Games, puzzles and armchair treasure hunts
The 7 Solid shapes
Go to the Merlin Mystery Solution Index.
This is Part 3 of my solution to The Merlin Mystery (“MM”) by Jonathan Gunson and Marten Coombe.
This post looks at the 7 solids that appear on the shelf on page 4 (P4). They each represent a mini-puzzle that needs solving to reach the final solution.
The Merlin Mystery
Go to the Merlin Mystery Solution Index.
This is Part 2 of my solution to The Merlin Mystery (“MM”) by Jonathan Gunson and Marten Coombe.
This post introduces all the important symbols used in the book and my shorthand notations for them.
MM is filled with symbols. An important step to solving the puzzle is to be able to recognise them and know which of several different categories they fall into.
The Merlin Mystery prize wand
Go to the Merlin Mystery Solution Index.
This is Part 1 of my solution to The Merlin Mystery (“MM”) by Jonathan Gunson and Marten Coombe.
This part looks at the structure of the book and the puzzle that the reader is required to solve.
The Merlin Mystery by Jonathan Gunson and Marten Coombe was published in 1998.
This was the second armchair treasure hunt book I discovered after Masquerade. Unlike Masquerade, I found it when it was new, just as the three year countdown for solving it started ticking. Of course I bought a copy straight away.
Certainly the book sets its stall pretty plainly, with its gold enlaced cover and its promise of a pot of gold and a garish gold wand for a clever winner. Rather than a buried treasure, the wand was safely locked away in the vaults of the Bank of England and solutions were to be mailed in.
Its astrological and chemical symbols immediately appealed to me and there was some fun to be had spotting patterns and linked figures.
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