Montague Island Mysteries and Other Logic Puzzles

Loved it! I love logic puzzles and it's harder than the puzzle books I normally get. I liked that there was a running mystery through the whole book too. I considered buying it for my 14 year old who is just starting to show interest, but glad I didn't. This is not for beginners. I got her a puzzle book with different levels from easy to difficult. This one is mostly difficult puzzles. But definitely make sure you study the way things are worded. It makes a big difference in the ability to solve the puzzle. Edited to add: those reviews saying there are errors are wrong. They're just not doing it right. ALL of them are solvable. You just have to think outside the box. For the reviewer that said puzzle 2.3 had clues that don't fit--all the clues fit if you're reading it correctly. And the reviewer that said there was an error with the last puzzle and the clue should've been worded differently--it is completely correct. And the reviewer that said there were errors in puzzle 12.1 and that it should say that Jessica and Karen had 3 not 2 puzzles that they both "attempted but failed to solve" is also wrong. There are 3 puzzles they didn't solve, but one them wasn't attempted by one of them because they made the puzzle and no one who made a puzzle tried to solve their own. Bottom line: there are no errors but it IS very difficult.

This book is not just grid style logic puzzles, though that is what I bought the book for. I am really enjoying the alternative logic puzzles as well. They break up the pacing and provide variety. The storyline that weaves throughout all of the puzzles makes it particularly entertaining and makes it so that you don't have to memorize a new set of names for every puzzle. I will definitely be buying the next book when I finish this one.

This is a truly fantastic book for a very specific audience. You have to love the most challenging logic puzzles. If you've ever bought a Dell or Penny Press magazine dedicated to just logic puzzles and enjoyed it, you will love this book. If on the other hand you prefer easier puzzles, or a wider variety of puzzles, or are new to puzzle books in general, I'd recommend starting with a different puzzle book first. I've played or partially played dozens of puzzle books. I had this one on my shelf for a while before finally deciding to give it a try. I'm now about a third of the way in and am completely hooked. I just added books 2, 3, and 4 in the series to my Wishlist. :^) I didn't think I would care for the narrative element and the overarching mystery, but I'm actually really enjoying it, and it's making this book "stickier" than it might otherwise be. I'm also very pleased with the choice of binding, so you can easily lay it flat and write in it if you choose to. (I normally avoid writing in puzzle books at all costs. But because of the binding, I decided to just dive in and write in this book and am very glad I did, as it makes the solving experience much more pleasant. And if I really care to have an unblemished copy later, it's not very expensive so I could buy a 2nd copy.) I was torn about giving this book 4 or 5 stars. It's really a fantastic expression of what it's trying to be -- a series of high quality logic puzzles connected by a narrative and mystery element. In the end, I rounded down as there are a few things that my ideal version of this book would do differently. These are: 1. I'm not a huge fan of narrative in puzzle books, so I'm glad this book doesn't have a ton of connecting narrative. But the narrative it does have is stilted and dry, not evocative or enticing. So far, there is zero detail to distinguish any of the characters from one another, they might as well just be A, B, C, etc.. (Compare to, for example, Maze of Games, another book with very hard puzzles but with warmer and more compelling fiction.) Or put it another way, the narrative feels like it was written by a master logician who's been writing and editing logic puzzles for decades. :^) 2. It's a bit repetitive. I enjoy logic puzzles, but there's a reason I no longer buy those Dell or Penny Press magazines with ~100 logic puzzles in a single magazine. I prefer puzzle books with a wider variety of different kinds of puzzles. (That being said, I'm definitely hooked on this series and will likely solve them all!) 3. The puzzles are definitely tricky. Maybe I'm getting soft in my old puzzling age, but I'm not finding it quite as fun as I used to to beat my head against the trickiest logic puzzles out there. One aspect of the trickiness: in many puzzles, facts are given by characters in the book, and when a character is a guilty party in that particular puzzle, anything they say may be false (or of course, it may still be true too). I'm loathe to make an assumption as to the guilty party/parties then have to backtrack, so often this means reading and re-reading all the clues multiple times until I can find an entry where I can narrow down and determine that at least some innocent guests and therefore rely on their information. Awesome, but also a bit tiring. One thing that might help here that many puzzle books have done is provide a dedicated message board of some sort where players can ask one another for hints. But at least solutions are given within the book itself along with complete logical proof of what the answer must be the one unique answer. (There are generic puzzle-related message board websites, e.g. puzzling.stackexchange.com, but I prefer a forum dedicated to a specific book.) The above being said, I want to specifically refute what another reviewer said. While I'm only 1/3rd of the way through the book, so far, I haven't found a single bug. The puzzles are tricky and they can be frustrating, but so far, every time there was an ambiguity in how to interpret a given clue or set of clues, there was a way to logically deduce and prove a unique solution. As with many logic puzzles, the wording is very precise and must be interpreted correctly, and it's easy to make a mistake or miss a nuance of the given wording. But being very careful, I have been able to solve every puzzle so far w/o hints. Most other puzzle books will have at least a few unfairly clued puzzles that you can't solve without an extraordinary leap of intuitive, and you'll find other people complaining about said puzzles online. Not here. You can positively determine the answer of every puzzle. The upside of have a puzzle book of 100% logic puzzles.

This is a fun logic puzzle book. Some if them are pretty difficult but there is a wide variety of puzzles in this book.

I have been searching and searching for great logic puzzles - 99% of the books I have gotten are way too easy. This one is PERFECT! I love that sometimes I get stumped, have to set it down, and come back again with fresh eyes. There are so many unique elements to these logic puzzles that it keeps the entire book fresh and fun. I wish there were more than four in the series!

This was an interesting book. I enjoy puzzles. This book is nice because it has a story that connects throughout the book with various puzzles along the way. I must say that they are very hard. For me, it was not a nice casual reading and puzzle book. If you are good with puzzles, this is a good purchase.

I love this book because while they’re all logic puzzles, they go beyond the standard grid format. This has been a real challenge and has gotten me out of my comfort zone. I’ll be buying them all, especially because I haven’t found anything else like these. Other books are either all grid, or a mix of things like crossword puzzles and sudoku.

BEST PUZZLE BOOK EVER! Where do I begin? I just got this book about a week ago and I’m addicted! I already want the sequel book “Return to Montague Island”. I don’t normally write amazon reviews but I’ve told everyone I know about this book. If you love logic puzzles, the twist with this book is brilliant. Every puzzle is a little different than the next page. I’m completing puzzles in formats I’ve never seen before. The storyline is so well written and the puzzles are organized in such a fashion that a really hard puzzle spanning two pages may take me an hour or more to complete, but it’s followed by a page or two with more simple puzzles (but not too simple, this book really makes you think!). The solutions in the back are also very detailed, to help you truly understand HOW to solve (not just simply the solution). The book is laid out with a story of 7 guests who visit an island for 12 “weekends” over the course of a long summer, so definitely a book to do puzzles chronologically (not just picking a random puzzle on any page). I especially appreciate that it is spiral bound so you can flip the cover and pages all the way back. If I could give it 10 stars, I would!

I am really not sure what to make of this one. I found the cover art intriguing but the setting and story is incredibly boring and not well written. That's not a big issue for me since I mainly want to do puzzles but I will also not ignore the story in a story puzzle book. English isn't my first language but I rarely find myself struggling with the english books I read or the english puzzles I solve. This one made me question my language skills. The puzzles are more challenging, yes. But I find myself wondering if my english is THAT bad or if some of the puzzles hints are just worded very poorly. Sometimes there was information disclosed in the solution that I could not for the life of me get out of the statements in the puzzle itself, even when going over the solution and the puzzle several times. The wording is often times too vague and/or leaves room for different interpretations that make the intended interpretation not as clear as the solution suggests. That made solving the puzzles frustrating to me. I like a good challenge and I appreciate tricky puzzles that make me go "ooh I didn't see that!" when I take a look at the solution. This one just made me go "why would on earth would you word it in this way then?". Either way, this series doesn't seem to be for me. Be it lacking intellect or language skills. I am aware though that a lot of people love the series so I might give another volume a shot and hope for at least a better story

Challenging puzzles to complete , fun and thought provoking.

I really liked the cover art haha. As for the story and puzzle I am only starting it and enjoying so far.

Challenging logic puzzles that definitely get the grey cells working, and nice to have a story line to follow throughout the book as well. These are advanced logic puzzles so if you are not used to them, and also the grid type, I would suggest doing an easier logic puzzle book first.

I bought "Murdle" first and was disappointed with how easy even the "impossible" puzzles were. But the "Montague Island" puzzles are great! Some puzzles are "normal" advanced level logic problems. But for others, it takes time to even figure out how to tackle them! If you are looking for puzzles that really make you think, this is the book for you! The running story makes it a bit more interesting, and the puzzles are such fun. At first I was disappointed that there didn't seem to be many puzzles, especially compared to the 100 puzzles in a "Murdle". But the puzzles are so much harder and take more time to figure out that it's still worth the money for this. I've already bought the second book in the "Montague" series. Sooo good! Also for those that want it, there are full solutions that give not only the answer, but also how to get there.