Scotland Yard Photo Crimes from the Files of Inspector Black

The premise is simple -- you get to examine the clues (including 'dramatized' photos of the crime scene, evidence, etc.) and decide who dunnit (or, in some cases, whether the death was an accident or murder, etc.). It's a fun book that let's you pit wits with Inspector Harry Black of Scotland Yard. He was supposedly a real detective (1890-1963) and these were real cases (hmmmmm......). For the record, based on how well I solved the crimes in this book, if I were on Scotland Yard, I'd be assigned parking meter maid duty.

This book, which was apparently one of a series of 4 such books (although I never saw the other 3), is a perfect example of this sort of puzzle book. I liked it even more than the quite enjoyable and much better known "Crime and Puzzlement" books, but is otherwise very similar. The two big differences are that the puzzles are illustrated with photos instead of line drawings, and the puzzles are quite a bit more difficult (although still easy enough to do in one sitting). If you think that you would like such a book, you'll like this one.