A solid history of the crossword puzzle -- and some variant forms. Arnot traces the antecedent puzzles like word squares and rebuses before delving into the beginnings of the crossword puzzle. She includes many "mini-stories" of solvers who begged for harder (or, sometimes, easier) puzzles, of psychiatrists who thought crosswords to be potentially dangerous, and of many constructors. Most of the book, though, tracks the tenure of the editors of the New York Times puzzles, and how that newspaper generally set the standard for most American-style puzzles. There are a few chapters about British-style cryptic crosswords and on crossword-puzzle variants like acrostics. Some thirty puzzles are included as examples (with answers!). ( )