Cracking Codes and Cryptograms For Dummies

In The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, Dan Brown capitalized on society's love of conspiracy and took millions of readers through the journey of revealing the secrets and clues left by some of the world's most powerful and enigmatic secret societies. In his latest book The Lost Symbol, Brown uses cryptography, keys, symbols, and codes to help his characters reveal the truth piece by piece, puzzle by puzzle. Now, the For Dummies series allows readers to step into the shoes of symbologist-hero Robert Langdon, uncovering mysteries and history by solving cryptograms and deciphering codes that relate to Freemasonry, the Knights Templar, the Illuminati, and other secret societies and conspiracy theories.

Cracking Codes & Cryptograms For Dummies features more than 300 different puzzles of varying skill levels, from the simplest substitution puzzles to fiendishly difficult ciphers. The book is unique in that there are three conspiracy stories, set in the times of the American Revolutionary War, American Civil War, and the present day, which are encrypted through the book - to uncover the stories you need to crack the ciphers!

The types of puzzles include:

• Cryptograms with letter substitutions, number substitutions (A=1, B=2, etc.), and symbol substitutions (A=2666, B=263c, etc.).
• Caesar Ciphers—also called Shift Ciphers, where there is a shift of number of letters in the alphabet
• Masonic Ciphers—a collection of real symbols and ciphers used by Masons for hundreds of years, including the substitution cipher exchanging letters for symbols based on a grid design (also known as the Pigpen Cipher).
• Rail Fence Ciphers—in this type of transposition cipher, a message is written along a zig-zag path, across two to five lines (or rails), and then broken into sets of letters.
• Caesar Box Ciphers—messages are written down the columns of a grid, and transcribed by row by row. 
• Keyboard Ciphers—using cell phones and computer keyboards to create ciphers.
• Twisted Path Ciphers—the message is written into a grid, along a winding path, and then transcribed row by row.
• Anagrams and Wordplay
• Double level Ciphers--by solving one cryptogram you get a keyword, which then allows you to crack the encryption on a different kind of puzzle.

Cracking Codes & Cryptograms For Dummies is perfect for anyone who is a fan of word games, mysteries, Dan Brown novels, and secret societies. It is also for game enthusiasts who are looking for challenging puzzles that tax not only their logic, but their imagination as well!