Search for the Sunken City

The Usbourne Puzzle Adventures continues its great series of interactive adventure/mystery/puzzle-solving books with 'Search for the Sunken City'. In case you didn't know, this great little series has the ingenius feature of questions on each page for the reader to solve, everything from decoding secret messages, finding hidden clues, memory skills, and mazes. It's hard to imagine a kid who wouldn't enjoy these books, and the interesting stories and bright illustrations are something even the adults will enjoy!'Search for the Sunken City' is the nautical adventure of Professor Ollie, the famous marine archeologist and his nephew and niece Toby and Flic. He is on the verge of a great discovery - the wreck of an old galleon that he believed was the ship of the great explorer San Miguel Da Silva. The kids join their uncle, but events are already on the move - someone has stolen a parchment from the artefacts already lifted from the wreck, and the pages left behind reveal it is a diary revealing the location of the mythical city Mare Vellos. Ollie is determined to find the city to prove that Da Silva (who was rediculed for his fantastic stories) really did discover it, but the villian of the piece (the dastardly Dr Schwindler) is out to loot it for his own. Along with the dodgy character Michelle Silver, the descendant of Da Silva, the trio sets off on a sea adventure that both boys and girls, young and old will enjoy.Illustrations by Brenda Haw are once again excellent - she is one of my favourite illustrations in the Usborne Puzzle Adventures series, and while in 'The Vanishing Village' she creates a mysterious, spooky atmosphere, here she perfectly captures white sand beaches, sun-bleached ruins, Ollie's somewhat run-down boat the Jolly Dodger, Schwindler's sleek white yacht, and the deep depths of the sea. Great work! If you love adventure stories or mysteries, I definitely recommend 'Search for the Sunken City' as a fun, quick, but memorable read. If you liked this one, I'd also suggest 'Danger at Demon's Cove' and 'Journey to the Lost Temple' in the same Usborne series, that has the same flavour to them that this one does.