Holiday Puzzles and a New Word Search Book
December Newsletter | The Toymaker's Riddles
You are a proud member of Hidden Creek’s most curious secret, the Lantern & Lens Society, a discreet group devoted to unraveling the town’s long-forgotten puzzles. With access to the Society’s private archive, the Lost & Kept, you can search through old keepsakes, family ledgers, and village memorabilia that rarely see the light of day.
A surprise delivery from Aunt Elsie pulls you into famed toymaker Otto Spieler’s legendary 1907 puzzle contest. What begins with a few curious treasures quickly leads to the discovery of old riddles, subtle clues, and a chance to retrace the path your great uncle Ned once followed to unlock his contest prize.
This month’s puzzle set includes letter unscramble, fill in the blank, a maze, missing vowel, and word search.
Ready to solve! Open Puzzle PDF Need a clue? View the Solutions
A Real Rebus Puzzle Challenge from 1913
I learned two things while putting together this month’s puzzle set. First, puzzle contests were very popular in the early 1900s. Second, weekly rebus puzzles were commonly included in newspapers during that time. If you are not familiar with a rebus puzzle, it is a visual word riddle, and honestly, I find the historic ones quite tough.
Above is a rhymed rebus from the February 9, 1913 edition of The San Francisco Call. If you want the answer, it is here.
My New Word Search Book
I am excited to share that my new 8,000 Word Word Search book is out now. It features 200 large print, easy to read puzzles with a brand new set of 8,000 unique words to find. If you enjoyed the first volume, I think you will love this one. It is available in paperback and as an e-book for the Kindle Scribe.
Moving Into the New Year
Thank you to everyone who has supported my work this year. Your encouragement has meant a great deal to me. In the new year I will be taking a little break from the Lantern and Lens Society series, although I will continue to send out free printable puzzles.
As a small thank you to those who have offered paid support, I have created a special word search series based on the Twelve Days of Christmas carol. I hope you enjoy it.