Super 30-Minute Crosswords

This was really an excellent set of puzzles. Although I finished every one in 30 minutes or less -- a few in only 15 minutes -- I found them all to be challenging enough to be fun and none of them too frustrating. I enjoy the NY Times Sunday crossword puzzles but save them for when I have lots of time. This book was the perfect shorter crossword puzzle fix, much better than collections of smaller "easy" puzzles. I am only disappointed that the editors don't seem to have come up with a second volume of "Super 30 Minutes Crosswords" yet!

Most crossword puzzles are the creation of a single person, and like all of us that person has strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, when a puzzle is created by a team, it is a near certainty that the quality of the puzzle will be higher. The seventy one crossword puzzles in this collection were developed by the CrossSynergy syndicate, a group of top puzzle constructors who create puzzles for the Internet. When a puzzle is created, it is passed through a peer review process, which invariably improves it. Additional parameters of these puzzles are that they are "designed" to be completed in thirty minutes and each has a theme for the larger words. In tackling these puzzles, I found that thirty minutes was not enough time for me, generally because I got stuck on the last ten or so words. The theme was occasionally helpful, although in most cases I either got the word from the clue only or found that I was stuck, even when thinking along the lines of the theme. Collaboration in any profession always improves the product and you can see it in these puzzles. They are challenging, yet doable, and I found myself unwittingly competing with myself trying to finish them in the advertised thirty minutes.