The Sherlock Holmes Escape Book: The Adventure of the London Waterworks: Solve The Puzzles To Escape The Pages Paperback – 7 Jun. 2019

In this Escape Room book you play the role of Sherlock Holmes, who is lured to the London Waterworks and trapped inside with his ever faithful sidekick Dr Watson.Similar to a “choose your own adventure” book, you decide your path however your decisions are based on the solutions to the puzzles presented to you throughout the adventure rather than personal choice. There is a good mixture of puzzles from riddles, mathematical and even picture based puzzles. There are hints at the back of the book as well as the solutions to help you when you get stuck. Most entries will include a “from” page to let you know you have got the correct solution and are on the correct path however the plot does diverge at critical points and based on my playthroughs there are 3 different endings.There are two multiple part puzzles in the book. The first one is used to gate-keep the second part of the adventure and the other is used to determine which of the 3 different endings you achieve.The standout feature for this book is the decoder wheel on the front of the book which is used in multiple puzzles involving the Dancing-Men from the Sherlock Holmes short story of the same name.The biggest weakness of the book is the story, which is quite good however like most puzzle books, the story’s main purpose is to serve as a vehicle for the puzzles.This book is very good and the series as a whole gets better with each book.I would recommend this book to any puzzle fan, people who like the Professor Layton series will enjoy this book.

great idea, book value for money. gift

This a version of the choose your own adventure books which have been around for years. However, this takes the form of an investigation by, unsurprisingly, Sherlock Holmes. The reader, playing the part of Holmes, must solve various puzzles to direct their progress through the story. The aim is to escape and prevent the crime, but make a wrong turn and other outcomes are possible.The book proved to me I'm not quite as smart as I think I am 😂. Or maybe that I rush for goals without thinking things through fully. On my first attempt, I escaped but failed to prevent the crime which, as the book helpfully points out, is not good enough for the great Sherlock Holmes.Backtracking and finding my mistake was easy enough and, of course, I'd missed something key, to which the book had alluded more than once.Some of the puzzles are fairly easy, (I thought), and some were tougher. But that could just be down to my individual puzzle skillset and the sort of puzzles I like most.Several puzzles have to be decoded using in intricate code wheel on the front of the book. This is a little cumbersome but there's also a version on the wheel available online, which helped me. The quality of the wheel is a little lacking because not all the letters and figures line up.I do, however, have criticisms of the book. And they're significant, or at least they proved that way for me.Several puzzles have codes or numbers hidden in images. These images tend to be very dark and of low quality. Even poring over 3 or 4 of them with a magnifying glass, I was unable to find the codes in these inages, even when I'd given up and looked in the answers at the back, so knew where I should be looking! Having the answers provided meant I at least wasn't left stuck, but I consider this a significant quality issue. I shouldn't need a microscope to find smeary, indistinct, tiny clue in an image made up mostly of black and various tones of dark grey, printed on off white paper.Another thing is that most of the text is in a small font on a mid to dark grey or off white background. Oh and a lot of it is in italics or script too. It's hard on the eyes and difficult to read. I wouldn't recommend this book for anyone with less than perfect vision.I wouldn't buy another book of this type from this publisher unless I was absolutely sure these issues wouldn't be present. I docked the book a star because of them.The constant flipping back and forth between sections was a bit irritating, but unfortunately rather necessary for a book of this type.All in all, it's an entertaining distraction for a short while, at a fairly reasonable price. The quality, save for the readability and image quality, is good. But it does come with some frustrating issues.I think if I want an escape scenario in the future, I'll consider something more interactive, like a video game, or an actual escape room.

Lots of puzzles in this book - some fairly straightforward, others really fiendish. Great format - like a choose your own adventure - and the code wheel is a real treat. I was addicted straight away - well written, a good range of puzzles and the right balance of story to puzzles. There are hints in the back to help you out if you get stuck, and always the option to turn back a few pages if you find you've made a mistake. Some tricky decoding, but all very logical. I love puzzles and escape rooms and would recommend this to like-minded people.

My grandson loved it.

I have a friend who loves puzzles and reading and she was delighted with this.

I loved that it was about the characters of Sherlock and Watson. I don’t know all the books about them and it’s useful at some point but I Googled them when I needed it so it’s not really necessary to know all their book titles. BUT The puzzles were not always easy or fun to do. Some involved a lot of thinking! There was one that involved maths (the one with the gauges where you have to substract and add numbers to reach a goal) and that’s really not my thing but then there were others where you have to spot items for example and at least you don’t have to have any special skills, just be observant. I did like the variety, where you fail one you can always have more luck with another puzzle, and I was happy that the solutions were simply listed in the back of the novel. I did have to turn to them regularly though, whether to check if I was correct or to know the solution.What I was most disappointed in was that even though I followed the novel, I ended up with a final entry way too soon. I think I missed half of the book’s puzzles and I have no clue how this could happen. Was it my fault? I tried to go back to see if I made a mistake but I think it’s easier to start from the beginning to follow the trail. I didn’t have the courage to do so now though, maybe I’ll try again later. I’m more into different kinds of puzzles to be honest.I recommend it if you’re more into such brain training but now I see we're not a perfect fit.

This was one of the best books I have ever read, great read.