzzlers who are looking for a fun challenge.

Challenging puzzles to complete , fun and thought provoking.

I really liked the cover art haha. As for the story and puzzle I am only starting it and enjoying so far.

Challenging logic puzzles that definitely get the grey cells working, and nice to have a story line to follow throughout the book as well. These are advanced logic puzzles so if you are not used to them, and also the grid type, I would suggest doing an easier logic puzzle book first.

I bought "Murdle" first and was disappointed with how easy even the "impossible" puzzles were. But the "Montague Island" puzzles are great! Some puzzles are "normal" advanced level logic problems. But for others, it takes time to even figure out how to tackle them! If you are looking for puzzles that really make you think, this is the book for you! The running story makes it a bit more interesting, and the puzzles are such fun. At first I was disappointed that there didn't seem to be many puzzles, especially compared to the 100 puzzles in a "Murdle". But the puzzles are so much harder and take more time to figure out that it's still worth the money for this. I've already bought the second book in the "Montague" series. Sooo good! Also for those that want it, there are full solutions that give not only the answer, but also how to get there.

Great for getting the little grey cells going! Its great how the story flows. Some of the puzzles need more than one attempt to solve but well worth doing