Enigmatic Variations

Well – a seriously convoluted pre-amble this week. Pausing only for a sharp intake of breath, here goes – Removal of abbreviations from one clue in each even numbered down column and rearrangement of … Read more >>

Well, it seems that I’m the blogger that gets saddled with all the EVs involving jumbled entries! There are twenty extra words in clues to be discovered, paired and jumbled to form the … Read more >>

I came to this EV tired and jaded after a long weekend away golfing and drinking…(or was that the other way around?)…not having done a crossword of any form for 4 days – … Read more >>

I don’t know what has happened to the scheduled blogger so here is my belated analysis of this puzzle. The note on my copy indicates that I found it hard and the degree … Read more >>

Well a complex preamble this week – certainly one that won’t make sense till 11 down is derived. On first reading it sounds like a puzzle based upon a literary character. Then there’s an … Read more >>

This is the sixth Enigmatic Variations puzzle by Hypnos since the EV blog started at fifteensquared about 18 months ago, and I’ve done four of them! They are usually good fun, so I … Read more >>

A wonderfully crafted puzzle, which had me gaping in awe at the artistry of the themed-puzzle setter – although I found the clues generally easier than usual to solve, and it suffered a little from the … Read more >>

I rather enjoyed this romp. I am, as I have previously confessed, rather fond of the ways and means used by some EVs (including this one): quotations constructed from excised letters and hidden … Read more >>

A murder mystery this week – sounds a good one. The preamble promises a hunt for not only the murder victim, but also the location of the victim and the investigator of the case. … Read more >>

A fairly straightforward puzzle from Oxymoron this week. Each clue requires a letter or a word to be removed before solving. These spell out a quotation which reflects the clues and suggests how … Read more >>

Although I got to the ‘bottom’ of the theme quite quickly, the second variation had me chasing my own tail, and even barking up the wrong tree, for a while. But(t), it was … Read more >>

I am most grateful to Warbler for this delightfully appropriate EV for my debut blog. Not only did it use two of my favourite mechanisms – corrected letters to spell out a message … Read more >>

The End of term – A shortish preamble indicating corrections to be applied to definitions and modifications to the other answers before grid entry. Would this puzzle raise an enigmatic smile – Gioconda? … Read more >>

Kruger has been setting EV puzzles for over ten years, with a puzzle every four or five months, and the occasional Inquisitor for good measure. I have always found his crosswords fair, but … Read more >>

I found this to be one of the hardest EVs for quite some time. Even though I got the theme fairly early on from 31ac, quickly confirmed by 12ac, it took a while … Read more >>