Simon & Schuster Hooked on Cryptics Treasury #1: 70 Challenging Cryptics from the Henry Hook Archives

If you know and love cryptic crossword puzzles, this book really doesn't need a review. You already know Henry Hook and his puzzles, and know whether you like them or not.For the cryptic-crossword neophyte, this book offers a brief--possibly too brief--introduction to solving cryptic clues before launching into the puzzles. If you're just starting out with cryptics, you'll probably feel you're in over your head very quickly. (However, many people who like cryptics ENJOY feeling in over their head.) I'd recommend the Random House Cryptic books as a better starting point, because they open with some really simple puzzles (though by the end, they get trickier than the puzzles in this treasury).The book's seventy puzzles are relatively tame (as cryptics go), with the occasional really-obscure light or the "how-on-earth-does-THAT-parse?" clue, but nothing that'd pose a problem for your semi-seasoned solver. The last dozen or so puzzles venture into variety formats--I'd have preferred more variety puzzles, but tastes vary on this count. In the end, this book is no sumptuous feast of verbal bedevilment, but it is a good bread-and-butter type fix for your cryptic cravings.