Five-minute Mysteries 4: A Further 36 Cases of Murder and Mayhem for You to Solve

Ken Weber is Professor Emeritus of the University of Toronto and the best-selling author of more than 40 educational and general interest books, including the popular Five-minute Mysteries series.

Memorandum

To: ALL MYSTERY BUFFS
From: the author

Mystery buffs know there are only two kinds of people in the world: those that love mysteries and, well, that other kind. A tiny majority, the latter are, and that's a good thing because they are missing something unique. For only in mysteries can a reader get a charge out of winning or losing.

It works like this. Nothing gives mystery buffs more satisfaction than getting ahead in a story and beating the writer to the punch. They get a special charge out of combining logic, analysis, intuition and insight so that before they turn the last page, they already have the problem solved. Yet -- and this is what sets mystery lovers apart -- nothing thrills them more than when the mystery defeats them, when they turn the last page and find a surprise waiting, something they'd missed.

In this, the fourth installment of the series, mystery lovers get no less than thirty-six shots at the fun of winning or losing, in a set of wildly different stories. Every mystery in the book is set up for the reader to solve. At the end of each mystery there is a question: Who did...? or What did...? or It seems the thief made a mistake. How could...? Like that.

There's great variety. The settings range from city to country, from soccer field to fourteenth century church, and from a U.N. meeting room to a hardware store to a sinking ship in Halifax harbor. You'll encounter veteran detectives, medical examiners, special agents, a drug enforcement officer and crime-scene investigators.

There's also variety in the level of challenge. As turn the pages of Five-minute Mysteries 4, you'll notice one, two or three symbols -- a fingerprint -- at the beginning of each story. The number of fingerprints suggests how easy or difficult the mystery is, one being easy, two being a little harder, and three, difficult. (Or, perhaps more accurately, how easy or difficult each one seems to me.) But don't let the ratings stop you from enjoying all the mysteries! One that I rate "difficult" might be an open-and-shut case for you, while you might be utterly stumped by one I've rated "easy." Try them all.

Finally, all the solutions are at the back of the book, so you can prove you're a winner or, once in a while, get a kick out of losing. Either way, enjoy.

Memorandum

Unsolved Cases

1. A Decision at Rattlesnake Point
2. Something Suspicious in the Harbor
3. In Search of Answers
4. A Single Shot in the Chest
5. The Case of the Stolen Stamp Collection
6. Not Your Average Hardware Store
7. Murder at 249 Hanover Street
8. Head-on in the Middle of the Road
9. A 911 Call from Whitby Towers
10. The Case of the Kramer Collection
11. Waiting Out the Rain
12. A Routine Check in the Parking Lot
13. An Answer for Kirby's Important New Client
14. Two Shots Were Fired
15. Northern Farms Ltd. Versus Dominion Spraying Company
16. An Unlikely Place to Die
17. To Catch a Mannerly Thief
18. Tracing the Couriers from Departure to Arrival
19. Not All Lottery Winners Are Lucky
20. Spy Versus Spy
21. The Search for Olie Jorgensson
22. Murder at the David Winkler House
23. Incident on the Picket Fence
24. Footprints on the Trail
25. A Very Brief Non-Interview
26. Murder at 12 Carnavon
27. The Case of Queen Isabella's Gift
28. Quite Possibly, the Annual Meeting of the Ambiguity Society
29. The Case of the Missing Body
30. The Case of Marigold Trophy
31. The Coffee Break That Wasn't
32. Who Shot the Clerk at Honest Orville's?
33. Speed Checked by Radar
34. Where to Send "This Stuff Here"
35. A Witness in the Park
36. An Urgent Security Matter at the U.N.

Solutions