Lavender Teasers

Lavender Teasers (2000) is a collection of gay and lesbian mystery puzzlers by Hugh Havtikess (pseudonym). Each mystery is between eight and twelve pages. Mystery puzzlers end with a question (who-dunnit; how-dunnit), challenging the reader to solve the mystery. Solutions are provided in an index at the back of the book. Though mystery puzzlers in one form or another have been popular since the days of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, this was the first collection of gay-themed, multicultural puzzlers. Mystery puzzlers (or mystery puzzles) are also known by such names as "quick mysteries" or "two/five minute mysteries" or "mini-mysteries" when they are one or two pages in length (examples can be found at mysterynet.com). Recently, the term mystery puzzler has been extended to include full length novels which do not challenge the reader to solve the mystery, but make it possible for those carefully tracking clues (The DaVinci Code; Plum Island). One feature that clearly distinguishes mystery puzzlers from general mysteries is that in the latter the author need not present all details needed to solve the mystery; the author can wrap up the mystery in narrative form by explaining events that occurred "off page", but which seem reasonable. Authors of mystery puzzlers cannot do this. The reader must be able to go back to the story and clearly find each detail that figures in the story's resolution. One can read many mysteries and not develop a keener ability to solve them if those mysteries depend heavily on surprise endings that introduce reasonable, but not predictable elements. Readers of mystery puzzlers become more adept at resolving them across time because the process teaches the reader how to avoid intentional distractions and other literary legerdemain. For this reason, some dislike mystery puzzlers; they claim it eventually robs them of the magical experience of reading such mysteries.