Who it's for
Anyone who likes a word search but wishes it went somewhere, and anyone who loves a gentle mystery but wants to solve it themselves rather than just read it. The letters are large and the evening is the point: this is a book to sit down with in the armchair, under the lamp, for a quarter of an hour at a time.
Every one of the ninety puzzles hides one line of a single continuing story. Solve them in order and the hidden lines carry you through a cozy mystery set in the village of Wren Hollow, where a treasured recipe card goes missing twelve days before the Summer Fair, a retired librarian named Ivy Finch quietly looks into it with her cat Toffee, and the ending is a kindness rather than a crime. Nothing grim ever happens. The village is the star, and you always know tonight's fifteen minutes will end well.
Inside the book
- The front pages. How to Play, with a worked example, and a guide to the three levels and where to start if this is your first hidden-message word search.
- Easy, puzzles 1 to 30. Words run across, down, and diagonally down-right. Gentle on purpose, and where the story begins.
- Medium, puzzles 31 to 60. Words may also run backward and diagonally upward, as the mystery deepens.
- Harder, puzzles 61 to 90. Words in all eight directions, as the clues come together toward the answer.
- A village note on every page — a small, true thing about tea, bees, letters or quilts, in place of a joke.
- The answers at the back, in large print, with each hidden line printed under its solution.
- The whole Wren Hollow mystery printed complete at the end, to read straight through once you know how it ends.
How to use it
- Read the How to Play page first, even if you have done word searches for years. The hidden-message method is what makes this book different, and the worked example shows it in one minute.
- Circle every listed word, then read the leftover letters left to right, top to bottom, and write them on the two lines under the grid. The printed count tells you how many letters to expect.
- Solve the puzzles in order. Each hidden line is the next line of the story, so out of order they lose the thread.
- If the leftover letters don't quite make sense, one listed word is usually still hiding. Find it, and the sentence appears.
Frequently asked questions
What makes this different from an ordinary word search?
The leftover letters. In every puzzle, once you have circled the listed words, the letters left behind spell one line of a continuing story. Ninety puzzles tell one whole gentle mystery.
Is it frightening or violent?
No. It is a cozy mystery: the "crime" is a missing recipe card, no one is harmed, and the ending is warm. It suits anyone who wants a puzzle without any dread attached.
How large is the print?
Large throughout. The grid letters are about 20 to 24 point, the word lists 16 point, and the answers at the back 16 to 18 point, so it reads comfortably under a lamp.
Do I have to solve the mystery, or just the puzzles?
Either. You can enjoy each puzzle on its own, or follow the hidden lines and let Ivy Finch lead you to the answer. The complete story is also printed at the back.
How big is it?
8.5 x 11 inches, 120 pages, printed in black ink on white paper.
See it on Amazon
