Murder of Crows discussion

Whodunit Puzzles: Mysteries for the Super Sleuth to Solve by Tim Dedopulos

Summary:
Pit your wits against all manner of cunning criminals as you attempt to solve the fiendish mysteries within. As you put your skills of deduction and problem-solving to the test you'll be guided by three inimitable assistants, the insightful Inspector Parnacki, the curious Miss Mary Miller, and the persistent Joshua Cole.
Filled with gruesome murders these whodunits are not for the faint of heart. If you're a puzzle fan looking for a thrilling treat, or a mystery lover who fancies themselves a detective extraordinaire this is just the book for you.
So, if you consider yourself a perceptive armchair detective, put your thinking cap on and get ready to use all of your logic and wits as you enter the world of the whodunit!

My thoughts:
The first forty or so “stories” are a page or two long with pictures depicting what is happening. I thought it was great for keeping my mind sharp (which I found it is not as much before bed) but there were some of the challenges I felt were difficult and unfair. There were some instances where more information was revealed with the solution at the end of the book which wasn’t able to make it in my sleuthing of the story, and therefore I was unable to narrow the suspects down to one. These bits of new information were commented as “an assumed clue,” which I wouldn’t mind if they were actually something that can be assumed. An example would be(view spoiler)[ that a character ate a burger as a meal and it’s later revealed that because of this, you can assume they had pie for dessert. There was another one that didn’t tell you that the victim was sitting down which happened to be a very important clue. (hide spoiler)]

The last seven or so “stories” were essentially the same thing, just two to three times longer than the first whodunits. I didn’t find them more or less challenging because again, they were just longer stories.

The writing style was very similar to Agatha Christie’s writing. The language of the characters and the socially acceptable behaviors that are expected from each of them based on their gender, income, and age felt as if they were taken straight from one of her books. That being said, overall it was an okay read. The fact that it was a collection of short puzzles makes it hard to give more of an opinion about the content.