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

by Charles Phillips, Melanie Frances

The fourth title in this ingenious series of Sherlock Holmes Escape Books, The Adventure of the Tower of London is an exhilarating combination of escape room, puzzle book and adventure story.

Inspired by the urban craze for escape rooms, where players tackle puzzles while trapped in a locked room, it is an escape room in the form of a locked book, filled with codes, ciphers, riddles and red herrings, and a clever Code Wheel set into the cover.

In the latest adventure in the series, readers will take on the role of the world’s foremost consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes. Holmes’s nemesis Moriarty has locked Sherlock’s friend, the musician Odon von Mihalovic, with the Crown Jewels in a cage in Tower Bridge the night before a special ceremony is due to be held for the Queen.

Holmes and Watson are themselves trapped in the nearby Tower of London by Moriarty, and they must work through the night and against the clock to find and free Odon from the cage to prevent him being disgraced in the ceremony the following morning.

Combines riddles, logic puzzles, timed challenges, mathematical brain-teasers, maps and mazes.

152 pages, Paperback

Published February 21, 2023

About the author

There is more than one author by this name on Goodreads

Charles Phillips (b. 1962) is an established writer of popular history, a contributor to Cassell's Dictionary of Modern Britain as well as to the Chronicle of Britain and several illustrated stories.

He has a keen interest in the mythology and history of the great Maya and Aztec civilizations and was a key writer on Time Life's Myth and Mankind series.
Phillips is a graduate of Oxford University, and holds an MA from the University of Westminster.

See also:
Charles Phillips, 1787-1859
Charles Phillips, Goodreads author, Historical Fiction
Charles Phillips, b.1948, American history

Reviews

[Lisa]

I bought the book for the clever interactive book cover. But the puzzles are IMPOSSIBLE to solve. Even after reading the solution to the first puzzle, I still did not understand it. The next two puzzles were just as difficult so I gave up. It seems like the puzzles are mostly numbers based.

[Brian Paterson]

Cool cover but this book did not trap me and it contained no adventure. So-called ‘unlocking’ of the book achieved nothing for me and I found no compelling need to solve that first puzzle. Luckily there are books that contain real adventures, so I moved on.
Some advice. Upfront, tell me what is at stake. Perhaps, it is Queen Victoria? Seriously? She has a number of capable services protecting her, doesn’t she?
Then address these points,
Firstly, the message on the ground is indiscrete. It names a celebrity sleuth in a public space and is too obviously coded – so before Holmes arrives there will likely be a crowd of bystanders there to egg him on, possibly food carts plus an organ-grinder with dancing monkey. Perhaps some other passersby are already several steps ahead of Holmes. Does that achieve the puzzle setter’s objective?
Secondly, fanning the book, I see that a ridiculous number of puzzles have appeared at a much-frequented government site. That vandalism will perplex and inevitably galvanise the British authorities.
Thirdly, the presentation of the first puzzle stopped me cold. 1) Watson states there is a dotted diagram next to ‘cross’ in the message displayed. THIS IS NOT VISIBLE IN THE ILLUSTRATION. So, before investing further time I wonder what else the publishers accidently missed? 2) The narrator quotes the street signs but neglects to illustrate them. If the font’s appearance is truly the issue, then the evidence- street signs- must be shown to the people present not delivered as hearsay. 3) The answer to this first puzzle is just a number. Sigh. The characters stand on the bank of the Thames near a famous public landmark. Find a better way to lead me through this so-called ‘adventure’ – because if this is a story then that puzzle on the ground cannot possibly have a mere number as the solution. The world described doesn’t work that way. (The answer to ‘Life, the Universe, and Everything’ is also not a number).

[Marcy]

I picked up this book, perhaps for nostalgia, remembering the "choose your own adventure" books of my youth, but also to test my brain. It did not go well. As others have mentioned, this book felt impossible. I sometimes figured them out without needing to look up a hint/solution, however, oftentimes the hints were unhelpful, and then looking at the solutions, there was no way I would have ever gotten to the solution without looking it up. The story itself wasn't that exciting, and I did finish it just to feel accomplished. I will not be picking up any of the other editions of the escape book.

[Lisa]

Unfortunately a very frustrating and unsatisfying read for me.

I love doing escape puzzles and games, so I was intrigued by the idea and design of this book, but many of the riddles were too absurd to come up with the solution on my own, as I've also read in fellow readers' reviews. Then some others were surprisingly easy to solve, so there was no even standard for the puzzles.

I finished it for my personal satisfaction, but the quality of the riddles really spoiled my experience.~

[Katie Dickerson (DeMaio)]

Choose your own adventure, mixed with puzzles and codes to solve, all while following the plot of a story; not sure if it's intentional but this one was way harder than the first two books in the series - a lot of the puzzles didn't make sense to me, even after looking at the hint AND the answer in the solutions key; the frustration from that sadly took away from the experience a lot

[Jack Edward]

Really hard at times! Often had to look at the clues / solutions but a fun read!

[Andrew]

Maybe I’m the idiot?

[SuperFabioMan]

Some riddles very easy, others didn’t make sense even when looking at the solution. But I like my men, sherly and johnny, so I had at least some fun

[Agata Wysokińska]

A very fun and interesting read. The puzzles were pretty difficult, but the book includes clues and solutions at the back.

[Valerie Jackson]

I love these sorts of puzzle books, but this one was really hard! I had to look at most of the answers and even then often I couldn’t understand them. However, the book was still fun.

[Jara]

Super divertit i entretingut, relament m'he sentit Sherlock Holmes. 100% em compraria un altre Escape Book.

[Robbie]

Like many people this bought back memories of my youth and pick your own adventure books. In general it is really good, the story blends puzzles and history and it is about the right length.

I would have 4 starred it but there are about 5 puzzles that are just too difficult / require a less than obvious interpretation. Unfortunately, the very first puzzle in the book is one of these, but once you get past that there is a nice long sequence of fairly easy puzzles that let you get into the swing of the story