Five-Minute Crimebusters: Clever Mini-Mysteries Paperback – December 12, 1999

I really like this book.First, as a mystery fan, I love seeing if I can solve the mysteries myself. That's fun. (I have about a 75% success rate, so far.)Then, as an author, I look at how super-simple these plots are, yet how engaging, and I'm inspired.Generally, the murders are clean and tidy - pretty much cozy mysteries. So, though a parent may want to skim the book to be sure it's appropriate for a child, I think it's fairly safe for young teens or slightly earlier. (It will depend upon the child and the family. I mean, these stories ARE about murders...)I re-read this book every few years and - in the interim - I seem to forget some of the endings. So, this remains entertaining, and this is actually the second time I've bought this book. (I think I gave my copy to a friend. Either that, or it got lost during a move. After all, this is a fairly small book.)If you're fan of cozy mysteries or an aspiring (or stalled) mystery writer, I recommend this book.

I thought this book was a mystery cases for children. Most of the stories involved murder and May not be suitable for all children.

Well, I would call them puzzles rather than mysteries although many are the mysteries you would expect. However, five minutes is incorrect. Often, you have to pore over the story several times and still might miss the seemingly insignificant fact or facts (such as something that the main character did rather than what the suspects said or did) that will lead you to the likely (not always certain) answer. You might also need to some fact that very, very few people know, and you'll be surprised in looking at the answer that you needed to know that.

There are a handful of decent mysteries in this collection, but there are way too many mediocre ones. In fact, some of the stories are ones that I would not even classify as mysteries. These are more like brain puzzles with a silly narrative.

I bought this for my ten year old granddaughter who loves to read mysteries. I didn't realize that the mystery scenes had to be read to you by someone else so that the answer isn't revealed. So the book is now used as a family thinking game, which is still a good thing. But even though the book is G rated, some of the topics aren't relevent for younger age groups, who might not have a point of reference to understand the issues.

Some are a little hooky and more like a riddle but my wife and I enjoy the characters and reading them after dinner. We can figure out most of them.

I bought this for my niece who was 6 and very with it and smart, she loved this book. Really challenges critical thinking and was fun to do with her... fun to play with her on this level and also, she loved to take it and do it on her own. Success!

Some aren't mysteries, but actually are logic problems. Other than that, it's a fun read.