Cunning Lateral Thinking Puzzles

Paul Sloane and Des MacHale—the wily puzzle masters who have written several lateral thinking collections—are back with more tear-your-hair-out challenges. And once again, the purpose of their devious conundrums is to force solvers to think outside of the box. Instead of jumping to obvious conclusions, players have to ask lots of questions, use their imagination, piece together the subtlest clues, and come at the problem from a variety of perspectives. Here’s how to do one person, who knows the solution, takes questions. The answers help narrow down the possible explanations—and the more logic, creativity, and sheer determination that go into the queries, the better the chance of success!