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Title: Hints From Will Shortz - Better Than Cheating!
Review: This is a terrific introduction to New York Times crosswords.The seventy-five daily crosswords here run the gamut of difficulty, beginning with the easiest and going all the way to the tough end-of-the-week puzzles. And for each crossword, there are a few asterisked clues with hints in the back of the book. These hints give us information that most of us had to figure out on our own the hard way, through trial and error (mostly error). For example, Shortz tells us that clues always agree in number and tense. Seems obvious now, but I didn't know that until I'd muscled through some puzzles. A question mark after a clue means a tricky (possibly punny) answer, NYTimes puzzles don't tell you if an answer consists of more than one word, well you get the idea.Even though New York Times Crosswords to Boost Your Brainpower is an excellent intro to Shortz-era NYTimes puzzles, it is also a lot of fun for old-timers, too.
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