Happy Sunday! Today's review is a mix of reading, mystery, and puzzles...an escape room in book form. As a kid, I enjoyed getting my hands on books which offered more than just a tale, and this one is just that.
THE ESCAPE BOOK
THE MUSEUM HEIST
by Stephane Anquetil
Andrews McMeel Publishing
Middle Grade Activity / Mystery
96 pages
ages 8 to 12
Overcome challenges, solve puzzles, and uncover the true culprit in the fourth installment of the Escape Book series!
What started as a typical family vacation takes a turn for the worse when you and your grandfather, a security guard at the local museum, find yourselves at the center of a serious scandal. It turns out that one of the museum’s masterpieces was stolen on the same night you and your grandfather were taking an after-hours tour—since you were the only two people there, you’re the prime suspects! To prove your innocence, you must now find the stolen masterpiece by observing, analyzing, and investigating like a real detective! Are you ready for an adventure?
What started as a typical family vacation takes a turn for the worse when you and your grandfather, a security guard at the local museum, find yourselves at the center of a serious scandal. It turns out that one of the museum’s masterpieces was stolen on the same night you and your grandfather were taking an after-hours tour—since you were the only two people there, you’re the prime suspects! To prove your innocence, you must now find the stolen masterpiece by observing, analyzing, and investigating like a real detective! Are you ready for an adventure?
GOODREADS / KOBO / B&N / AMAZON / BOOK DEPOSITORY
MY TIDBITS
Mystery, clues, and detective fun make this an entertaining read with puzzles and surprises, too.
You are visiting your grandfather and accompany him to his job as a security guard at the museum. Unfortunately, several masterpieces are stolen while you and him take an after-hours peek at the displays. Now, you need to find clues and solve the puzzles to prove your innocence and discover who the real thief is.
This isn't my first 'escape room' in a book, but it's one of my favorites. I did review the first book in the series, but that doesn't have an impact on the second. In other words, these are stand-alones and can be tackled in any order. This book centers around a robbery at a museum and holds all sorts of thinking games, secret codes, and other riddles. Some are tougher than others, and it's a great fit for middle grader readers with lots of surprises.
While the puzzles are interesting and add thinking fun, the story also isn't bad. Unlike other escape room books, this one holds a tale, which is fleshed out as the detective goes along. There is a fair amount of text to create scenes and a plot, which go beyond just a simple puzzle book. This needs to be read in order to understand what's going on and how to solve the various problems.
The only problem I saw was in finding the next section to turn to after a puzzle was solved. The section numbers run one after the other without page references. This makes for more flipping and searching than there has to be. But it isn't a problem really, either, since these run in numerical order. As said, it just takes a little more flipping.
This is a fun book for puzzle lovers, which adds a true story along with the mystery. I do recommend this one.
1 comment:
Glad to know that you can read this as a standalone. This sounds like a great book for early middle graders. Glad you enjoyed it.
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