Bordergrams is back! Bordergrams has a new series of puzzles with a new story. And we met the Macmillan team at NY Now and have a new puzzle book to review, as well. It’s called Murder Rewind: Death at Blockbuster by S.K. Doyle. Hopefully, it’ll be a new series, too. I can just imagine all of the throwbacks we could experience with a Murder Rewind series – the 80s, Victorian era, the possibilities are endless!
As I wrote in my Bordergrams review (see here), Bordergrams are a new type of puzzle by G.T. Karber, the inventor of Murdle. Bordergrams: A Quest for the Queen is a new story to solve our way through. As with Bordergrams, each Bordergram puzzle is a single page spread with the story on the left and the puzzle on the right. In A Quest for the Queen, we are a knight serving Queen Leigh. And in this quest, there’s a new element to the puzzle.
TOP TIP: If you haven’t completed Bordergrams, don’t worry. A Quest for a Queen has comprehensive instructions, perfectly themed, and you’ll start off with simpler puzzles, which gradually get more challenging the further into the story you solve. You’ll be a pro by the end of the book.
For each puzzle, we see a map of hexagonal areas, each of which has a word or phrase. Our mission is to find the four different words and phrases that go together, so we can identify the hidden exit. That’s right. In A Quest for the Queen, there is one extra hexagon. You can do the math, if you want, but each puzzle has an icon in the upper right corner of the puzzle page that lets you know exactly how many sets there are. A Quest for the Queen is so clever and fun, you’ll be racing to the end. It’s full of great puns.
TOP TIP: Keep a bookmark in the solutions section. Even if you’re confident that you’ve solved the Bordergram correctly, the storyline progresses in the answer section, as well, and you need all of the information to finish the quest. Along those lines, if you are the type to tear pages out as you go along, make sure you save them. There are some callbacks as you get to the end of the mission.
*****Highly recommended
Murder Rewind: Death at Blockbuster
Murder Rewind: Death at Blockbuster is a book of minute mysteries. And not just any minute mysteries. These are set in the 1990s and are full of deliciously nostalgic references that will have you giggling and sighing as you solve. You don’t have to have lived through the 90s to be able to solve these mysteries, but it might help with some of them.
Minute mysteries have been around for nearly 100 years. They are short stories, just a few paragraphs, with clues that should lead you to discover the murderer. In S.K. Doyle’s Murder Rewind: Death at Blockbuster, we follow Inspector Wolfe from crime scene to crime scene. We see what he sees and it’s our job to figure out what the clues are and what they mean.
Each puzzle is on a one-page spread, with the story beginning on the left side and space for noting the clues and solution on the right side. If you get stumped, there is a separate section at the back (separate from the solutions section, that is) where the clues are laid out. These are great puzzles for solo solving, family fun, or party activities. They are also great for taking a break, but still being able to complete an activity. Enjoy your trip in the wayback machine!
TOP TIP: Keep three bookmarks for this book: one for the murder you’re about to solve, one for the clues, and the other for the solutions.
*****Recommended
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