Nutcrackers

You'll find four kinds of Nutcrackers in the pages that follow; each resembles a kind of puzzle you may have seen before but works a maddening twist on the pattern. Missing Persons puzzles, for instance, take traditional, laborious word-search puzzles and trick them out with cryptic clues and a hidden theme. They are an excellent introduction to the cryptic technique employed in Cryptic Crosswords, which resemble typical Sunday puzzles only to the degree that Maseratis resemble Fords. Labyrinths, which follow, combine elements of mazes, riddles,and standard crosswords to create brain twisters not quite like any of their ingredients.