SOLVE YOUR OWN MYSTERY

The heat’s literally on as nearly all the magic disappears from suddenly sweltering Haventry, and you—yeti sleuth Klaus Solstaag’s assistant—must pick a path to find out where it’s gone.

Both a really big dragon and the upcoming Magicon convention will be seriously affected if the town’s suddenly absent magic isn’t recovered tout de suite. “My wiz is a was!” wails a woeful wizard. Capping most of the chapters with up to five different options to follow, Jones sends the hairy gumshoe and you, his unnamed point-of-view sidekick, scurrying back and forth to link clues and suspects to the theft—even as earthquakes and rising temperatures signal impending disaster. Having introduced a host of possible perps, ranging from Enid the Evil Enchantress (who’s the head of the entire League of Evil) to Moondance, “the world’s most inspirational unicorn guru,” and mad scientist Night Mayor Franklefink, who disingenuously keeps insisting that it’s all just a temporary glitch in the abraca-router, the author provides plotlines aplenty ending in multiple separate denouements. Plotlines aren’t all that get tweaked here either; amused readers may well take to heart a witch’s remark at one point that “being evil is a lifestyle choice. It doesn’t mean you’re bad.” Forshaw’s lively scenes add to the fun and portray a multispecies cast of elves, cryptids, witches, and humans with subtly varying skin tones.

A spellbinder for Choose Your Own Adventure fans.