Of the five total chapters in Is This Seat Taken?, Chapter 4: New York is the first hurdle many players will encounter. There are challenging puzzles in the first three chapters of Is This Seat Taken?

He was the main whiz behind a crossword variation for The Times, whose readers delighted in his anagrams and sometimes groan-inducing wordplay. (Try one yourself.) Mel Taub in the 1950s or ’60s. His ...