The Pilot Who Wore a Dress

by Tom Cutler, Bart Aalbers (Illustrator)

Devised by devious genius Tom Cutler, The Pilot Who Wore a Dress is a fiendish collection of riddles, mysteries and puzzles to test and tease your brain.


Here’s a simple one to get you started: four bodybuilders are huddling together in the street, under a small ladies’ umbrella, yet after 20 minutes not one of them has got wet. How is this possible?


Separated into original brainteasers and timeless conundrums, plus locked-room head-scratchers and unsolvable crimes borrowed from the very best of detective fiction, this cunning collection will give your lateral thinking muscle a proper workout. See if you can crack the problems by tracing the clues tucked away in each mystery, without sneaking a peak at the answers at the back of the book.


These puzzles are perfect for the squashed commute and after-dinner whoopla alike. They are guaranteed to entertain and delight, whether you’re a wannabe Sherlock Holmes or a budding Jonathan Creek. Side effects may include bafflement, laughter, smugness, and exclamations along the lines of, ‘It’s so obvious once you know the answer.’


Oh, and about those bone-dry bodybuilders – who said it was raining? So obvious!

Genres: Short Stories, Nonfiction, Mystery

224 pages, Hardcover

First published November 5, 2015

About the author

Tom Cutler is a bestselling British author. After a curious career in book and magazine publishing, and having built up a lifetime's scar tissue, he decided to launch himself as a humorous writer upon a reading public that had done nothing to hurt him.

Tom's books cover a variety of subjects, including language, sex, and music. Among his several international bestsellers are, A Gentleman's Bedside Book and the Amazon number-one blockbuster, 211 Things A Bright Boy Can Do. His work has been translated into several languages.

Tom is a practising magician and member of the Magic Circle, as well as a longstanding Sherlock Holmes aficionado. He has always known that there is something strange about the way he relates to the world, but it was only in 2016, at the age of 56, that he was formally identified as being on the autism spectrum. This, he says, was the happiest day of his life.

His latest book, Keep Clear: my adventures with Asperger's, is out now.

Reviews

[Meri · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I started with reading, I prepared myself to be a Sherlock Holmes. But, this was one big disappointment. This book is very poor, uninteresting, lukewarm and far, far away from the stories where you must shake it up your brain... sorry, but I didn't like it :(

[Tim Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The puzzles are wrapped up in shaggy dog stories. This is not without its charm, and adds to the sense of mystery by clouding the mind with red herrings. On the other hand, you could also regard it as pointless padding that takes up room that would be better used for more puzzles.

A lot of the puzzles are familiar, trivial, or highly contrived. It was refreshing, therefore, to find that there is a set of puzzling mysteries that actually happened. The answers here are not so clear, but they are a lot more sensible.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a dip in and out of book, although I did read it in order, using a bookmark and reading one or two 'stories' (for lack of a better word) at a time.

I've dipped into a few books like this over the years and wasn't a huge fan of this one. It's got a few sections.

Lateral Thinking Classics:
Some I'd encountered before, some I hadn't (or have forgotten). While lateral thinking puzzles often rely on stereotypes and assumptions I found the sexism/stereotypes needlessly overdone where it wasn't needed and wasn't a fan of the storytelling tone. Enjoyable enough and kept me entertained for the few minutes I read each one. The solutions are in the back.

Locked Room and Impossible Murders:
Some from stories like Sherlock Holmes. Spoilers if you were planning to read them, but I think I'd encountered most already.

Lateral Thinking Mysteries from Real Life:
Some real life crimes. I wasn't familiar with these and thought it was an interesting addition.

Lateral Thinking Betchas and Gotchas:
The general idea was challenging someone to do X for a pint, before showing the reveal. Main criticism here was that the solutions were often on the same page so you couldn't 'have a go' before seeing the solution if you didn't know them already.

Overall: Disliked the tone and assumptions made in the storytelling. Some classics in here you'd expect to have read elsewhere (but that is to be expected!). Having the solutions on the same page for the last section is bad show. Entertaining enough but I've read better similar books.

[Adele · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very clever book, in fact, far too clever for me. I thought reading was supposed to be fun? My head now hurts ;o) I guess I am just not a very good lateral thinker

[Bruce Gargoyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a digital copy of this title from the publisher via Netgalley.

Ten Second Synopsis:
A collection of lateral thinking puzzles, their solutions and instructions on how to use them to have a grand old time. From old favourites to new tricks, this is an essential shelf filler for those who love to think outside the box and look superior to their friends.

If you are a lover of lateral thinking riddles, this book will provide satisfaction, as you confidently and correctly answer the riddles you’ve heard before, and frustration, as you grapple with hitherto unseen brain-bafflers. The book is split into categories, starting off gently before moving to more complex puzzles. The riddles are written out as stories, which began to annoy me after a while, but as the introduction mentions, the book is really intended to be used with a group of people, hence the elaborate story set-ups. For dipping in and out of as an individual though, this book would be a lot of fun, with the added bonus of making you a decided expert in the field of lateral thinking puzzles.

[Theediscerning · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book does itself no favours by starting with a lengthy and very disposable section of naff posers – the answers to about half of which are more or less the same. Skip them, avoid the problems with the build-up of woolly and flowery writing to disguise the necessary clues in the set-ups, and you get to what makes the book more interesting – only to find that interest severely limited. Classic 'locked room' cases from literature are summarised, and for once we have reason to think and not groan at the poor sense of humour or indeed the stupidity of some of the questions. Some real life instances are also good – although the hit and miss quality is sustained, as it is in the final section of groan-worthy, and implausible, things to do to flummox other people at a dinner party or down the pub (or goad them into thumping you a new one). The whole tries too hard to be amenable, but is a tester of the wrong kind.

[Eileen Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very amusing and lighthearted book.
The examples of lateral thinking are fiendish and dastardly, but very enjoyable.
There are a few "Oh so that's what it was" and "Why didn't think of that!".
The cartoons are great!
Highly recommended.
I was given a digital copy of this book by the publisher via Netgalley in return for an honest unbiased review.

[Lennart Guldbrandsson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only a few of these actually surprised me, and the ones at the end are not quite the lateral thinking brain teasers the author seem to think (as we do not have the information needed to solve the puzzles, and may have heard of the mysteries before). But the tone and style of the writing is quite entertaining and I like the beginning of the book.

[Aleksandar Obradović · Rating 1 out of 5]

Jako loše...

[Zmajcek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zaista zanimljiva i poucna knjiga. Sadrži zagonetke i probleme istih, odmarate a ne dozvoljava da zaspite.