It's pretty awesome having a puzzlehunter protagonist who actually thinks like a puzzlehunter. E.g., he's at a puzzlehunt put on by a classical pianist and the first puzzle requires knowledge of classical music. Our hero makes the exact same wrong guesses that I did. When he finds out that he messed up because he didn't know the classics, he's filled with dread at how he's going to do for the rest of the hunt. He has an idea how the designer thinks, and realizes that he'll have a hard time thinking like the designer. That whole train of thought is spot on.
This book has some good puzzling and it's fun to watch how the players interact. As required for the genre, there's a criminal mystery tacked onto the story, but it's pretty easy to get past that and into a fun game.
