I’m not sure whether these were actually children’s/middle-readers books, but I loved them as a kid. Each two-page puzzle had a full black-and-white line-drawing illustration of a mystery on the left page, and a little exposition with leading questions on the right, to help the reader solve the mystery. The mysteries were things like “Who tampered with the paddles before the rowing competition?” and “How did the baby get downstairs in the elevator?” and “Who stole all the chickens from the coop?” I forget whether there were murders to solve too, but most of them were all-ages-friendly puzzles. Each book probably had 20 or 30 mysteries to solve, with answers in the back of the book. It was a series of largish paperback books–I’m pretty sure I had at least two or three of them–and I was reading them in the early-to-mid ’90s. Thank you!
Stump the Bookseller
New format, same book stumper solving.
The timing and size of books make me suspect Usborne Puzzle Adventures, but I’m pretty sure those were always printed in colour. Still, maybe?
Maybe The Black Hand Game, by an author whose last name was something like “Preuss”. (It’s been a really long time since I read it!)
The Black Hand Gang! Thank you so much. I have been trying for years to find that book, but I always thought it was the Black Hill Gang, and I couldn’t find it. You are my hero!
🙂 glad to help!