CLUEDLE

A special kind of catnip for the puzzle-inclined.

Someone has stolen a clue that’s vital to finding the sheet music to a famous opera called The Pegasus, inspired by ancient Greek music. Browne invites readers to investigate. Unlike a Choose Your Own Adventure story or one of Jason Shiga’s Adventuregame Comics, this narrative progresses in a linear fashion, with readers solving a puzzle with nearly every page flip. The rich variety of brainteasers is this book’s biggest strength, since solving them all requires comparing suspect interviews and fingerprints, navigating mazes that reveal codes, analyzing maps, and deciphering several kinds of coded messages, to name just some of the deductive mechanics involved. There is no fail state: The narrative always proceeds under the assumption that readers have taken the time to correctly solve each puzzle. Anyone in need of an assist can use the included hints or even peek at the answers in the back as a last resort. The details of each case build upon one another, with puzzles near the end requiring knowledge of past events and their resulting evidence. As for the mystery itself, readers who can imagine themselves summoned to sleuth around a secret luxury yacht will be indulged, from their plane ticket to… Well, they’ll figure it out. The cast’s pun-based names—Anita Sleep, May Wail, and May's husband, Will Wail, among them—add to the amusement.

Aspiring sleuths will enjoy navigating this accommodating gauntlet.