Sherlock Holmes Escape Book: The Adventure of the London Waterworks: Solve the Puzzles to Escape the Pages

by Ormond Sacker

You are Sherlock Holmes… at home at 221b Baker Street, when a mysterious letter is posted through your door. What is the meaning of the message cut from newsprint? Is there a clue hidden in the letters? Could there be more to discover in the fog-bound alleys of London town? This ingenious new series is a spin on the current urban craze for 'Escape Rooms', in which participants are locked in rooms, and must solve the puzzles they find there to make good their escape. Here, the book becomes the locked room, the pages become the path, and the reader can take on a challenge every bit as brain-teasing from the comfort of their own home. Visual clues are hidden among the intriguing illustrations; fiendish riddles, logic puzzles, and timed challenges unlock hidden doors and reveal the direction of travel; and mathematical problems provide the codes required to follow the correct path. There are maps and mazes to explore; references to the original Sherlock Holmes adventures to unravel; and a code-wheel that holds the key to unlocking the next page. Solve the puzzles correctly to escape. Get them wrong, and you will find yourself further and further along the path to your own demise.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Puzzles

128 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2019

Reviews

[Stephanie Ridiculous · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hovering between a 3 and 4 on this.

This was genuinely a fun experience! A Sherlock adventure presented as a choose your own adventure, but the choices are largely driven by the solutions you get for the various puzzles.

My loose critiques are that this could have used some more editing to cut down on the amount of repetition and needless page turning, and the puzzles should have been vetted a bit more. While there was a breadth of math vs observation vs decoding, etc., the difficulty of the puzzles were (to us) either easy but may require busy work, or incredibly obscure. There were a few clever things, for sure, but looking at the full scope it feels a little lackluster. I'll also say this puzzle book utilizes some techniques that would make it hard to complete on your own if your eyesight isn't pristine andor if you are color blind. My two final notes are 1) it would have been cool to have some kind of scoring rubric at the end to see how well you did with collecting peripheral data. I want some kind of score card instead of just the pass/fail that's built in. 2) I don't really know how this would be accomplished, so take this with a grain of salt - it would have been nice to somehow have a sense of how far into the puzzle we were.

Regardless, this was a great date night activity for my husband and I, and we'll likely give at least one more a go.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Εξαιρετική ιδέα, ένα βιβλίο escape room με γρίφους που σε στέλνουν μπρος πίσω στο βιβλίο. Οι απαντήσεις στους γρίφους οδηγούν σε εναλλακτικές ιστορίες και τέλη, το αποτυχημένα, το ημι-αποτυχημένο και το επιτυχημένο. Δεν είμαι φαν των escape rooms, αλλά αυτό το βιβλίο το χάρηκα πολύ. Ιδανικό δώρο για έφηβο και εννοείται ότι οι φαν του Σέρλοκ Χολμς θα το λατρέψουν. Ίσως βρουν ένα-δυο πραγματάκια να μην τους αρέσουν, πρόκειται όμως για μια εξαιρετική προσπάθεια.

Ανυπομονώ και για άλλα παρόμοια βιβλία!!

[lyria soso · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ένα έξυπνο βιβλιαράκι, αρκετά διασκεδαστικό και πιο διαφορετικό από άλλα του είδους του. Συνδυάζει επίλυση γρίφων με "διάλεξε-την-ιστορία-σου" και παρ' όλο που το περίμενα πολύ διαφορετικό, αποδείχθηκε ευχάριστο.
Σίγουρα ο συγγραφέας έχει κάνει καλή δουλειά.

Το storyline είναι πολύ ενδιαφέρον, και το σκηνικό ταιριάζει πολύ σε περιπέτεια του Σέρλοκ Χολμς.

Όσον αφορά κάποια αρνητικά που εντόπισα, θεωρώ ότι κουράζει σε κάποια σημεία -στην αρχή πλατειάζει αρκετά μέχρι το σημείο που αρχίζει η αποκωδικοποίηση, και γενικότερα καθ' όλη την έκτασή του που και που έκανε μικρές κοιλιές. Οπότε, κατά τη γνώμη μου, δεν θα πείραζε αν όλο το βιβλίο ήταν λίγο μικρότερο.

Πάλι καλά που περιλαμβάνει στοιχεία και λύσεις για να βοηθηθεί ο αναγνώστης, μιας και τελικά ένα-δύο από τα αινίγματα είναι ολίγον τι δύσκολα (ή αν βαριέσαι να τα λύσεις όλα ΚΑΙ ΑΥΤΟ ΣΥΜΒΑΙΝΕΙ ΦΙΛΟΙ ΜΟΥ -μιλάω εκ πείρας)

Θα του έδινα 3,5 αστεράκια, αλλά δεν έχουμε αυτή την δυνατότητα στο Goodreads ακόμα [:(] οπότε του δίνω 3 (δεν μπορώ να του δώσω 4! Πάει πολύ!).


Όπως και να 'χει, ένα είναι σίγουρο.
Σ' αυτό το βιβλίο κάπνισα πολλές φορές την πίπα μου.

[Anja von "books and phobia" · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wenn es um Escape Bücher geht, bin ich mittlerweile auf alles gespannt, was mir so in die Hände fällt. Immerhin gibt es in diesen Büchern wirklich tolle Abenteuer zu entdecken. Mit diesem Gedanken im Kopf ging ich auch dieses Buch, bei welchen ich mich natürlich erst einmal wunderte, warum Sherlock Holmes aus einem Wasserwerk entkommen sollte. Gefängnis, Keller oder ein Haus an sich, ok! Aber ein Wasserwerk? Ich war gespannt.

Das erste Rätsel warum ich überhaupt einem Wasserwerk entkommen musste beantwortete mir das Buch recht schnell selbst und präsentierte mir dazu auch noch die passende Geschichte. Wie schon in der Kurzbeschreibung beschrieben schlüpfte ich in die Rolle von Sherlock und musste meinen Fein Moriarty aufhalten. Das dies eben in einem Wasserwerk geschah war zwar ungewöhnlich, aber eben mal was anderes. Da hatte ich deutlich mehr Probleme mich mit der Schreibweise anzufreunden. Da man wie gesagt Sherlock war, führte man auch eben Gespräche aus seiner Perspektive und da war es für mich anfangs schon komisch wenn da „sagte er!“ statt „sagte Watson!“ stand. Man sollte wirklich das Gefühl bekommen Sherlock zu sein und so nach und nach bekam ich es wirklich.

Dabei half natürlich nicht nur die Schreibweise, sondern eben auch die Rätsel und die hatten diesmal wirklich in sich. Fangen wir damit an, das einige Rätsel aus bekannten Fällen von Sherlock Holmes waren. Wie man es bereits auf dem Cover sieht, nutzt man ein Code-Rad für einige Rätsel, welches eben auch Strichmännchen beinhalten. Lesern der Sherlock-Bücher dürften diese sehr bekannt vorkommen. Wo wir gerade beim Code-Rad sind, möchte ich noch positiv hervorheben, dass man es sich entweder hinten herausschneiden oder eben online aufrufen und nutzen kann. Dies empfand ich als wirklich toll, da ich ungerne Elemente aus Büchern schneide.

Schließlich war da noch der Schwierigkeitsgrad der Rätsel und den kann ich eigentlich nur als „gesalzen“ bezeichnen, da sie es, stellenweise, wirklich in sich hatten. Dies lag vor allem daran, das man vermehrt Rätsel aus der Zeit Sherlock Holmes nutzte, welche wir teils garnicht kennen. Doch der Frustfaktor blieb trotzdem gering, da man selbst beim nicht lösen einen kleinen AHA-Faktor erhielt. Oftmals wurden die Rätsel und ihre Nutzung erklärt, was ich ehrlich gesagt wirklich cool fand. Dies traf übrigens auch auf die Option zu, mehrere Wege gehen zu können. Dadurch gab es dann auch verschiedenen Enden, welche mal mehr und mal weniger gut ausgingen. Trotzdem kann ich schon verraten, das man in diesem Buch wirklich auf jedes Detail achten musste. Egal ob auf Bildern oder beim Lesen der Texte, es ist stets ratsam alles sehr genau durchzugehen.

Auch optisch machte das Buch auf mich einen guten Eindruck da man verschiedenen Zeichenstile mischte und somit immer etwas fürs Auge geboten bekam. Dabei übertrieb man es auch nicht, da sich Stile regelmäßig abwechselten. Da sie stets auch bestimmte Aufgaben enthielten, war dies auch nur verständlich. Ebenfalls sehr angenehm war hier auch die Länge der dazugehörigen Texte, welche maximal eine halbe Seite einnahmen. So konnte ich in aller Ruhe Abschnitt durchgehen und bei längeren Texten eben auch mal eine Pause einlegen. Ich habe das Buch übrigens zweimal durchgespielt und freue mich ehrlich gesagt jetzt schon, mich noch einmal ins Abenteuer zu werfen.


Dieses Buch dürfte selbst begeisterten Escape-Freunden die Schweißtropfen auf die Stirn treiben, denn die Rätsel haben es wirklich in sich. Schon beinah zu sehr, denn sie erfordern ein immenses Wissen und ein hohes Detailerfassen. Trotzdem machte mir der Aufbau und die Möglichkeit verschiedene Richtungen einzuschlagen sehr viel Spaß, zumal die Story richtig gut war. Es bleibt trotzdem mein bisher kniffligstes Buch.

[Roberta · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was somewhat disappointing - first of all, you require basically no knowledge of Sherlock Holmes to work through it. Secondly, there aren't really too many paths you can take, and they are all strictly controlled by the book's structure. Another problem I had was with having to find Dancing Men on the black and white illustrations - they are more saturated than they should be for such an exercise and the figures can only be found in strong daylight.
The puzzles were also a bit too simple for me, though that could be what the creator had in mind, but I find them too alike to be enjoyable - break the Dancing Men code, find the way out of the maze, choose even or odd... There are a couple of entertaining ones but the other ones get boring fast. And while the story driving the book is quite well written, I wouldn't consider it to be at the level of Sherlock Holmes.

[Booklivion · Rating 3 out of 5]

Σε αυτό το βιβλίο ο αναγνώστης ως δαιμόνιος Σέρλοκ, λαμβάνει μια επιστολή που του λεει να πάει σε ένα υδραγωγείο! Και πάει! Και κλειδώνεται μέσα μαζί με τον καλό του τον Γουότσον. Και τώρα πρέπει να βρει τον τρόπο ούτως ώστε να απελευθερωθεί πριν να είναι αργά! Οπότε έχει να βρει τα στοιχεία, να τα συνδυάσει, να λύσωλει διάφορους γρίφους, άλλους εύκολους και άλλους δυσκολότερους και να βγει από εκεί σώζοντας την κατάσταση πριν τον κάνουν βούκινο οι παλιοφυλλάδες. Ελεμένταρι μάι ντίαρ Γουότσον!

Αυτό το βιβλίο είναι σαν εσκέιπ ρουμ. Είναι εσκέιπ μπουκ, δηλαδη! Σούπερ διασκεδαστικό. Συνδυασμός βιβλίου και παιχνιδιού ταυτόχρονα! Σίγουρα θέλει μολύβι και χαρτί για σημειώσεις, γιατί η σελίδα που έχει το βιβλίο για αυτά δεν φτάνει ούτε για ζήτω, και πολλή συγκέντρωση και έτοιμοι για την περιπέτεια!

[Μιχάλης Παπαχατζάκης · Rating 2 out of 5]

Καλό βιβλιοπαιχνίδι με κυρίως εύκολους, αλλά και κάποιους δύσκολους γρίφους, αλλά διαπίστωσα και ορισμένους περιττούς, με την έννοια ότι φτάνεις κάποια στιγμή σε ένα σταυροδρόμι που οδηγεί μετά από λίγες κινήσεις ή στην αποτυχία ή στην επιτυχία χωρίς να κάνεις χρήση πολλών ευρημάτων.
Λογοτεχνικά δεν είναι κάτι ιδιαίτερο, είναι απλά παιχνίδι.

[Thanasis Ziakas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Πάρα πολύ καλό και διαφορετικό βιβλίο. Είμαι λάτρης των escape rooms και αυτό το βιβλίο ήταν τέλειο για τώρα που είναι όλα κλειστά. Είναι το πρώτο escape book που διαβάζω και μου άφησε τις καλύτερες εντυπώσεις. Οι γρίφοι αρκετά εύκολοι (μόνο σε 1-2 κόλλησα πραγματικά και χρειάστηκε να πάρω λίγη βοήθεια από τα στοιχεία στο τέλος), αλλά μου άρεσε που σε πηγαίνουν πίσω μπρος στο βιβλίο.
Προσωπικά έπεσα σε δύο διαφορετικά τέλη, γιατί στην αρχή έκανα κάποιο λάθος, αλλά στο τέλος όλα πήγαν καλά.
Λυπήθηκα να σημειώσω πάνω στο βιβλίο τις απαντήσεις, γιατί μπορεί να θελήσω να το λύσω ξανά στο μέλλον ή να το δώσω σε κάποιον φίλο να το λύσει κι αυτός, οπότε χρησιμοποίησα ένα δικό μου σημειωματάριο.
Βάζω τέσσερα αστεράκια μόνο και μόνο επειδή ο τροχός στο εξώφυλλο του βιβλίου, μου σκίστηκε στο πρώτο μισάωρο.
Συνολικός χρόνος: 3 ώρες και 21 λεπτά.

[Stephanie Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll be honest, as someone with dyscalculia, I was not a fan of some of the math puzzles (and many were above my skill level). And yes, I did have to look up some of the hints and answers in the back of the book. Despite that - as well as a rather simple story tying the puzzles together - this book was addictive. Originally, I told myself I'd only do a couple of puzzles a day, but once I started I found I could not stop. I finished the whole thing - and explored all the alternate routes and bad endings - in a little over a day.

[Heather Kirkpatrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kevin and I worked through this together. I will admit that we needed about 2 hints (even in an escape room, we need hints to solve sometimes!) It was enjoyable to play through. We did not realize we needed to solve the bonus clue in time (we were still thinking we would get another clue), so when we got to the end, we were too late. I would definitely do this again, the author did a nice job with a variety of puzzles.

[Cindel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some repetitive puzzles, like with the dancing men, but overal very amusing. I finished it in one go, because I didn't want to put it down. The story line is very Sherlock Holmes and as such makes the story more interesting.

[Basil · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sadly this book is dnf. I couldn’t get through it probably because it made me actively solve puzzles.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice idea, averagely executed.

[Tiberius McCoy]

Failed, but damn that was fun. Will try again one of these days!

[TheoryofRelativitea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my first escape book. I decided this might be something fun for my husband and I to work through. It turns out that the two of us do not make great detectives.

“You didn’t quite follow everything perfectly and imperfection is not good enough for Sherlock Holmes.”

The puzzles in this book were not too difficult we did struggle through a couple of them. However, there were items we needed to observe as we went along that we failed to take notes on. We also made our way through the book over a period of several days so we got a bit lost without notes.

I would recommend this book if you like the choose your own adventure style of books. However, make sure you take notes!

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ενας δημιουργικός τρόπος να περάσεις την ώρα σου! Η πλοκή πολύ απλή και κατανοητή, όπως θα έπρεπε άλλωστε για να επικεντρωθείς στους γρίφους. (Μερικοί γρίφοι είναι εύκολοι και άλλοι πολύ δύσκολοι.) Μια πολύ διασκεδαστική εμπειρία! Το προτείνω ανεπιφύλακτα!!

[Steven Barrett · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Em · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun puzzle book with an entertaining story aspect. I especially liked how it gave red herrings for some wrong answers, occasionally referred back to things you'd seen earlier, and poked some fun at the reader for obvious cases of cheating.

I only have two critiques:
1) You need excellent lighting and good eyesight to see a couple of the puzzles that are hidden in illustrations.
2) There are some locations in the book where you need to note down a time, but one depends upon reading a small clock that is on the other side of the room (in the illustration) perfectly down to the minute, without enough marks on the clock to do so. Another that involves deducing the position of the clock hands also has to be just as precise - if you're off by even one minute, a later puzzle won't work, and the only way I can imagine getting it perfectly is by pulling out an old analogue clock to test it physically.

[Lisa Li · Rating 5 out of 5]

Instead of giving me pleasure, social media consumption no longer gave me that dopamine hit and I now needed to doom scroll for longer periods before I got that "high." Anyways, I needed something else to entertain my brain. I realized I haven't read books in a while and I wanted puzzles, something to invigorate my brain, instead of just let it merely do its basic maintenance and biological functions. Majority of the escape books that I found were repetitive and did not have a cohesive story until I found this gem.

A great choose-your-adventure/escape room book. The author seems to minimalize the number of duplicate puzzles. Sometimes an option would lead you in a round-a-bout way to the actual answer or the actual path that you were supposed to follow. The book doesn't hesitate to give you a bad ending. Furthermore, the author seems to have captured the essence of the character's in Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. I really enjoyed this book.

[Brian]

I found this book while perusing the local bookshop. It is like a "choose your own adventure novel" but instead of choosing a path, you solve puzzles and your answers send you in different directions. The puzzles start off easy enough and gain complexity by the end. There were two puzzles where I cheated and used hints... even needing finally to look up the solutions. I spent several hours (i.e. staying up WAY too late) to finish the adventure.
It has many great nods to the Sherlock stories, British history, and even some subtle hints which I would have missed, if the book hadn't later pointed them out afterwards.
If you are a puzzle solver, I recommend the book quite highly. The idea of tying the puzzles together in this manner was very entertaining and I would purchase more by the author in a heartbeat.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was actually really fun! Unfortunately, I hadn't pieced together the 3-key problem until the very end and the story ended in the wrong turn. Then I remembered the note, pieced the clues together, re-traced to the correct step, and got it.

Would suggest this book to anyone who likes / can get through maths problems. It's not terrifically difficult (i.e. no calculator & some very basic algebra). Took me about 3-4 days to solve, and I'm glad I took this book back out (it sat in dust for the majority of 2020, mostly out of personal negligence).

Also - who composed this book? I see you Ammonite Press - using Ormond Sacker as a pen name!

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the Choose Your Own Adventure format and the puzzles were mostly interesting and well-designed. I liked how there were hints and not just answers in the back. I wanted the puzzles to relate more to the actual story - some did, and some didn't, and there was a fourth-wall-breaking quality to some puzzles that was not as immersive as I'd have liked. I liked all the references Doyle's original Holmes stories.

[Sonia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cool little puzzle book with a choose your own ending type of feel. I got totally stuck on the dancing men on the metal; even looking up the answer I still wasn't getting the right one! I swear the men did not spell out eleven so I must be missing something. It did get a little repetitive after a while but I liked the concept. Something a little different and more relaxed. The storyline itself was somewhat mediocre.

[Bill Fish · Rating 2 out of 5]

Being a Sherlock Holmes fan, I really enjoyed the beginning of this book. The set-up was perfect, but pretending to be Sherlock Holmes and solving a series of puzzles before moving on to the next section, I am an utter failure. Sherlock I am not. I failed early on, ending the book unable to stop Moriarty. Back tracking, I failed to stop Moriarty a dozen more times before finally starting at the preferred ending and working back. I am not smart enough for this book.

[Josée Leon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun room escape book in the style of Choose Your Own Adventure.
The puzzles vary in difficulty and the helpful hints at the back were helpful when I got stuck a few times.
I enjoyed the Sherlock Homes theme even though I've only read one book and maybe a few stories featuring the detective.
I hope Ormond Sacker makes more of these! One with an Alice in Wonderland theme would be fantastic 😁

[Erika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, I am no Sherlock, that’s for sure. I lost every time and on every path I took, even back pedaling and trying new roots.

This was a fun book. I enjoyed the puzzles and many were challenging. It was a lot of back and forth with pages which was a bit frustrating. I just might try my hand at the next one, maybe it will be easier.

[K · Rating 2 out of 5]

The variety of puzzles is really low. Most of the puzzles rely on that damn wheel on the front cover, which is nothing but a one-to-one mapping between symbols. It gets boring really quick. Not sure why this book is called "Escape Book", it's just flipping pages and reading unnecessary amount of a mediocre story.

[Katie Dickerson (DeMaio) · Rating 4 out of 5]

choose your own adventure; puzzles & codes to solve; the plot was a little lacking in this one & some of the puzzles/codes were really difficult but still loved the experience & will be moving on to the next book in the series right away!

[Sohxpie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The puzzles were actually few and far between. It felt more like a choose your own adventure with a few puzzles dotted in. I feel there should have been a lot more puzzles. I just seemed to spend most of my time flicking back and forth through pages.

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit repetitive using the code wheel but quite a nice little story and some fun puzzles.