Von Doogan And The Curse Of The Golden Monkey back

Alert! Alert! Alert!

For expert-level, decryptological, bright-as-a-kite minds only, this is terrific!

This is both a thrilling, exotic, interactive Young Readers adventure comic (I know it doesn't look like one inside but it most emphatically is!), and also a truly testing, multi-layered puzzle book which will require a little lateral thinking and an instinct for picking the single first thread which will then unravel the tapestry of each devious dilemma.

I am not kidding you. I was flummoxed for a while on several occasions then came away grinning my head off at Lorenzo's wit and ingenuity.

There are no pedestrian mazes, no join-the-dots and no simple "Where's Wally?" spot-athons; instead you will discover a sequence of site-specific conundra which you'll need to solve in order to bluff your way out of trouble, escape incarceration, win a very cool card game you've never even heard of before and follow your informant from the first clue-clogged package he sends you to an island protected by so many ancient safeguards that even Dame Lara Croft might turn back from it in tears.

First you need to figure out this in order for find that which - only if you are quick-witted and eagle-eyed - will help you slip undiscovered onto the right boat, inspect snapshots of the crew then discern the captain through a process of keenly judged elimination before bumping into the first mate who, let me tell you, can spot a liar and a thief a mile away but has the memory of a prodigiously challenged piece of plankton.

And it's comics!

It's comics because it is a story told through a sequence of art which is absolutely essential to the narrative. That so much of said art is a metaphorical crossword so cryptic that arch-dunderhead I was occasionally fooled by it is irrelevant.

Plus the whole family can join in (if you let them) because multiple skill sets are invaluable.

All you will require in addition to this book is a pen or pencil, some scrap paper, a mirror and a pair of scissors. Don't worry, you won't need to cut up the book itself: you can download Doogan's Danger Kit from the website address provided. Solutions are provided at the back (teachers and parents, rip 'em up now!) as well as the logic by which they're arrived at.

Plus the puzzles could well generate interest in further activity: want to try your hands at a dozen different rope knots which only sailors and scouts have ever mastered? They're here!

Right, I'm off to tackle the Nine Vine Incline and I get vertigo on the bathroom scales.