# Recommend some "puzzle" fiction? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 1, 2005, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-puzzle-fiction/333502 "2005-12-01T02:39:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Skott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Skott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skott)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-puzzle-fiction/333502/1 "2005-12-01T02:39:13Z")
And by puzzle fiction, I primarily mean where a large amount of the plot is spent by the main characters figuring out puzzles purposely left behind by someone for whatever reason. This would include many treasure hunt books and films, for example, but would exclude many mysteries (since they are mostly about clues accidentally left behind). Some of the obvious ones are **The Da Vinci Code** , whether or not you liked the book or not; **Die Hard With A Vengence** , although admittedly most of the puzzles are meant as a distraction; **National Treasure** ,as improbable as it may seem; aaaaand I had another one in mind, but it’s not coming to me now. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-puzzle-fiction/333502/2 "2005-12-01T02:44:16Z")
Some mysteries are about puzzles left behind by Crazed Genius Sociopaths, _The Bone Collector_ comes to mind. A great puzzle book is Susan Cooper’s _Over Sea, Under Stone_, a kids’ book that starts the truly amazing _The Dark is Rising_ series. Three children follow clues to find the Holy Grail. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Prize](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@Sir\_Prize](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Prize)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-puzzle-fiction/333502/3 "2005-12-01T03:46:32Z")
You might like _The Daughter of Time_ by Josephine Tey. It’s sort of a puzzle novel but the puzzle is actual event in history. Not the invention of a character. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-puzzle-fiction/333502/4 "2005-12-01T06:28:31Z")
In Arturo Perez-Reverte’s _The Flanders Panel_ the characters need to solve a retrograde chess problem (and examine continuations of the game) to solve the mystery. The movie, _Uncovered_, actually changed the game involved when it modified the plot a bit. And for once, the chess is not dumbed down (though it’s not perfect). It’s been a while since I read it, but Ellen Raskin’s _The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I mean Noel)_ has a lot of puzzle aspects to it (though I don’t recall if it was entirely within the plot or a puzzle for the reader). ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-puzzle-fiction/333502/5 "2005-12-01T06:42:03Z")
> [@Skott](#): > > Some of the obvious ones are **The Da Vinci Code** , whether or not you liked the book or not; **Die Hard With A Vengence** , although admittedly most of the puzzles are meant as a distraction; **National Treasure** ,as improbable as it may seem; aaaaand I had another one in mind, but it’s not coming to me now. Regarding _The DaVinci Code_, Dan Brown’s first Robert Langdon novel, _Demons and Angels_, is the same way IRT puzzles. ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-puzzle-fiction/333502/6 "2005-12-01T08:24:07Z")
More or less the entire output of John Dickson Carr, the crime fiction writer, concerns people solving puzzles. If you want somewhere to start, I suggest ‘The Three Coffins’. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-puzzle-fiction/333502/7 "2005-12-01T12:21:29Z")
> [@ianzin](#): > > More or less the entire output of John Dickson Carr, the crime fiction writer, concerns people solving puzzles. If you want somewhere to start, I suggest ‘The Three Coffins’. Is that book also known as “The Hollow Man”? I just ask because it has the three coffins imagery in it. I second this recomendation though, Carr’s work is generally excellent. ---
**Author:** ![Jurph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/50afbb/32.png) [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-puzzle-fiction/333502/8 "2005-12-01T12:46:23Z")
Edgar Allen Poe’s short story _The Gold Bug_ includes a cryptography puzzle, and walks the reader through the basics of frequency analysis for cracking simple 1-to-1 ciphers. The encoded message turns out to be a somewhat cryptic set of directions to find a treasure. I also remember a “Rastus” character – a grossly caricatured black servant – which would be offensive in a modern work but was par for the course when Poe was writing. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-puzzle-fiction/333502/9 "2005-12-01T12:49:22Z")
_The Eight_ From Amazon. . . > [@](#): > > Katherine Neville’s debut novel is a postmodern thriller set in 1972 … and 1790. In the 20th century, Catherine Velis is a computer expert with a flair for music, painting, and chess who, on her way to Algeria at the behest of the accounting firm where she is employed, is invited to take a mysterious moonlighting assignment: recover the pieces of an old chess set missing for centuries. > In the midst of the French Revolution, a young novice discovers that her abbey is the hiding place of a chess set, once owned by the great Charlemagne, which allows those who play it to tap into incredible powers beyond the imagination. She eventually comes into contact with the major historical figures of the day, from Robespierre to Napoleon, each of whom has an agenda. > > The Eight is a non-stop ride that recalls the swashbuckling adventures of Indiana Jones as well as the historical puzzles of Umberto Eco which, since its first publication in 1988, has gone on to acquire a substantial cult following. Also, as mentioned in that, check out something by Umberto Eco. His most known works are probably _The Name of the Rose_ and _Foucault’s Pendulum_. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-puzzle-fiction/333502/10 "2005-12-01T13:05:49Z")
I’ve recommended this movie before – **The Last of Sheila** was, I am told, written by Stephen Sondheim (yep, the composer) sort of in response to Anthony Scheaffer’s **Sleuth** , which Schaeffer wrote after seeing Sondheim’s digs. Sondheim , a lover of ganmes and puzzles, had them all over his apartment, so Schaeffer wrote a play about a sadist mind-game-playing author out to humiliate the guy who’s sleeping with his wife. TLoS is also about a wealthy, sadistic mind-game-player who invites several friends aboard his yacht for a cruise around the Mediterranean with a game in every port. During the course of this something goes wrong (or does it?) and there’s a real murder (or is there?) Wonderful mystery with games-within-games, lots of clues deliberately set up (and visible to the audience) and solutions within solutions. Nifty cast, too – James Coburn is the games-player, and his invitees include James Mason, Racquel Welch, Richard Benjamin, and Dyan Cannon. Anthony Perkins (yep, that Anthony Perkins) co-wrote the screenplay, and one Doper has plausibly suggested he intended to act in it, but he’s curiously absent. Sherlock Holmes fans, of course, know about **The Musgrave Ritual**. ---
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-puzzle-fiction/333502/11 "2005-12-01T13:52:58Z")
> [@Skott](#): > > And by puzzle fiction, I primarily mean where a large amount of the plot is spent by the main characters figuring out puzzles purposely left behind by someone for whatever reason. It’s not remotely a mystery, but Thomas Pynchon’s _The Crying of Lot 49_ qualifies under these rules. (It’s also puzzling fiction, if that helps.) The main character stumbles upon a series of clues that leads her either to a certuries-old underground alternative postal system or an immense prank left to her by an eccentric and rich ex-boyfriend. Despite Pynchon’s intimidating reputation, the book is funny, readable, and short (although he’s trying a little too hard in spots). Pynchon’s _V._ and _Gravity’s Rainbow_also fit this description to some extent. He loves a good paranoid conspiracy. I didn’t read the da Vinci thing, but my sister commented that is struck her as a somewhat dumbed-down version of _Foucault’s Pendulum._ ---
**Author:** ![Millit\_the\_Frail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@Millit\_the\_Frail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Millit_the_Frail)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-puzzle-fiction/333502/12 "2005-12-01T15:59:03Z")
> [@panamajack](#): > > It’s been a while since I read it, but Ellen Raskin’s _The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I mean Noel)_ has a lot of puzzle aspects to it (though I don’t recall if it was entirely within the plot or a puzzle for the reader). I enjoyed it also, and I have to recommend Raskin’s _The Westing Game_ in addition. It’s a great puzzle book (and Newberry Medal winner), and I do believe that the reader can figure it out before the characters do. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-puzzle-fiction/333502/13 "2005-12-01T17:00:59Z")
I can’t find the title right now, but there’s a few mysteries by Nero Blanc in which crossword puzzles provide clues. Nero Blanc’s name (black white) is a pun on crossword puzzles. Umberto Eco’s _Foucault’s Pendulum_ is a mystery tour of magic, mysticism, and secret societies. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-puzzle-fiction/333502/14 "2005-12-01T22:04:40Z")
> [@](#): > > A great puzzle book is Susan Cooper’s Over Sea, Under Stone, a kids’ book that starts the truly amazing The Dark is Rising series. Three children follow clues to find the Holy Grail. I’m actually reading this series right now, and though I might disagree about the later books, _Over Sea, Under Stone_ is very good. It got even better for me, once I realized that The map wasn’t to show where to find the treasure: That should have been obvious to anyone in the town. The map instead showed _when_ to find the treasure. As in, when the Sun is in this position, and the Moon is in this position, the tides will be low enough to enter the cave.And as a nitpick, it wasn’t the Holy Grail itself the children find, but it is a grail of some mystical significance, dating back to Arthur. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-puzzle-fiction/333502/15 "2005-12-01T22:31:23Z")
[Sneakers](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105435/combined). One of my favorite movies of all time and the first DVD I ever bought. ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-puzzle-fiction/333502/16 "2005-12-02T00:05:56Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > Umberto Eco’s _Foucault’s Pendulum_ is a mystery tour of magic, mysticism, and secret societies. I’m slogging through that right now, due to recommendations from friends who liked it a lot. It’s a slog – I’m just too stubborn to give up. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-puzzle-fiction/333502/17 "2005-12-02T01:07:40Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I’m actually reading this series right now, and though I might disagree about the later books, _Over Sea, Under Stone_ is very good. It got even better for me, once I realized that The map wasn’t to show where to find the treasure: That should have been obvious to anyone in the town. The map instead showed _when_ to find the treasure. As in, when the Sun is in this position, and the Moon is in this position, the tides will be low enough to enter the cave.And as a nitpick, it wasn’t the Holy Grail itself the children find, but it is a grail of some mystical significance, dating back to Arthur. Oh, sorry, you’re entirely right about the Grail of course. You don’t like the later books? I think they’re much better - I love the first one, but I _adore_ the later ones (except for the ending, grr). The first one has a little bit of a dated Boy’s (and Girl’s) Adventure feel to it, the others are more magical. They were some of my favorite books as a child. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-puzzle-fiction/333502/18 "2005-12-02T16:18:50Z")
The Nero Blanc novel I read was **A Crossword To Die For.** A puzzle writer’s father is coming to visit her, but he dies on the train. A heart attack? Maybe not. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-puzzle-fiction/333502/19 "2005-12-02T16:33:50Z")
> [@panamajack](#): > > It’s been a while since I read it, but Ellen Raskin’s _The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I mean Noel)_ has a lot of puzzle aspects to it (though I don’t recall if it was entirely within the plot or a puzzle for the reader). Thanks for the reminder! I loved this book (and still do). Yes, the puzzle aspects are entirely within the plot. Mrs. Carillon’s Pomato Soup . . . Some, but not all, of Isaac Asimov’s **Black Widowers** short stories are about deliberate puzzles. If you like these, you’ll probably also enjoy his **Union Club Mysteries.** ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2005, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-puzzle-fiction/333502/20 "2005-12-02T20:30:31Z")
My favorite of this genre is A.S. Byatt’s Possession, which is the story of two modern day poetry scholars solving the mysteries around two Victorian era poets. Its better than it sounds - but romantic - no big murder mystery. Name of the Rose is more accessible than Foucault’s Pendulum. Or The Rule of Four, which is the same sort of genre as Da Vinci Code (I thought it better written, more believable - although still fantastic). (And I loved the Raskin books growing up!) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-some-puzzle-fiction/333502.md?page=2)