Puzzling Mysteries

After re-watching Citizen Kane the other evening, I'm more attuned to jigsaw puzzles (if you've seen the movie, you'll know why). The Booklist Blog had a note about a jigsaw puzzle made up of a montage of pulp-era paperback covers, put out by the book publisher Harlequin. The main cover is The Dark Page by Samuel Fuller, author and the Hollywood writer/director behind such movies as Pickup on South Street, The Steel Helmet and The Big Red One (the inspiration for Saving Private Ryan). The puzzle comes in 1,000 pieces, which will probably last you through the cold winter months while you're stuck inside.

In looking around for other interesting crime-fictionish jigsaw puzzles, I came across a series of puzzles based on Henry Slesar books. The amazingly prolific Slesar penned 500 short stories, 55 radio plays, six books and wrote for the tv soap opera The Edge of Night and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Unfortunately, you'll have to dig around on sites like eBay for these.

But wait, there's more! Mystery Game Central has several mystery jigsaw puzzles available, Amazon lists a few more and other sites can turn up still others. For lists of more mystery puzzle and game sites, look no further than the Games link over in The List on this blog. We may be having some unseasonably warm weather now, but just wait until the three feet of snow coming in February. You'll thank me then.