A book too mischievously multiform to classify. It is in part a history of the crossword puzzle ... The very genre of the crossword relies on the recognition that language is not merely an intellectual instrument but also a substance with material properties. Shechtman, a witty and crisp stylist, evidently relishes its sensuality. She is almost lovingly attuned to all its awkward oddities ... Shechtman is a constructor in the best sense of the word.
Shechtman has spent the better part of the past decade agitating for greater diversity among puzzle makers and for crosswords that reflect a more capacious sense of common knowledge, a project she expands upon and complicates in The Riddles of the Sphinx ... Shechtman places herself within a rich lineage of female cruciverbalists who helped pioneer the form.
