I have an unusual report today- a neat thrift store find that has enriched many late evenings over the course of my last few weeks- Montague Island Mysteries. It practically jumped off the shelf at me at St. Vincent De Paul, and it’s been a remarkably pleasant blind purchase.
Montague Island Mysteries is a book of logic puzzles loosely tied together by a layer of narrative. The Montagues are wealthy puzzle lovers and set up a variety of deductive puzzles for their guests. There’s an overarching mystery which unfolds through various interludes throughout the book, but the puzzles are the meat of the content.
The puzzles are quite varied. Most are grid-based, but the author, R. Wayne Schmittberger, also includes variations like maps, blueprints, garden plots, surveys, and more. I grew up on grid-based logic puzzles as a diversion while traveling (think “Jessica and the gardener were not in the library, but the person whose sign is Aquarius was.”) but I had never seen this kind of variety before.’
It almost feels tragic to mark the pages of the book. Most puzzle books are use-and-toss, and few people would feel guilty about recycling a used Sudoku book, but for a book with this depth and variety, I came VERY close to photocopying the puzzles to leave the book intact. Honestly, if I had known going in how much I was going to enjoy the book, I probably would have.
I’m not quite finished yet- I’m on chapter 9 of 12, but I’ve already gotten 1000x my money’s worth out of the book. I’m really heartened to see that there are two sequels waiting for me- Return to Montague Island and Beyond Montague Island. Time will tell if I commit to operating off of photocopies for those ones!
As one additional note, I was so excited about the book that I intended to reach out to R Wayne Schmittberger, and I was saddened to see that he passed away in February 2024. He sounds like a remarkable person, and I wish I could have met him. He was editor-in-chief for three long running puzzle magazines, invented a board game and a mobile app game, and wrote many books related to puzzles and trivia. My favorite nugget on his obituary is how he majored in French at Yale because it was his weakest subject.
Mr. Schmittberger was able to touch many people through his puzzles and adventures, and he’s an inspiration to me- showing how to live a life full of intellectual curiosity.
Leave a Reply