Enigmatic Variations

A wonderfully crafted puzzle, which had me gaping in awe at the artistry of the themed-puzzle setter – although I found the clues generally easier than usual to solve, and it suffered a little from the … Read more >>

I rather enjoyed this romp. I am, as I have previously confessed, rather fond of the ways and means used by some EVs (including this one): quotations constructed from excised letters and hidden … Read more >>

A murder mystery this week – sounds a good one. The preamble promises a hunt for not only the murder victim, but also the location of the victim and the investigator of the case. … Read more >>

A fairly straightforward puzzle from Oxymoron this week. Each clue requires a letter or a word to be removed before solving. These spell out a quotation which reflects the clues and suggests how … Read more >>

Although I got to the ‘bottom’ of the theme quite quickly, the second variation had me chasing my own tail, and even barking up the wrong tree, for a while. But(t), it was … Read more >>

I am most grateful to Warbler for this delightfully appropriate EV for my debut blog. Not only did it use two of my favourite mechanisms – corrected letters to spell out a message … Read more >>

The End of term – A shortish preamble indicating corrections to be applied to definitions and modifications to the other answers before grid entry. Would this puzzle raise an enigmatic smile – Gioconda? … Read more >>

Kruger has been setting EV puzzles for over ten years, with a puzzle every four or five months, and the occasional Inquisitor for good measure. I have always found his crosswords fair, but … Read more >>

I found this to be one of the hardest EVs for quite some time. Even though I got the theme fairly early on from 31ac, quickly confirmed by 12ac, it took a while … Read more >>

Quite a complex preamble this week – additional letters in the wordplay of the across clues, additional words in the down clues and ten unclued entries, seven of which required modification. So what about … Read more >>

Piccadilly has set puzzles for all the series, although the last five years has seen him (Mick Willey) setting for Enigmatic Variations. He is also that rare beast, someone who sets both word … Read more >>

The preamble seemed quite straightforward, no extra letters etc in the wordplay just the possible modification of six across answers and twelve down ones before entering them in the grid. I started with … Read more >>

Five clues have no definition. That sounds easy, since that leaves over fifty other normal clues that presumably do. Little did I know …! Despite seeing some 4-letter words beginning with I, a … Read more >>

Just over three years and three months ago I wrote this blog. I think it was my first for Fifteensquared. Since that Independent puzzle I have blogged the Guardian, Everyman, Azed, Inquisitor and … Read more >>

It’s been the pantomime season and so here was a topical puzzle from Charybdis, with a neat little twist at the end. Some of the clues were rather tricky, even by EV standards, … Read more >>