Customer Rating:  
Summary: Good for beginners
Comment: This book contains a selection of puzzles for beginning solvers of Killer Sudoku, which is a variant on normal sudoku in which the normal 9x9 grid is overlaid by regions demarcated by dotted lines, each with a little number representing the sum to which the numbers in the squares within the region must total. Some of these regions lie wholly within one of the 3x3 boxes on the Sudoku grid; others may span one or more of those boxes.
The book begins with 12 puzzles set in a smaller, 6x6 grid, called "Killer Lite." The remainder of the puzzles are set in 9x9 grids, 15 characterized as "Mild," 33 characterized as "Moderate," 35 characterized as "Challenging," 20 characterized as "Vexing," and 5 characterized as "Truly Killer."
The problem with the book is that these designations appear arbitrary. Most of the puzzles are relatively easy, which belies the sobriquet "Killer Sudoku" entirely. There is no perceptible change in difficulty level as one moves from one category to the next. Indeed, some puzzles designated "Moderate" are equally as difficult, if not more so, than some designated "Challenging." None of the puzzles marked "Truly Killer" remotely fit that designation, and indeed there is little difference among the so-called "Challenging", "Vexing," or "Truly Killer." The author has simply not delivered on his promise of different difficulty levels. In that respect, the book is a big disappointment and so merits only three stars.
Customer Rating:
Summary: For Beginners Only!
Comment: The 13 page introduction with examples of different solving skills combined with tables of combinations is the reason this is the best book I've seen for the beginner to killer suduko. The solving tips are logical and explained well, and the tables are handy and you should keep them at hand when you advance to the harder books.
Customer Rating:
Summary: I learned a lot about sudoku.
Comment: The beginning of the book has a lot of information regarding killer sudoku. I have been playing for months and still found new ways to determine what number goes where. Lots of fun.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fun, but too easy
Comment: I have to agree with the other reviewers who found this book too easy.
Killer Sudoku is more fun than regular Sudoku because one gets to use the actual values of the numbers and add them up. And it is best for me if the puzzles are easy enough so I can solve them in less than an hour, just by looking at them. If I have to start doing calculations on paper, or even writing down possibilities and then eliminating them, the puzzles are getting a little tougher than I like.
These puzzles are on the easy side, and you may not find them very satisfying.
If you are new to Killer Sudoku and are not looking for much of a challenge, this is a good book. It explains the basic strategies for solving such puzzles. And there are plenty of puzzles in the book, over 100 in all.
It starts with some simple 6x6 puzzles. Solving one of them can take less than a minute. Then, there are some "mild" and "moderate" puzzles. The mild ones generally take under 5 minutes to solve, and the moderate ones only slightly more than that. The rest of the puzzles are easy as well; many folks will solve even the most difficult in well under 20 minutes. For what it's worth, I found the toughest to be puzzle number 118.
There are other Killer Sudoku books out there, and some are a much better challenge.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A good starter book for Killer Sudoku
Comment: This is an excellent introductory book for Killer Sudoku. The 13 page introduction explains solving methods and provides some tables of interesting sums and their number combinations. This is followed by 12 pages of 6x6 Killer Sudoku puzzles to give you some practice if you haven't done this type of puzzle before. The regular 9x9 Killer Sudoku puzzles follow with 15 Mild, 33 Moderate, 35 Challenging, 20 Vexing, and 5 Truly Killer puzzles.
So far I've made it into the vexing puzzles with very little difficulty. I also have "Killer Su Doku 1 The Deadly New Dimension", which I was working on before this one and which is a lot harder. (I actually got stuck at puzzle #78 and switched over to Steve Arons' book to see if I could get some insight into the problem.)
I find the rhythm and flow of solving Killer Sudoku to be much more fun and satisfying than regular Sudoku and highly recommend this book for beginners.
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