Lassiter Wren & Randle McKay - “The Baffle Book” (Published by Crime Club)

Photo above is property of Lassiter Wren & Randle McKay

Company: Lassiter Wren & Randle McKay

Game: The Baffle Book (Published by Crime Club)

Country: USA 🇺🇸

Language: English

Type of Game: Tabletop Games 📬

Genre: Short Crime Puzzles

Date Played: January 1, 2022

Difficulty (based on 1 player): 8/10

Size of Team: 1 Player

Time: Approximately 5-6 Hours of Play

Price: $11.95 (Paperback)/ Out of print (Hardcover)

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Published Nov, 1928

“A Baffle Book doth make Sherlocks of us all.”

42.62%

Created during the Golden Age of detective fiction, the Baffle book was a fair-play book/game that allowed the reader to enjoy 30 interesting self-contained mini-mysteries–but mini-mysteries without the ending provided at the end of the story. To read the conclusion, the reader must turn the book upside down for the answer/end of the story. Each short (2-7 page) story is done in a “fair” method, where all the information you need to solve the case is presented with no Sherlock Holmes style holding onto vital clues from the reader (although some knowledge and common sense of the era is also required).

The Baffle Book was written by Lassiter Wren and Randle McKay (pseudonym of Richard Rowan) who also illustrated the diagrams and charts in the book. F. Tennyson Jesse, the editor, was uncredited. She was a great-niece of the famous poet Aldred, Lord Tennyson and would write true crime novels and several mysteries, plays, and short stories herself. With the Baffle Book, Wren and McKay proclaimed themselves (or, at least their ad-copy) as originators of the "Detective Problem Form," or, "Detective Puzzle Form."

The Baffle Book is arguably the 2nd game in the genre of Mystery Puzzle Games, and the first one to have the player solving mystery stories. Each mystery is based on real types of cases, forensics, or “new” techniques…such as fingerprinting.

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"The Baffle Book" is a very nice looking hardcover with a simple design that feels like it comes out of the 1920s art deco style, but even simpler. The book itself is laid out like a normal book with each “chapter” being a new Baffle to solve. The answers are in order on the flip side of the book so that you do not accidentally read the answer while trying to solve the Baffle.

Photos above are property of Lassiter Wren & Randle McKay

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30 Baffles. 42.62% That was my score at the end, and I felt rather good about it! I read each Baffle, thought about it for a while–oftentimes returning to re-read it a few times and make some notes, then eventually going for the solution. At the end of each Baffle, before you flip to the back for the answer, you are provided with several questions with varying scores (each Baffle is 10 points in total). For each correct answer, you earn those points so that you can find your score at the end and compare it with your friends!

I rarely did more than 2-3 Baffles in a session as this felt like a good amount of gameplay per session since the game didn’t continue…each one was a separate mini-game so I allotted my time accordingly. This book works great for when I just wanted to spend 10-20 minutes reading and thinking through a case!

Photos above are property of Lassiter Wren & Randle McKay

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The puzzles are mostly deductions based on the fair clues provided in the story. Some Baffles contained drawing showing, for example, fingerprint, footprint paths, room sketches, etc., in order to help you get the evidence required to come to the conclusion. The puzzles really are all “fair” with all the evidence required and none held back, however it was writing in the 1920s and some are virtually unsolvable unless you are intimately familiar with certain tropes, styles, items, and such of the time which mostly would have been common knowledge to the original reader. While this made it hard and/or impossible for me to solve several Baffles, I really enjoyed reading these that were set in that time period. Conversely, some were really easy for a modern reader familiar with detective fiction and mystery puzzle games that the original readers would not have been as familiar with.

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I really enjoyed "The Baffle Book"! It was a fun, challenging, and authentic dive into the late 1920s world of detective fiction and puzzles. While I did not quite crack a 50% score, I felt very satisfied with my progress and upon reflection, had I spent a bit more time on a few, I feel I could have achieved a score in the 60s. I also showed this book to my mother who is a mystery novel fan and she became instantly hooked and wants to beat my score! I’m also really looking forward to reading the next 2 books in this series and improving upon my score…

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(If you do decide to try this game, please remember to let them know that you heard it from"ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)

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