The Times Quick Cryptic Crossword Book 1 (Times Crosswords) Paperback – August 1, 2016

These are fun and fast puzzles, extra fun due to the British nature, as many Americans may be unfamiliar with some of the jargon. (It can be a great learning experience!) I kept this book in the loo and any one puzzle could last me quite a few trips. NB I've worked a lot of this kind of puzzle and also Scottish ones, which are even harder. The ones in this book are not all that hard but still a challenge and many I have not been able to fully solve. All good fun!!!

I've become addicted to these brain-teasers. This slim volume was perfect on a recent vacation when I couldn't access my daily "fix" online.

I mistakenly thought that this would be a book of cryptics along with accompanying explanations of how to solve each so I could eventually learn how to solve them on my own. There was an explanation, but only of the first puzzle, and the description of each clue was brief. Otherwise, it's a reprint of previously published puzzles, like the ad says it would be.

Believe it or not this book contains 80 British cryptic crossword puzzles with clues accessible to Americans

Hurray! At last a Times Cryptic that the puzzles are possible to do!

Lovely.

Too many British references for most American solvers.

Sadly this will be going straight into the dust bin (or trash can, as we Americans like to say). If you are thinking of buying this book, just realize that The Times does NOT mean the NY Times. It took almost a month for the book to cross the pond. The answers are just that: bare answers with no explanation. I found the clues to be too obscure. Even after I looked up the answer, I couldn't figure some of them out. Kudos to those of you who did.