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Dubious Documents: A Puzzle
From the creator of the New York Times bestselling Griffin & Sabine series, Nick Bantock, whose work is collected across the globe.
From the creator of the bestselling Griffin & Sabine series comes a visual puzzle book posed by a mysterious character named Magnus Berlin. Readers must study Berlin's introductory note, list of clues, and 16 multifaceted notes and envelopes to decode cryptic anagrams, pictograms, number puzzles, and wordplay. When solved, each clue reveals one word—but the rest remains a mystery.
• Multiple clues to keep players guessing
• Beautiful layout
• A challenge for even the most advanced puzzle solvers
Anyone who likes the mysteries of The Morning In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine is Illuminated, The Griffin & Sabine Trilogy Boxed Set will have fun with this puzzle book.
• A perfect gift for anyone who likes mysteries and solving puzzles
• Fans of Nick Bantock will love this mystery
• Those who enjoy solving riddles will have fun solving these clues
From the creator of the bestselling Griffin & Sabine series comes a visual puzzle book posed by a mysterious character named Magnus Berlin. Readers must study Berlin's introductory note, list of clues, and 16 multifaceted notes and envelopes to decode cryptic anagrams, pictograms, number puzzles, and wordplay. When solved, each clue reveals one word—but the rest remains a mystery.
• Multiple clues to keep players guessing
• Beautiful layout
• A challenge for even the most advanced puzzle solvers
Anyone who likes the mysteries of The Morning In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine is Illuminated, The Griffin & Sabine Trilogy Boxed Set will have fun with this puzzle book.
• A perfect gift for anyone who likes mysteries and solving puzzles
• Fans of Nick Bantock will love this mystery
• Those who enjoy solving riddles will have fun solving these clues
16 pages, Paperback
First published October 9, 2018
About the author
Nick Bantock
69 books778 followersNick was schooled in England and has a BA in Fine Art (painting). He has authored 25 books, 11 of which have appeared on the best seller lists, including 3 books on The New York Times top ten at one time. Griffin & Sabine stayed on that list for over two years. His works have been translated into 13 languages and over 5 million have been sold worldwide. Once named by the classic SF magazine Weird Tales as one of the best 85 storytellers of the century. He has written articles and stories for numerous international newspapers and magazines. His Wasnick blogs are much followed on Facebook and Twitter. His paintings, drawings, sculptures, collages and prints have been exhibited in shows in UK, France and North America. In 2010 Nick's major retrospective exhibition opened at the MOA in Denver. His works are in private collections throughout the world. Nick has a lifetime BAFTA (British Oscar) for the CD-ROM game Ceremony of Innocence, created with Peter Gabriel's Real World, featuring Isabella Rossolini and Ben Kingsley. He has two iPad apps, Sage and The Venetian and is working on a third. Three of his books have been optioned for film and his stage play based on the Griffin & Sabine double trilogy premiered in Vancouver in 2006.
Produced artwork for more than 300 book covers (including works by Roth and Updike), illustrated Viking Penguin's new translation of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. He's designed theater posters for the London plays of Tom Stoppard and Alec Guinness.
For 20 years Bantock has spoken and read to audiences throughout North America, Europe and Australia. Given keynote and motivational speeches to corporations and teachers state conferences. He's given dramatic readings on the radio and the stage and has been interviewed (way too many times) for TV, radio and print.
Bantock has worked in a betting shop in the East End of London, trained as a psychotherapist, designed and built a house that combined an Indonesian temple and a Russian orthodox church with an English cricket pavilion and a New Orleans bordello. Between 2007 and 2010 was one of the twelve committee members responsible for selecting Canada's postage stamps.
Among the things Bantock can't do: Can't swim, never ridden a horse, his spelling is dreadful and his singing voice is flat as a pancake.
Source: Nick Bantock - profile
Produced artwork for more than 300 book covers (including works by Roth and Updike), illustrated Viking Penguin's new translation of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. He's designed theater posters for the London plays of Tom Stoppard and Alec Guinness.
For 20 years Bantock has spoken and read to audiences throughout North America, Europe and Australia. Given keynote and motivational speeches to corporations and teachers state conferences. He's given dramatic readings on the radio and the stage and has been interviewed (way too many times) for TV, radio and print.
Bantock has worked in a betting shop in the East End of London, trained as a psychotherapist, designed and built a house that combined an Indonesian temple and a Russian orthodox church with an English cricket pavilion and a New Orleans bordello. Between 2007 and 2010 was one of the twelve committee members responsible for selecting Canada's postage stamps.
Among the things Bantock can't do: Can't swim, never ridden a horse, his spelling is dreadful and his singing voice is flat as a pancake.
Source: Nick Bantock - profile
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
December 19, 2018
I spoke with an editor at Chronicle who confirmed that there is an error in the first printing of Dubious Documents. The final page of the book suggests that the contents of the sixteenth envelope reveal a seven letter word. However, the correct answer found in the sixteenth envelope is, in fact, an eight letter word. Chronicle intends to fix this error in future printings of the book.
Some riddles are significantly more challenging than others, and most answers feel painfully obvious once they've been discovered, but this was, overall, an absolute delight to puzzle over. It's even more fun with friends.
Some riddles are significantly more challenging than others, and most answers feel painfully obvious once they've been discovered, but this was, overall, an absolute delight to puzzle over. It's even more fun with friends.
December 29, 2018
The puzzles were pleasant, but I wished they had been decipherable from the gorgeous art itself rather than dependent on the too-straightforward clues. Too gorgeous and pleasing overall to dock it a star, though.
October 14, 2018
My daughter and I worked on this puzzle book at the same time. I am in NH and she is in CO. We communicated through text as we went through each envelope and solved each puzzle and completed it. It was really cool to do it that way and a lot of fun! We've been huge fans of Nick Bantock's Griffin & Sabine series and this was a new fun way to share his unique art.
The clues and the puzzles seem a bit confusing at first but once you get the hang of it you learn what it is that you need to do. We are not master puzzle solvers by any means so anyone can enjoy this book.
The clues and the puzzles seem a bit confusing at first but once you get the hang of it you learn what it is that you need to do. We are not master puzzle solvers by any means so anyone can enjoy this book.
April 16, 2019
A missed opportunity. Unlike Bantock's earlier Egyptian Jukebox, here the puzzles are too easy to encourage close examination of the beautiful documents he assembles. Where that previous work told a series of interesting stories of a world in which reality was uncertain and meaning elusive, here we have a weak frame story and lazy puzzles shoehorned into a collection of scattered ephemera.
I mean, the puzzles were way too easy. More than once, having read the prompt, I didn't even have to unfold the document all the way in order to get the answer. In some cases, you don't even have to open the envelope, the contents being 100% red herring.
With a little more work, Bantock could have created a wonderful experience where connections have to be drawn between entirely different worlds of collected evocative materials, and attention has to be paid to their beauty and meaning. Instead, we have clearly-useless, pretty collages.
2 stars because it looks nice.
I mean, the puzzles were way too easy. More than once, having read the prompt, I didn't even have to unfold the document all the way in order to get the answer. In some cases, you don't even have to open the envelope, the contents being 100% red herring.
With a little more work, Bantock could have created a wonderful experience where connections have to be drawn between entirely different worlds of collected evocative materials, and attention has to be paid to their beauty and meaning. Instead, we have clearly-useless, pretty collages.
2 stars because it looks nice.
October 10, 2021
I have loved Nick Bantock's work since I fell in love with his Griffin and Sabine series. I have squirreled away boxes of notecards with his artwork, and treasure my set of his books. Not long ago I discovered he'd created and published this little gem, more interactive puzzle than book to be read. The premise is that Magnus Berlin's ancester, back in the Quattrocentro era, was commissioned by King Francis 1 of France to create an amusement for the court. He came up with a puzzle that led to a political and social philosophy that is espoused to this day. After discovering this 'entertainment' by his ancester Berlin is inspired to create his own puzzle for future generations to solve and thus share the philosophy espoused back in the day.
Once again we have Bantock's signature rich artwork tucked inside equally decorative envelopes. There's a list of clues corresponding to each envelope that when solved, leads to an anagram which you can sort from another guide provided. i got halfway through before I was able to solve a single clue, at which point they all started falling into place. Some are incredibly easy, others quite difficult, and there are some amusing deceptions -- as in there is much included ot distract your attention so you make an easy 'find' much harder than it needed to be. Paper and pen are needed.
I thoroughly enjoyed this, spending a couple hours working through it, split over 2 days. Like doing a crossword puzzle, you need to walk away sometimes for a bit to get those last ones. I think this would also work very well solving with others at the same time - an entertainment at a dinner party or family gathering.
What is important is to keep everything in order and put back into the correct envelopes. I recommend stickys rather than writing on the documents themselves in order not to ruin the artwork.
NOTE: I think there is a mistake in one of the clues. As the answers are not provided, I will check with either the artist or publisher. I did see a comment here on GR that another clue had a mistake in it that the publisher has fixed in later printings since first in 2018 -- and I have one of those later printings.
Once again we have Bantock's signature rich artwork tucked inside equally decorative envelopes. There's a list of clues corresponding to each envelope that when solved, leads to an anagram which you can sort from another guide provided. i got halfway through before I was able to solve a single clue, at which point they all started falling into place. Some are incredibly easy, others quite difficult, and there are some amusing deceptions -- as in there is much included ot distract your attention so you make an easy 'find' much harder than it needed to be. Paper and pen are needed.
I thoroughly enjoyed this, spending a couple hours working through it, split over 2 days. Like doing a crossword puzzle, you need to walk away sometimes for a bit to get those last ones. I think this would also work very well solving with others at the same time - an entertainment at a dinner party or family gathering.
What is important is to keep everything in order and put back into the correct envelopes. I recommend stickys rather than writing on the documents themselves in order not to ruin the artwork.
NOTE: I think there is a mistake in one of the clues. As the answers are not provided, I will check with either the artist or publisher. I did see a comment here on GR that another clue had a mistake in it that the publisher has fixed in later printings since first in 2018 -- and I have one of those later printings.
April 6, 2026
I like the art and the concept, however since I borrowed this from the library I’m not certain the ‘flyers’ that came out of the envelopes were in the correct order.
December 25, 2018
I wish the puzzles were a bit more difficult.
October 6, 2018
When I was growing up I was fascinated by the Griffin & Sabine series—its beautiful art and letters you could pull out of envelopes and pour over. I don’t think I ever really solved the mystery that was behind that story but the fact that there existed a book with letters to read was enough for me. Recently I was offered a review copy of Nick Bantock’s newest book—a series of riddles/puzzles in letters that would uncover one 16 word sentence that would reveal a piece of real wisdom.
Now, I dabble in crossword puzzles but often I find anything harder than a Tuesday or Wednesday level puzzle so infuriating to solve that I give up half way through. This didn’t bode well for me solving the book on my own and true enough, I was stumped by even the first clue. Once I recruited my husband and favourite puzzling pal to work on it with me, and bounce ideas off of, we spent an hour and a half of feverish and intense puzzle solving long after we were supposed to go to bed. The puzzles are clever and range in difficulty, a pleasure to work on with Bantock’s detailed and fascinating art work throughout. We had so much fun solving Dubious Documents that we’ve passed the book on to my parents and then a friend of mine as well, our competitive spirit wondering how fast they would complete it and how we would measure up.
A great gift for people who love puzzles—and the perfect quietly competitive activity for a lazy Christmas morning.
Now, I dabble in crossword puzzles but often I find anything harder than a Tuesday or Wednesday level puzzle so infuriating to solve that I give up half way through. This didn’t bode well for me solving the book on my own and true enough, I was stumped by even the first clue. Once I recruited my husband and favourite puzzling pal to work on it with me, and bounce ideas off of, we spent an hour and a half of feverish and intense puzzle solving long after we were supposed to go to bed. The puzzles are clever and range in difficulty, a pleasure to work on with Bantock’s detailed and fascinating art work throughout. We had so much fun solving Dubious Documents that we’ve passed the book on to my parents and then a friend of mine as well, our competitive spirit wondering how fast they would complete it and how we would measure up.
A great gift for people who love puzzles—and the perfect quietly competitive activity for a lazy Christmas morning.
October 26, 2018
So far proving to a very brain teaser and beautiful yet very unconventional "book"-epistolary to just look through. As of writing 11/16 puzzles solved :)
June 4, 2020
While the artwork is gorgeous, it doesn't have much connection to the puzzles or a true story line. The puzzles themselves are mostly presented as weirdly constructed synonyms to the answers.
December 27, 2018
Dubious Documents does not really tell a story and is not really a book. It mimics the Griffin and Sabine folio format and art but instead of letters each envelope contains a puzzle page. Both the envelopes and pages are beautifully designed with intricate and intriguing maps, stamps and drawings. Puzzlers must analyze each entry to discover one of 16 words in a phrase.
I love the idea but the puzzles were either way too hard or way too easy, depending upon whether we decided to use the clues and the list of number of letters and order of words. With such amazingly detailed work, I also expected clues on some pages to have some connection or combined meaning with other pages. Instead some answers were disappointing in their simplicity and others were frustratingly odd. One answer was in a stamp ... and the very same stamp was on a different page but the answer for that page had nothing to do with the stamp. I don't know, that's either really clever or really lazy. I kind of feel it's the latter. Also, the list at the end of the book that cites the number of letters in an answer and the order that answer appears in the sentence has a pretty alarming typo. It says it's answer has 7 letters instead of the obvious 8. Another reason my complaint about the re-used stamp makes me feel the effort on this book was below par. Regardless, I had a wonderful time solving it on Christmas day with my son.
Some pages really seemed absolutely impossible to solve without the clue.
I love the idea but the puzzles were either way too hard or way too easy, depending upon whether we decided to use the clues and the list of number of letters and order of words. With such amazingly detailed work, I also expected clues on some pages to have some connection or combined meaning with other pages. Instead some answers were disappointing in their simplicity and others were frustratingly odd. One answer was in a stamp ... and the very same stamp was on a different page but the answer for that page had nothing to do with the stamp. I don't know, that's either really clever or really lazy. I kind of feel it's the latter. Also, the list at the end of the book that cites the number of letters in an answer and the order that answer appears in the sentence has a pretty alarming typo. It says it's answer has 7 letters instead of the obvious 8. Another reason my complaint about the re-used stamp makes me feel the effort on this book was below par. Regardless, I had a wonderful time solving it on Christmas day with my son.
Some pages really seemed absolutely impossible to solve without the clue.
August 6, 2019
This is such a fun puzzle! There's a little bit of a story, about a man whose hid a message from his ancestor in a bunch of documents and left obscure clues for the reader to decipher if they want to discover the message.
I enjoy Bantock's epistolary Griffin & Sabine books and one of their features is that there are envelopes with letters you can pull out and read. That's my favorite part, naturally. I was excited to find this book is comprised almost entirely of 16 envelopes, each with their own insert. There's all sorts of cool art to look at, with the answer to the clues hidden within.
Pro tip: get yourself a notebook or some scrap paper to help work through the clues. A few were fairly obvious to me, but several of them I had to break down, or use notes to eliminate characters or numbers or something. Some of the clues were really challenging!
There's no answer key in the book by the way - in the back, there is a note for how many letters each word of the clue contains, and then what the final order is in (ie: clue 1 doesn't equal word 1.) After I thought I solved the puzzle, I wrote it out and discovered I had 3 words wrong. Hahah. A couple I figured out by context clues, but the last I needed to revisit the envelope and figure out where the hell I went wrong.
If you like word and visual puzzles and cool art and interactive books, then I highly recommend this one!
I enjoy Bantock's epistolary Griffin & Sabine books and one of their features is that there are envelopes with letters you can pull out and read. That's my favorite part, naturally. I was excited to find this book is comprised almost entirely of 16 envelopes, each with their own insert. There's all sorts of cool art to look at, with the answer to the clues hidden within.
Pro tip: get yourself a notebook or some scrap paper to help work through the clues. A few were fairly obvious to me, but several of them I had to break down, or use notes to eliminate characters or numbers or something. Some of the clues were really challenging!
There's no answer key in the book by the way - in the back, there is a note for how many letters each word of the clue contains, and then what the final order is in (ie: clue 1 doesn't equal word 1.) After I thought I solved the puzzle, I wrote it out and discovered I had 3 words wrong. Hahah. A couple I figured out by context clues, but the last I needed to revisit the envelope and figure out where the hell I went wrong.
If you like word and visual puzzles and cool art and interactive books, then I highly recommend this one!
March 7, 2019
Super enjoyable way to spend a snowy morning. This is not a traditional book but rather a piece of art as well as a puzzle. It begins with a brief letter of background and invitation to the challenge from one Magnus Berlin. Each page is a detailed envelope containing a page of intricate art, both front and back, somewhere containing a word that you must puzzle out. Mostly you really will need the clues to figure out the puzzle, some of the clues make the puzzle almost too easy but there’s still a decent amount of challenge for many of them. Perhaps a really experienced puzzle worker will be able to figure the solution without the clues but I am not that person. This would be a lot fun with the right partner but it’s also very enjoyable to curl up with on your own.
Passed along by my aunt and uncle.
Passed along by my aunt and uncle.
May 29, 2020
I thoroughly enjoyed solving the puzzles in this book, in part because it is a beautifully crafted book (almost an art piece) but also because puzzling it out was not overly challenging. It became an entertaining way to spend the last minutes before day's end.
Nick Bantok (author of the Griffin & Sabine series, which I love) chose gorgeous illustrations--presenting the material in a format that is similar to Griffin & Sabine (envelopes and letters). It is quite satisfying to open an envelope to slide out a piece of paper with clues...a return to time without electronics and technology. That said, the "story" is not overly compelling...interesting, yes, but not riveting.
Reading this book and solving the 16 puzzles could be a fun family project.
Nick Bantok (author of the Griffin & Sabine series, which I love) chose gorgeous illustrations--presenting the material in a format that is similar to Griffin & Sabine (envelopes and letters). It is quite satisfying to open an envelope to slide out a piece of paper with clues...a return to time without electronics and technology. That said, the "story" is not overly compelling...interesting, yes, but not riveting.
Reading this book and solving the 16 puzzles could be a fun family project.
September 15, 2022
There's a lot of gorgeous mash up art in this book, put together in lovely envelopes.
The Puzzle aspect however is a little lacking - the documents don't hold up on their, but each has a clue written that expands on what the solver has to do... and these clues are relatively fast to resolve if you've done a few puzzles in the past. And they don't use the full scope of the art and documents - often only a tiny fragment is used - drawing the reader/solver from the rest.
And as far as I could tell, the art doesn't by itself tell a story, or link together.
The solution is relatively satisfying - the bonus extra solution however we couldn't quite parse.
3 stars because it's a beautiful - only really 2 stars as a puzzle book.
The Puzzle aspect however is a little lacking - the documents don't hold up on their, but each has a clue written that expands on what the solver has to do... and these clues are relatively fast to resolve if you've done a few puzzles in the past. And they don't use the full scope of the art and documents - often only a tiny fragment is used - drawing the reader/solver from the rest.
And as far as I could tell, the art doesn't by itself tell a story, or link together.
The solution is relatively satisfying - the bonus extra solution however we couldn't quite parse.
3 stars because it's a beautiful - only really 2 stars as a puzzle book.
January 5, 2021
Basically what other reviewers have said: this book is beautifully designed, but the puzzles don't encourage real engagement with all those beautiful and interesting details. Some clues are so obvious that if you have any experience with linguistic puzzles, you won't even have to look at the pages to solve them (but most are unsolvable without the clues, so you can't just ignore the clues to give yourself more of a challenge). Even something as simple as not putting the envelopes in order would have made a big difference in terms of difficulty and engagement. Still, a fun couple of hours if you take your time to explore the art.
November 26, 2023
Another very entertaining book by Nick Bantock, I am so glad I have discovered him and can now set about collecting all of his books. This is an interactive mystery with sixteen envelopes each containing a document, there are clues at the front of the book and the reader must use these and the document to find the word in each document and then rearrange to form a sentence. These are mostly word puzzles and similar to what you would get in an escape room but in book format. These are fun to do and some are quite challenging.
March 8, 2021
I love Nick Bantock's work and this was no exception. The beautiful envelopes and their contents were a pleasure to look at and explore. The majority of the puzzles were quite easy but they were still fun. I needed help putting the sentence together at the end though.
I'm glad I still have more of his work to get through.
I'm glad I still have more of his work to get through.
July 24, 2019
Bantock's puzzle books rarely reach the intriguing level of his Griffin and Sabine series. The images are always interesting, but the puzzles are mostly simplistic. That's almost OK, as the images are so interesting.
January 12, 2020
I definitely love puzzles but I bought this book based on the creative format alone! Incredibly inventive, unusual and intriguing. A visual splendour and wonderfully thought provoking. Some bits easily found though not completely solved yet.
January 15, 2019
The puzzles were far too simple to do justice to the detailed artwork.
I would recommend this for the older kid set, not for adults.
I would recommend this for the older kid set, not for adults.
January 21, 2019
could have been so much more.
February 21, 2019
I had a fun time with this book, but wish the puzzles were a little harder.
May 26, 2021
Some of the envelopes were a bit difficult to solve and I didn't get the whole sentence but it was still a fun time.
August 22, 2021
Puzzles are simple, but presentation is great.
May 26, 2026
A fun puzzle book!
June 17, 2019
I must admit I am simply a fan of Nick Bantock's art and I would give his work high marks, regardless of the puzzles.
His books are like eye candy to me and sit prominently in my studio for inspiration.
His books are like eye candy to me and sit prominently in my studio for inspiration.
June 7, 2019
I've come back and changed my score. As a collection of art, it is a four star book. But – now that I've thought about what has been created here – the typos, the book's construction, and the overall presentation leave a lot to be desired. After solving the puzzles and discovering the errors, I was left very unsatisfied. The book ends with the suggestion of a deeper mystery, but I did not feel compelled to spend anymore time with it. I'm a fan of Nick Bantock's art, just not this book.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews