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This book is dedicated to my dearest friend Shazir, and all the adventures we had travelling the world.
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
This book contains three stories, several mysterious murders and dozens of fiendish puzzles.
But the Murder Puzzle Mysteries are unlike other books. You can’t simply read them from one chapter to the next.
Instead, you must solve the puzzles. How you solve them will determine where you turn next. Along the way, you’ll discover clues, find pieces of evidence and uncover the truths lurking behind the mysteries. You might even catch a killer!
But be careful: the path you take through a maze, the differences you spot, the wire you cut to defuse a bomb – each puzzle you succeed with will take you closer to catching the killer!
Don’t be afraid, though. Everything you need to guide you is contained within the pages of the story. The objective of each puzzle and what you need to do will be explained. Some puzzles are straightforward, while others rely on clues within the story
and will require some deduction – it wouldn’t be a detective story without a bit of deduction, now, would it?
So read everything carefully and keep a close eye on the details. If something doesn’t make sense, don’t worry – I assure you all the information you need is right there. And you always can check your answers against the solutions at the back.
Your goal is to find your way to the star endings. But if the worst happens and you come to a dead end, simply go back to a puzzle and try again. Whatever you do, don’t give up . . . or let the murderers get away!
INTRODUCTION
By the time Oxford professor Peter Hamatum-Sizzle inherited his family’s vast fortune, he was too old to enjoy it. He’d always dreamed of travelling the world and the hours he’d spent in his study imagining where he’d go and what he might see were beyond estimation.
But alas, he no longer had the time or the energy to make the most of the opportunity, so he decided to pass it on to someone who could.
The Professor devised a fiendishly puzzling conundrum and posted it in The Times, with a challenge for children everywhere to solve it.
The prize was his entire fortune.
The only condition was that the winner spent the money following the Professor’s dream of travelling the world, and that they write back to him with stories of all the places they visited, the people they met and everything they experienced on their adventures.
Children everywhere sharpened their pencils and stepped up to the challenge. Most of them solved it
without too much trouble and sent in their solutions.
One boy, named Arlo Banks, found the answer in no time. It had been easy. Far too easy, it seemed, to merit an entire fortune. So, he kept puzzling until another answer revealed itself. This had been the answer the Professor was looking for, and so it turned out that Arlo was the child he was looking for.
After a few weeks of frantic packing and phone calls, Arlo arrived at Victoria station carrying his suitcase and a ticket for the Orient Express. A gaggle of reporters were there too, snapping photos of the famous puzzle-solver as he waved goodbye to his family and set off on his adventures.
Arlo found his cabin on board the train. Waiting there was a small brown leather satchel with a note from the Professor . . .
Dear Arlo,
I’m sorry I couldn’t be there to see you off; my health has taken an unfortunate turn.
I wish you well on your travels, but be warned: you are about to enter a world of mystery and murder. Clues will be everywhere. It’s your job to find them, follow them and uncover the truths others wish to keep secret.
This may come as a surprise to you, but the world is a dangerous place. All kinds of enemies lurk in the shadows, even killers. Unmask them if you can. Beat them at their own games. Expose who they are, the reasons why they’re doing these things and reveal how they commit their terrible crimes. They must be stopped.
This won’t be easy, which is why I have left a gift for you. The satchel has served me well and I have added a few things that may prove helpful to make a detective’s kit, of sorts. Keep it with you at all times.
Things are always more complicated than they seem, so you must remember this golden rule: Always avoid the obvious.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Hamatum-Sizzle
ARLO’S DETECTIVE’S KIT
A magnifying glass and compass
Swiss army knife
Solutiontesting kit
A box of matches
A fingerprinting kit
Writing paper
Arlo’s detective’s journal
Pens and pencils
Evidence bags
THE DINING CAR
With a loud blast of the whistle, the train sets off. Deep, puffing breaths rise from the funnel, blowing out billowing clouds of steam, and the train’s steel wheels roll out of the station. As the train rattles down the tracks, you settle into the luxurious comfort of your cabin and watch the towering buildings glide past outside until the train announcer calls you to the dining car for breakfast.
With your detective’s satchel hanging over your shoulder, you make your way along the train’s narrow passageways. From the lace curtains framing every window, to the brass lamps that light the carriages, every inch of it feels as grand as a palace. You might be travelling the world, but this feels like a journey back through time.
The dining car is just as elegant. Every table has a starched white cloth, gleaming silver cutlery and an ornate reading lamp. It’s bustling with passengers. One lady looks like she’s been on board for some time because she arrives carrying a teapot, while another man appears still wearing his raincoat.
You’re greeted by a smiling waiter, who checks you off the passenger list. ‘This way, please,’ he says, and shows you to an empty seat at one of the tables. Another boy is sitting opposite. He looks about two years younger than you.
‘Hello, I’m Arlo Banks,’ you say, sitting down.
The boy smiles. ‘I’m Jamie Madden. I’m nine.’
‘Keep it down,’ barks a stern voice from across the carriage.
You look round to see the owner is a barrelchested, red-faced man. You can’t help wondering, How can anyone be this angry so early in the morning, and in a wonderful place like this . . .?
As you start reading the menu, Jamie leans over and whispers, ‘Ignore my uncle. He’s really stressed.’
Your eyes study Jamie and you can see a family resemblance. ‘Why’s he stressed? We’re only ordering breakfast.’
Jamie laughs. ‘It’s not that. He’s the chief of police. He’s about to close a really big case.’
‘Oh really?’ you ask, immediately intrigued.
‘He’s got Luigi Cabrini locked in one of the cabins. He’s quite old, but he’s a big-time mafia godfather. We’re transporting him for trial in Milan.’
You can’t help shaking your head in disbelief. ‘The mafia? They’re seriously organized criminals,’ you say.
‘Yeah, it’s true,’ Jamie says. ‘The whole train is full of Italian police in case he, or a member of his gang, tries anything.’ As you look around the dining car, you realize that most of the people here are either in uniform or look like plain-clothes detectives. Jamie points to the man sitting behind you and says, ‘That’s Inspector Funaro. My uncle brought him along for his protection because he thinks someone is trying to kill him!’
‘Really?’ you ask as a sudden wave of nervousness courses through you. ‘Why would anyone want to do that?’
Jamie whispers under his hand, ‘So they can help Luigi Cabrini escape trial and spending the rest of his days in jail.’
This sounds like an extremely tall story, but Jamie is so convinced you can only believe it.
Chief Madden interrupts your thoughts with a snap of his fingers to get the smiling waiter’s attention. ‘Get me a Full English,’ he demands. ‘I can’t start the day without one.’
The waiter nods and makes a note of it, then turns to take your order.
If you order:
• Tea and Toast, turn to chapter 3
• Alpine Porridge, turn to chapter 5
• A Full English Breakfast, turn to chapter 2
THE FULL ENGLISH BREAKFAST
Your order is the same as Chief Madden’s, but after an unfortunate mix-up in the kitchen, you receive his Full English Breakfast.
A Full English Breakfast that’s been poisoned.
You don’t suspect a thing as you dip a slice of sausage into the perfectly runny yolk of your fried egg, then pop it into your mouth. You smile at Jamie as you chew, wondering how many more tall stories he’ll tell you while the scenery glides past outside.
But you don’t get to see the towering buildings merge into the countryside, or the fields rise into mountains, and Jamie doesn’t tell you any more stories.
You don’t even get to finish your breakfast before you collapse at the table.
Chief Madden was right to think someone was trying to kill him. But, this time, they killed you instead . . .
The Professor warned you for good reason. On this journey, dangers are lurking everywhere. But all is not lost! Try ordering something else and starting again. And if you sharpen your powers of deduction and avoid the obvious, you might just catch a murderer.
Good luck!
If you’d like to order:
• Tea and Toast, turn to chapter 3
• Alpine Porridge, turn to chapter 5
TEA AND TOAST
Within a couple of minutes, the smiling waiter returns and places a plate of perfectly browned toast and a steaming pot of tea on the table in front of you. You can’t help smiling at the selection of jams laid out in little cut-glass dishes.
Chief Madden’s Full English Breakfast arrives too, and it’s huge. There are sausages, bacon, eggs, mushrooms, beans and a pile of toast. The Chief smothers it all in brown sauce and tucks in.
Before the butter has melted into your toast, Chief Madden collapses face down into his breakfast. His head lands with a THUD! Cutlery and china cups clatter, spilling tea everywhere.
You immediately get up to help, thinking he might be choking. But it’s too late. The poison works fast, and he’s dead before you can check his pulse.
The true horror of the Chief’s death hits you with the scent of bitter almonds. It’s so strong it cuts through the aroma coming off the grilled sausages and bacon, and it makes you recoil.
A sudden thought strikes you: Was Jamie right? If he was, it means someone has set in motion a plan to free a dangerous mafia godfather, so there isn’t a moment to lose!
Inspector Funaro and his officers jump up in alarm and start ordering everyone not to move. You notice that the spilled tea is rushing towards a letter lying on the table beside the Chief’s breakfast. Your instincts tell you it could be important, so you quickly grab it to stop it from getting ruined.
Before you can open it, the waiter calls out, ‘Quick! That man in the raincoat – he’s running away!’
If you:
• Chase the man in the raincoat, turn to chapter 8
• Stay and read the letter, turn to chapter 18
4
THE CORI CAMBRIAN CONUNDRUM OF CABIN NO. 4
The passenger list tells you that someone called Cori Cambrian is staying in Cabin No. 4, so you run to the sleeping car before they can carry out the next step of their plan . . .
The wooden doorframe splinters as you force your way into the cabin.
To your surprise, the place is empty.
The only thing that tells you someone has been here is a duffel bag sitting on the bed. Presumably it’s ready and waiting for the killer to grab before they make their getaway – along with the aged mafia godfather, Luigi Cabrini.
You open the bag. Instead of finding clothes, money and passports, along with everything else they’ll need for a few weeks on the run, you find a bomb.
The timer says you have less than a minute to
figure out which wire to cut if you want to defuse it. As you weigh up your options, it also occurs to you that anyone who plants a bomb on a train full of police officers would know there’s a chance it could be found.
So you can be sure that one of the wires is a decoy. Chop-chop, precious seconds are slipping away and you need to cut the wire that completes the circuit to defuse it. But be careful, snipping the decoy wire could set the whole thing off . . .
If you:
• Cut the stripy wire, turn to chapter 38
• Cut the black wire, turn to chapter 27
• Run out of the cabin, turn to chapter 22
THE ALPINE PORRIDGE
Chief Madden glowers as the smiling waiter hurries to the kitchen with the orders. ‘If you burn my toast, I’ll nick you for arson!’
Jamie rolls his eyes. ‘I can’t imagine why anyone would want to kill him, can you?’
You laugh. ‘That’s not really true, is it?’
‘Yeah!’ Jamie says. ‘You can’t arrest a major gangster and not get a few death threats. It goes with the job.’
Your intrigue goes into overdrive. But before you can ask any more questions, the waiter returns with Chief Madden’s breakfast. It’s so big it can barely fit on the plate. There are sausages, bacon, eggs, mushrooms, beans and a pile of toast. He smothers it in brown sauce and tucks in.
Before the waiter returns with your porridge, Chief Madden collapses face down with a THUD! Cutlery and china cups clatter, spilling tea everywhere.
You immediately get up to help, in case he’s choking. But it’s too late. The poison works fast, and he’s dead before you can check his pulse.
The horror of the Chief’s death hits you with the scent of bitter almonds. It’s so strong it cuts through the aroma coming from the pile of grilled sausages and bacon on the Chief’s plate.
As the smell makes you recoil, you notice something lying beside the Chief’s breakfast. It’s a letter! Something about it tells you it’s important, so you pick it up.
Before you can open it, a sudden thought strikes you: Was Jamie right? If he was, it means someone has set in motion a plan to free a dangerous mafia godfather, so there isn’t a moment to lose!
As alarm bells ring in your head, the waiter calls out, ‘Quick! That man in the raincoat – he’s running away!’
If you:
• Chase the man in the raincoat, turn to chapter 8
• Stay and read the letter, turn to chapter 18
CLIMBING ON TO THE ROOF
The window catch opens easily, as though it’s been opened recently. The rushing noise of the wind fills the cabin as the train streams through the alpine valley. You feel its icy chill and it chaps your face.
As the train clatters along the tracks, you bravely climb out on to the window ledge and reach up to grip the trim that runs along the edge of the carriage roof.
You pull your body up and your feet leave the squidgy comfort of the bed’s soft mattress.
The wind whips around you as the steam engine lets out a shrill PEEP! The sound is designed to startle everything from birds to trespassers on the line, and you can’t help flinching. But you hang on tight and climb on to the roof.
Looking around, you discover the roof of carriage No. 3 is a maze of lights, air vents and skylights that have been numbered and renumbered over the years by various maintenance crews. See if you can find a
pattern in the numbers and use it to guide you along the carriage roof to a place where you can get down safely. Remember, you’re on top of a moving train so you need to be careful – you don’t want to hurry or else you might put a foot wrong . . .
If you arrived at:
• Air vent 42, turn to chapter 32
• Skylight 48, turn to chapter 28
• Air vent 54, turn to chapter 10
RIC RAMI BACON’S CABIN NO. 7
You race to Cabin No. 7, certain you have the right name, and knock on the door. There’s no reply. Refusing to give up, you keep knocking until a train steward comes along the corridor.
‘Can I help at all?’ he asks.
‘Yes. I’m trying to find the person booked into Cabin No. 7,’ you reply. You glance up and down the carriage, checking the coast is clear, then whisper, ‘It’s in connection with the murder that just happened.’
The moment you mention ‘murder’, the steward pulls a set of keys from his pocket. ‘Happy to help an investigation,’ he says as he finds the master key to the cabins and opens the door of No. 7.
To your surprise, the cabin is completely empty. The bedding is untouched. Even the complimentary chocolates haven’t been eaten!
‘This is odd,’ you say.
‘No it isn’t,’ the steward replies. ‘This passenger must’ve missed the train. Happens all the time.’
Your certainty drains away as you take another look around the cabin and it becomes clear that Ric Rami Bacon was the wrong name.
Disappointed, you return to the dining car and tell the police your anagram theory about Ric Rami Bacon came to nothing. The officers listen politely but as soon as you finish, they all start laughing at you – the young boy who won a puzzle competition and thinks he’s smart enough to solve a murder! Within the next two minutes they’ve found another five anagrams within the names on the list, and a couple are so rude, they’re unrepeatable.
Laughter echoes around the carriage as they read them out. As your cheeks burn with embarrassment, Inspector Funaro ruffles your hair and says, ‘In future, young man, leave this kind of thing to the professionals.’
It hurts. You’ve come so far, but this is the end of the line.
Jamie offers you a kind smile. ‘Thanks for trying,’ he says. ‘You did your best.’
THE END
THE LOCKED DOOR
You race after the suspect, weaving through the carriages as the train rattles along the tracks. Police officers and passengers are coming out of their cabins to see what the commotion is all about. You push past and a few shout angry words after you.
Ahead of you, the man in the raincoat shoves past an elderly couple, leaving them stunned. As you rush by, the lady tuts loudly and the gentleman exclaims, ‘Well I’ll be!’
You don’t stop to apologize and keep your sights on the man in the raincoat.
You run through the lounge car, hurrying past tables and comfy seats. As the suspect passes the bar, you call out, ‘STOP THAT MAN!’ But the bartender lets him go, shrugging as he polishes a glass.
The man in the raincoat reaches the sleeping car, where the narrow corridor bends, and he ducks out of sight. You follow him and discover that the carriage is lined with cabin doors.
You quicken your pace, but the suspect gets away from you. As he reaches the next carriage, he turns and shuts the adjoining door between you.
The wheels of the train clack and clatter along the steel tracks.
As you reach the door, there’s no mistaking the click as the suspect locks it.
You hammer your fists against the window, but all the man does is smile. It’s a leering, bully’s smile, filled with satisfaction.
Little does he realize that your detective’s kit contains a journal with a section on how to pick locks. You peer into the keyhole and immediately recognize it as a five-pin tumbler lock. You flick through the journal until you find a diagram that shows you how these locks work.
Five-pin tumbler lock
The key is inserted into the lock at Point A. The internal mechanism relies on the key pushing down each of the five sprung pins into their correct positions. When the spaces in the pins align with the barrel (Point B), the lock will open.
Your hands dive into your pockets and fish out a paperclip, the staple that held your train tickets together and a pin badge. See if you can put them together to make a lock pick that’ll push down the pins in the right order so they align and open the lock. You might not need to use all of the items.
• All three things, turn to chapter 43
• The paperclip and the staple, turn to chapter 23
• The pin badge and the paperclip, turn to chapter 39
If you make a lock pick out of:
THE LADY WITH THE TEAPOT
‘It’s the lady with the teapot,’ you say. You seem so convinced, Inspector Funaro orders a thorough search of the train and invites you to help.
Together, you and several police officers make your way through the carriages, knocking on cabin doors. You check the lounge and even the luggage car, but you don't find the lady with the teapot. You're so busy searching the train, none of you notice a member of the Cabrini mafia family emerging from their cabin as the train approaches the Mont Cenis Tunnel, which cuts through thirteen-and-a-half miles of the French Alps.
As you enter the tunnel, the train plunges into darkness, and that’s the last thing you see.
The train and everyone on board never leave the tunnel. To this day, the murder of Chief Madden remains unsolved because there’s nothing to go on. All the evidence, potential witnesses, bodies, even Luigi Cabrini and the entire train, mysteriously vanish.
Over the next few decades dozens of books and countless newspaper articles are written, filled with rumours, conjecture and speculation about the intriguing tale of what happened on your trip aboard the Orient Express. But the only thing anyone knows for sure is: none of you were ever seen again.
THE END
AIR VENT 54
The speed of the train and the rushing wind are disorientating. You reach the end of the train and have no idea how you ended up on this side of the carriage.
As you start trying to figure out how to get down off the roof, you spot a metal maintenance ladder on the other side of the carriage doorway that would get you safely down to the footplate between the carriages.
But there isn’t time to turn back so you jump down. In your haste, you mistime your landing and fall past the footplate. The last thing you see is the rushing blur of gravel and sleepers as you fall from the train and land on the tracks.
Sadly, your life is lost, along with all the evidence you found.
Chief Madden’s murder is never solved, Marco Cabrini escapes and Luigi Cabrini returns to the criminal underworld. Even though the police keep the case open, neither of the gangsters ever answer for their crimes.
ONE LAST RIDDLE
The door of Cabin No. 11 is unlocked. You duck inside, intending to start searching for clues to Chief Madden’s murder.
Instead, you find a young man sitting by the window.
He’s wrapped in layers of thick woolly jumpers and blankets to keep his gaunt body warm. His skin has an acidic yellow tint and the bottom half of his face is covered with a cotton mask.
‘Come in,’ he says with a wheezing breath and pulls down the mask to reveal a malevolent smile.
You have more pressing things to do but the look in his cloudy eye keeps you rooted to the spot. ‘I . . . I have to get going,’ you say, searching for an excuse to get out of there. But your words escape you as he pulls a gun from inside his cardigan. The door closes behind you.
‘Please, Arlo. I am asking nicely,’ he says, and points the gun at you.
Your eyes narrow into a frown. ‘How do you know who I am?’
‘Everyone knows Arlo Banks, the famous puzzlesolver,’ he replies. ‘As soon as I saw you on the platform, waving as the reporters snapped their photos, I hoped our paths would cross.’
‘Really?’ you ask. ‘Why?’
‘I think you can help me,’ he says.
You look down at the gun. It seems unnecessary to hold someone at gunpoint when you’re asking for their help, but you aren’t in a position to argue.
‘What do you want?’ you ask.
The man’s smile vanishes and he cocks the gun. ‘That would be telling. But I will say this: your famous puzzling skills could give me a new lease of life.’
Your instincts tell you to run, but he’s got you cornered.
‘OK,’ you say, putting your hands up. ‘Let’s have it.’
His smile returns and he gives you a riddle:
I’m remembered, though I cannot remember why. What am I . . . ?
You ask if the answer is, ‘Am I dead?’
‘Yes, you are,’ he replies, and the gun goes off!
MARCO CABRINI OF CABIN NO. 12
The cabin door is locked. You’re so convinced this is the right place, you shove it with your shoulder. A wooden panel in the door snaps. With another couple of shoves, it gives way. You reach through the broken hole in the door and open the lock from the inside.
The air is cool and fresh but the window is closed, and the cabin is a mess as though Marco Cabrini left in a hurry. There’s no sign of his raincoat. A suitcase has been emptied on the bed. Clothes, shoes and a wash bag have been strewn across the floor. Was Marco looking for the passport you found lying in the corridor?
Lying on the floor is something that catches your eye. It’s a small brown medicine bottle. As your thoughts race, you open your satchel and take out your fingerprinting kit.
You dust the bottle with powder and find a
Fingerprint record
perfect fingerprint on the glass. Taking care not to smudge it, you place a piece of sticky tape over the print, then peel it off to make a record of it.
The bottle is full of a clear liquid. You twist open the lid and are instantly hit with a scent of bitter almonds. It’s exactly the same smell you caught coming from the Chief’s breakfast.
You quickly put the lid back on and preserve it in an evidence bag, then you take out your detective’s journal and find the section on poisons.
There’s a list of all kinds – arsenic, anthrax, even deadly nightshade – and how to spot signs of them. You soon discover that the scent of bitter almonds is an indicator of cyanide, one of the fastest and most deadly poisons there is.
It’s not every day you realize you’re holding a murder weapon, so you put the bottle safely in your satchel and turn your attention back to catching Marco Cabrini.
As you wonder where he might’ve gone, two theories pop into your mind, closely followed by a
