Solving lateral puzzles: a guide
A lateral case begins with a sentence that cannot be true. An alarm clock rings for someone it does not belong to. A runner sleeps and has still run ten kilometres. You sit in front of the contradiction and may only ask questions that can be answered with yes or no. This guide shows how to build a solution from that.
What a lateral puzzle is
In an ordinary puzzle the solution hides in a calculation or a pun. In a lateral puzzle it hides in a story you are missing. The teaser tells part of it, and the rest is what you have to work out: who was involved, what happened before, why someone behaved that way.
Lateral means sideways. You do not get on by thinking in the direction the teaser pushes you, but by testing an assumption you never noticed.
Five techniques that almost always help
First: settle the circumstances. Who is involved, where does it happen, when, were there animals, was anyone hurt? Five quick questions rule out many wrong paths before you voice a single guess.
Second: ask from coarse to fine. Did someone die? Was there intent? Does it involve an object? Only once the big questions are settled is the small one worth asking.
Third: a no is information. If you only reword the question after a no, you waste it. Ask instead: what is left if that is not true?
Fourth: take the inconspicuous seriously. What sounds casual in the teaser is often the door. A word like neighbour, photo or alarm clock is rarely there by chance.
Fifth: say the solution only when the chain is complete. A solution is a story with a beginning, a contradiction and a resolution. If a link is missing the raven says Partly, and that is progress, not failure.
An example, question by question
The case: every morning at six Mrs Brandt puts a saucer of milk outside her door, although she has no cat. One possible order of questions: Is the milk for an animal? Yes. Does the animal belong to Mrs Brandt? No. Does she know the animal? Yes. Is someone else responsible for it? Yes. Is that person away right now? Yes. Is Mrs Brandt unable to take the animal into her home? Yes.
That nearly completes the story: the animal belongs to someone who is currently away, and Mrs Brandt looks after it from a distance without taking it in. Open is only why she does not take it in. Is it a health reason? Yes. Now the solution can be said: the neighbour is in hospital, his cat roams, and Mrs Brandt is allergic, so she only puts the milk outside.
What the raven answers
The raven answers Yes, No, Partly or Doesn't matter. If your question is not a yes or no question, it says so. Doesn't matter means the answer changes nothing about the solution. Asking it costs you nothing, you only learn that you turned into a side street.
Partly is the most valuable answer. It says your question holds something right and something wrong. Split the question in two and ask both separately.
When you are stuck
There are three hints per case. They unlock after five, ten and fifteen questions, because a hint at the start would give away more than it should. You can give up at any time and look at the solution. The case then counts as revealed, not solved.