Inquisitor

Solving time: about 5 hours, but I cheated. I found the end of this puzzle extremely difficult, not being able to spot the novel for ages. After finding answers to all but a couple … Read more >>

This was the easiest Inquisitor of the year so far in my opinion. Once I had worked out that the entries at 13ac and 43ac led to the Seven Sages, and that 42ac … Read more >>

Solving time: 3-4 hours An nice example of a fairly standard advanced cryptic puzzle type – “entries mangled according to a theme to be identified”. In this case, there are some thematic entries … Read more >>

This was a very frustrating puzzle for me. It appeared very easy at first, but then I hit a wall with the last six or seven clues. It wasn’t that I couldn’t work … Read more >>

Solving time 2-3 hours I joked with Loonapick a couple of weeks ago that even-numbered Indies were easy and odd-numbered ones hard. Not now, with last week’s Offa’s Dyke marathon and this (for … Read more >>

 If I had looked up Kruger’s bio before tackling this puzzle, I may have saved myself some time, as he has listed among his hobbies long-distance walking.    The title of the puzzle had … Read more >>

Solving time: at least 4 hours – maybe 6 A theme with an echo of Phi’s Inquisitor #3 – can’t remember doing a Psyche puzzle before, and have no idea who it is. … Read more >>

Once I worked out the theme of this crossword, I rattled through it at a fair rate of knots, and completed all bar 4 clues in about half an hour. Then I got … Read more >>

(an anonymous puzzle in the paper, but the setter has already been identified elsewhere) Solving time: ages Found this one really tough – maybe the “blogger’s curse” (anything you have to write about … Read more >>

I have never come across the pseudonym Ploy before, so I don’t know who compiled this highly topical puzzle. I got off to a very quick start, realising that certain squares had two … Read more >>

Just as we start a new year and begin to write about this puzzle every week, the Indie Weekend mag puzzle changes its name! It turns out that this is the second name change. … Read more >>