Aimee Lucido has been writing crossword puzzles since college, and she knows a thing or two about the mystery. As for cheating — gasp! — she says it’s OK.

Thinking back to his first crossword puzzle submission to The New York Times when he was 17, Tom McCoy cringes. The theme centered on the board game Clue, he recalls. "The theme of it wasn't very ...

The future of crossword puzzles. Mr. Shortz feels that solvers are experiencing a “golden age” of crosswords, largely because people who would not have considered making a puzzle in the past ...

He is the Star’s new crossword puzzle maker, a role the late Merl Reagle filled since the launch of this section nearly 20 years ago. “If Merl’s not the greatest, he’s in the top five ...

Quigley notes, “it’s easy to make a hard puzzle.” But that’s not the point. Most crossword puzzle constructors know they’re constructing a puzzle that can be and will be cracked.