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Two-Minute Mysteries #3
Still More Two-Minute Mysteries
Readers test their detective skills as they and the famous sleuth Dr. Haledjian examine clues and attempt to solve sixty-three cases.
126 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
4 people are currently reading
190 people want to read
About the author
Donald J. Sobol
183 books227 followersDonald J. Sobol was an award-winning writer best known for his children's books, especially the Encyclopedia Brown mystery series. Mr. Sobol passed away in July of 2012.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
August 28, 2020
Such a treat! Most of these are solvable, except for a few that rely on knowledge none of us now can be expected to know (the one that refers to a feature of earlier landlines is bound to stump anyone not yet a senior citizen, for example).
Three notes - the blurb is wrong, because the answers are actually conveniently upside down at the end of each mystery, many of the cases are about murder & suicide & guns, and several of the gimmicks were reused in Encyclopedia Brown stories.
But if you're an adult or teen who loves EB, you'll want to find a copy of this. I wonder if they're on openlibrary.... Ok, apparently yes, but since that service is being restructured they may not be immediately available when you check.
Three notes - the blurb is wrong, because the answers are actually conveniently upside down at the end of each mystery, many of the cases are about murder & suicide & guns, and several of the gimmicks were reused in Encyclopedia Brown stories.
But if you're an adult or teen who loves EB, you'll want to find a copy of this. I wonder if they're on openlibrary.... Ok, apparently yes, but since that service is being restructured they may not be immediately available when you check.
March 5, 2017
I marvel at making up sixty-three "Still More Two-Minute Mysteries", even as brief as these. They entail one conversation but comprise a fantastic variety that are the right size for entertaining. A party would provide their best light; rollicking with a few instead of marching through, which readers like me bent on finishing books do. En masse, they grow dry and similar. I have heard that crossword puzzlers eventually note patterns but children are not versed in old yarns. I wonder how I would have fared. I could not have tried Donald J. Sobol's exercise book in 1975!
As a grown-up I did well: not always nailing the clincher but missing the ballpark seldom. Two were unsolvable. In 1950s New York, apparently telephone lines had to be hung-up by the caller. The eventual dryness of flying through this many exercises is no fault of Mr. Sobol's. I gave two stars because several scenarios were enormously circumstantial and would not nab a culprit with certainty. An example is an outdoor tour guide giving an imitation of the way a notorious gunman was shot. The clue emphasized where he squinted at the sun and "the master sleuth" of this book, Dr. Haledjian, said history punished the wrong gunman. We can't guarantee a re-enactment squints the right way!
A clue banking on Canadian and British spelling was circumstantial and in error. A suicide note was declared fake based on brothers reared in England versus the USA. Meanwhile a gun hung from the victim's left hand, while a pen was in his right! My favourites were not crimes but a suitor telling whoppers to a lady who saw through them. Dr. Haledjian's reaction was hilarious! I will have a ball sharing a few of these with family and friends at our next birthday gathering.
As a grown-up I did well: not always nailing the clincher but missing the ballpark seldom. Two were unsolvable. In 1950s New York, apparently telephone lines had to be hung-up by the caller. The eventual dryness of flying through this many exercises is no fault of Mr. Sobol's. I gave two stars because several scenarios were enormously circumstantial and would not nab a culprit with certainty. An example is an outdoor tour guide giving an imitation of the way a notorious gunman was shot. The clue emphasized where he squinted at the sun and "the master sleuth" of this book, Dr. Haledjian, said history punished the wrong gunman. We can't guarantee a re-enactment squints the right way!
A clue banking on Canadian and British spelling was circumstantial and in error. A suicide note was declared fake based on brothers reared in England versus the USA. Meanwhile a gun hung from the victim's left hand, while a pen was in his right! My favourites were not crimes but a suitor telling whoppers to a lady who saw through them. Dr. Haledjian's reaction was hilarious! I will have a ball sharing a few of these with family and friends at our next birthday gathering.
October 28, 2017
I swear. I've read Stephen King books with smaller body counts. And this is for kids? Maybe kids in the 50's were a little more precocious.
August 6, 2012
Sobol - better known for the Encyclopedia Brown stories for children - died recently, which inspired me to pick up this paperback when I found it in the attic at home. The "two-minute mysteries," each starring the I'm-still-not-sure-how-to-pronounce-it Dr. Haledjian, were originally written as a newspaper column and are each about a page long. As such, there's not much plot development or character study. Rather, these are simply brainteasers. After each one the solution is printed upside-down: "Mucky Mel stated that he wasn't at the crime scene because he was giving his pet lemming Harold a bath. However, unluckily for Mel, Dr. Haledjian knows that lemmings are allergic to soap!"
The puzzles probably don't pose much of a challenge to most adults, aside from a few outdated ones that hinge on, for example, fashions in clothing that have gone out of style. I recommend this book for twelve-year-olds, or for leaving in the bathroom to amuse your guests while they... well, do whatever else they're there for.
The puzzles probably don't pose much of a challenge to most adults, aside from a few outdated ones that hinge on, for example, fashions in clothing that have gone out of style. I recommend this book for twelve-year-olds, or for leaving in the bathroom to amuse your guests while they... well, do whatever else they're there for.
December 22, 2020
Still More Two- Minute Mysteries by Donald J. Sobol includes a collection of short mysteries that young readers are supposed to solve. In reading through the story and paying attention to clues embedded in the text, readers are challenged to find the answers to each short mystery with the answers provided at the end.
I started binge-reading Two-Minute Mysteries during my childhood phase of reading stories about child detectives (e.g. Harriet the Spy). In all of the hundreds of two-minute mysteries that I read, I got maybe 1-2 correct -- it was an incredibly demoralizing and frustrating process. No matter how hard I would try, I could not come up with the correct answers. The responses were either ludicrous and unrealistic or they required information that children would not or could not possibly know. In an effort to make the mysteries a challenge to solve, the Sobol inadvertently (or maybe not) made them impossible. Who would enjoy playing an un-winnable game? Even now, looking back on this text nearly twenty years later, I can't help but feel a twinge of failure.
I started binge-reading Two-Minute Mysteries during my childhood phase of reading stories about child detectives (e.g. Harriet the Spy). In all of the hundreds of two-minute mysteries that I read, I got maybe 1-2 correct -- it was an incredibly demoralizing and frustrating process. No matter how hard I would try, I could not come up with the correct answers. The responses were either ludicrous and unrealistic or they required information that children would not or could not possibly know. In an effort to make the mysteries a challenge to solve, the Sobol inadvertently (or maybe not) made them impossible. Who would enjoy playing an un-winnable game? Even now, looking back on this text nearly twenty years later, I can't help but feel a twinge of failure.
May 29, 2021
A light, fun read. If you’ve read his Encyclopedia Brown books, you’ll likely recognize a bunch of the stories, which got “recycled” : D
Personally I prefer the Encyclopedia Brown books, partly because there is a refreshing lack of murder or violent crime, and partly because these ones feel a little too quick sometimes (though that does mean they live up to the title). Too many people with knives sticking out of their chests, as if this were an everyday occurrence.
But overall an entertaining read, and you can get an idea of what Sobol was doing before he created his famous mysteries for children.
Personally I prefer the Encyclopedia Brown books, partly because there is a refreshing lack of murder or violent crime, and partly because these ones feel a little too quick sometimes (though that does mean they live up to the title). Too many people with knives sticking out of their chests, as if this were an everyday occurrence.
But overall an entertaining read, and you can get an idea of what Sobol was doing before he created his famous mysteries for children.
March 1, 2023
My edition was the original 1975 edition, and I'm not sure if the text was updated along with the cover. It was dated but fun, with a good mix of easy and hard/impossible for most people mysteries. Strangely enough, one of the mysteries relies on British spelling, but I don't think the publisher realized this as they had changed the spellings all to American, making the mystery confusing and unsolvable. In all, I enjoyed this one.
September 12, 2023
I have had this book for a long time and remember being a kid and not being able to solve many of these. It was fun to reread and pick up clues that seem much clearer at this age. Overall, just a fun little pre-bedtime read.
October 6, 2017
Fun mysteries to solve
800-899-literature
January 13, 2020808.83
January 20, 2024
What a great book !
Read
December 14, 2024fun and challenging not to go merely with what is said but to think for yourself
Read
February 25, 2015The authors purpose of writing this book was to entertain the readers. The author accomplished this by making the readers try to figure out the mysteries.
The theme of the book was to think outside of the box. The author made readers think outside of the box by making them solve the mysteries with things most people would overlook. The author wrote the stories around a topic of people getting murdered.
The book was written as a description. It is a description because the author tells the reader what was going on, where it was, and what the people were saying.
I thought the book was a good one. I did not like that the book was a bunch of different stories put together in a book. I would change the book by having one big story with a lot of different mysteries. This book is similar to a book I read a while ago that also made you solve mysteries.
The theme of the book was to think outside of the box. The author made readers think outside of the box by making them solve the mysteries with things most people would overlook. The author wrote the stories around a topic of people getting murdered.
The book was written as a description. It is a description because the author tells the reader what was going on, where it was, and what the people were saying.
I thought the book was a good one. I did not like that the book was a bunch of different stories put together in a book. I would change the book by having one big story with a lot of different mysteries. This book is similar to a book I read a while ago that also made you solve mysteries.
June 27, 2009
Join Dr Haledjian, the famous criminologist, as he solves crimes, helps out Inspector Winters and his various acquaintances. The stories take place in during the 1950's which to me is mainly the book's disadvantage. Due to the era when the stories takes place, some clues come off as quite inapplicable to our modern times.
Nevertheless, this book has sixty three short mysteries, full of tricksters, drifters and killers. Dr. Haledjian's there to uphold the law, but will you catch the culprit first?
Book Details:
Title Still More Two-Minute Mysteries
Author Donald J. Sobol
Reviewed By Purplycookie
Nevertheless, this book has sixty three short mysteries, full of tricksters, drifters and killers. Dr. Haledjian's there to uphold the law, but will you catch the culprit first?
Book Details:
Title Still More Two-Minute Mysteries
Author Donald J. Sobol
Reviewed By Purplycookie
September 14, 2016
This is the only book that my sister enjoys as much as I do. It's also the only book that's actually persuaded by bibliophobic younger brother towards reading.
This book inspires creative thought, and I'm happy that I was able to correctly solve 49% of its mysteries (I'd argue I solved half of it, since The Case of the Gasping Partner was simply unfair). It encourages pragmatic applications of theoretic principles, and for that it gets top marks from me. For example, who knew that phototropism was actually relevant?
This book inspires creative thought, and I'm happy that I was able to correctly solve 49% of its mysteries (I'd argue I solved half of it, since The Case of the Gasping Partner was simply unfair). It encourages pragmatic applications of theoretic principles, and for that it gets top marks from me. For example, who knew that phototropism was actually relevant?
June 3, 2013
The Theme of this book is mystery. This book is full of tons of different stories and you get to choose what you want to happen next. Reading these stories keep you on your feet wanting to know what is going to happen next and it makes it even better that you get to pick what you want to happen next.
January 23, 2016
Cute little book of one page stories that when you finished you turned the page upside down to see if you had solved it correctly. I loved these books as a kid and found it at the library. They were still fun after all these years and I still couldn't get all of the correct.
September 25, 2009
overall the mysteries were enjoyable but there were a few that had really obscure answers. this is more a book to read a mystery per night rather than all at once
September 19, 2013
Some of the solutions are a little dated in their "as everyone knows..." statements, but these mysteries are fun, quick, and easy to read.
Read
May 12, 2015Purely a fun read. I found this in my local used bookstore, and it brought back memories of reading my mother's old solve-it-yourself detective stories when I was a kid.
July 19, 2015
little logic puzzles
January 22, 2017
Enjoyable short mysteries to get your brain working.
August 1, 2012
*Look at my review for the first Two Minute Mysteries
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews