Perception, the TNT series about a schizophrenic detective, has been developing promotional crosswords for its episodes and just gave out a puzzle book as a promotion.
The show has had middling to mildly favorable reviews as an example of the “crazy genius” trope, which puts its main character in the same category as Sherlock Holmes, Gregory House and Adrian Monk. Crossword-lovers would probably be most interested in the episode “Cipher,” which deals with a hidden message in a newspaper. Official preview and purchase link is here.
Will Shortz’s Puzzle Master Workout is shipping soon, with co-author Wei-Hwa Huang’s name misspelled on the cover, or at least on the image of the cover now shown on Amazon. (Hat tip: Tyler Hinman.) Another interesting upcoming release: Pennsylvania Crosswords, a state-themed collection not by Andrew J. Ries, who’s been all about the state crosswords in his last few book releases. (Update: As has been pointed out in the comments, Pennsylvania Crosswords is not the first “state crosswords” book by this author, but his work is full of uncrossed squares and other practices Margaret Farrar would have no truck with. The competition for such a specific subset of crosswords is of interest, but this should not be read as a recommendation of the book.)
And Bruce Springsteen found a friend in an unlikely place.
(PA Crosswords) I’ve seen Dale Raterman’s work — non-interlocking, non-symmetrical, criss-cross puzzles more than anything. I did see that he had done some of the states that I’ve done but didn’t worry about it once I actually leafed through a book. My state books, of course, follow NY Times guidelines; “Texas Crosswords” is slated to be released Oct. 1.
Recommending a Ratermann on Fiend?! Interesting, indeed…
Updated. I’m definitely not recommending Pennsylvania Crosswords. I’ve never tried the book itself (still not released to the public), nor anything else by the author, and therefore I was not aware that this is an old story. I had heard about Ries’ state-themed crosswords series, and simply found it interesting that someone else was operating in the same market. I’ll be sure to check the bibliographies of unfamiliar authors in the future!
Go to the link below, click on “Look Inside,” and scroll ahead to page 4 of “Football Crosswords” to get a look at a Ratermann crossword.
http://www.amazon.com/Football-Crosswords-Dale-Ratermann/dp/1570282137#reader_1570282137
The “Reply” link to Matt’s comment immediately above was missing (What? No replying to the reply of a reply?), so forgive my inserting a reply here:
“Oh no, is the answer to 10-Across on page 4 of Football Crosswords really UP?”
Yes, it seems that there’s a limit to tiered replies, BUT you can use the last appearing “reply” link and your comment will appear beneath the most recent reply, at the same indentation.
Testing the hypthesis–by jove it works!