Just like a good crime novel, a scavenger hunt story can be the ultimate page turner (and in a way, all detective novels are scavenger hunts as well, as the detective must solve a series of clues to discover the killer’s murder prize). identity). it offers thrills, perhaps danger, but often with a sense that things will work out in the end. It’s no coincidence that when I look back on childhood scavenger hunts, they always seem to have taken place on perfectly sunny days. i grew up in the city but from time to time as a family we would spend weekends with friends in rural aberdeenshire. those weekends were like stepping into an enid blyton book; Although our friends’ parents couldn’t provide us with real mysteries to solve or criminals to catch, they could organize a scavenger hunt.
When I started writing the last scavenger hunt, I wanted to explore childhood friendships and shared memories using the idea of an annual hunt. And because the scavenger hunt is an ever-changing mix of teamwork and competition, I found that it also worked as a metaphor for adult friendships, for that strange concoction of loyalty and rivalry that characterizes some of the closest friendships. in my book, the quest to solve the clues is an attempt to undo a series of bad choices, to make amends, and this seems to be in the tradition of literary treasure hunting; Often in the titles I’ve chosen, the discovery of treasure is a means of putting things in order, whether it’s restoring a family fortune or saving the world from the forces of darkness.
You are reading: Best treasure hunting books
1. edgar allan poe’s golden insect
A masterpiece of distraction, this tale tells the story of William Legrand’s delusional search for pirate treasure hidden by the notorious Captain Kidd in real life. What at first seems like a supernatural story or a descent into madness is revealed, through Legrand’s step-by-step explanation, to be a logical if unlikely case of invisible ink, figures, and cryptic clues. The meticulously cataloged hoard includes gold coins, jewels and precious stones, as well as 83 crucifixes and 197 gold watches – more than enough to restore Legrand’s lost fortune.
2. robert louis stevenson’s treasure island
Partially inspired by Poe’s story, the most famous of all treasure hunts began when Stevenson drew an imaginary island complete with swamps, tombs, and an X to mark where the “bucket of treasure” was buried. From his sketch, Stevenson conceived the story of young Jim Hawkins, who finds the map in a dead man’s chest and takes on the role of a cabin boy in search of pirate gold. By the end of the story, a significant portion of the treasure is left on the island, paving the way for a series of sequels, though none by Stevenson himself. Treasure Island is full of vivid characters, but it’s Long John Silver who steals the show as a murderous mutineer who nonetheless spares Jim’s life. In a companion piece of metafiction, the people of the story, Stevenson have Silver and his archenemy, Captain Smollett, walk out of the story between chapters to smoke a pipe and discuss the intentions of the author, of whom Silver says, “I am your favorite character…he likes to do it with me.”
3. five on a treasure island by enid blyton
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In the first of the famous five adventures, siblings julian, dick and anne consider themselves old enough to take care of themselves for the summer and head off to kirrin bay to stay with “difficult” cousin george. . The ensuing search for a shipment of gold bars hidden on Kirrin Island includes enough gothic elements to thrill young readers: a ruined castle, hidden dungeons, and an ancient shipwreck raised by a storm. The adventure is not hampered by nosy parents, who are largely absent or unreliable: Uncle Quentin is “sulky, unfair, and untrustworthy” until the sudden acquisition of wealth transforms him into a father. cheerful and affectionate, and is much maligned. Anne who devises a plan to rescue George and Julian, thus lifting George’s family out of elegant poverty.
4. over the sea, under the stone of susan cooper
The first Rise in the Dark series to chronicle the battle between the forces of light and darkness, this family adventure story begins with a hidden door behind which the drawn children discover an ancient document. The document, written in Latin and early English, points to the existence of a Grail and predicts the return of Arthur Pendragon if it ever comes to light. Cooper is working in darker territory than Blyton, combining Arthurian myth with genuinely disturbing hints of evil that he develops more fully in the rest of the series. His books are deeply rooted in the landscapes and legends of Wales and the South of England; Here the children must decipher the clues to the Cornish coastline itself – its standing stones and rocky headlands – on their quest to find the grail before agents of darkness can claim it.
5. kit williams masquerade
In 1979, this book sparked a national craze for armchair treasure hunting. Jack Hare is tasked with delivering a token of love, a jeweled golden hare, from the moon to the sun, but loses it somewhere along the way – the challenge for the reader is to solve the puzzle and find this real-life buried treasure. . the clues are intricately worked out in a series of 15 detailed illustrations, some of which are red herrings, with sequences of colors and magic squares used as clues. The puzzle was solved in 1982, but the search ended in controversy when the golden hare was found by the partner of an ex-girlfriend of Williams.
6. roman bridge by andrew greig
a sequel to the return of john macnab, which itself was inspired by john buchan’s john macnab: “buchan with bells on,” as one writer put it. But this is no boy’s adventure: a cast of strong characters is led by local reporter Kirsty, who finds herself in possession of a ring inscribed with medieval runes. thus she begins the search for the true stone of destiny, the Scottish and British coronation stone. On one level, this romance-thriller reads like a Caledonian Da Vinci Code, albeit written by an award-winning poet, but the deeper quest is friendship, in a novel that offers a corrective to Buchan’s ideas of patriotism and independence. National identity.
7. scarlett thomas popco
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Alice Butler is a math geek who learned to crack codes from her crypto grandparents. Now employed by the global toy company Popco, where its brands include Kidspy, Kidtec and Kidcracker, kits for lonely children who want to play spies, detectives and code breakers, Alice finds herself spying, spotting and cracking truth codes when she begins to receive mysterious messages. Could the notes be connected to the code she wears around her neck, in a locket she gave her grandfather, a code that could lead her to pirate treasure, if she can ever crack it? A tale of brand identities and secret identities, Popco is an introduction to the history of encryption, a critique of our culture, and a grown-up take on the absentee, unreliable parent trope of adventure stories with a darker, more realistic twist. .
8. ready player one by ernest cline
In a dystopian 2044, young people escape sinister everyday life by spending their waking hours in the oasis, an elaborate virtual reality comprising thousands of worlds. teenage wade is one of millions trying to solve the richest treasure hunt in history by discovering the easter egg hidden somewhere in one of these worlds: the winner will inherit not only the vast fortune amassed by the creator of oasis , but also virtual reality itself. Since the clues are based on the creator’s obsessive knowledge of video game culture and 1980s trivia, this futuristic quest is of course also an exercise in nostalgia, replete with pop culture references, from space invaders to john hughes movies. The novel spawned a real-life scavenger hunt, complete with an Easter egg hidden in the pocket book, a series of online game challenges, and a Delorean as the grand prize.
9. gillian flynn’s lost girl
On the surface, the anniversary scavenger hunts Amy organizes for her husband Nick are a romantic tradition, a celebration of shared memories. Actually, it’s a series of impossible tests: how well do you know his wife? Not nearly good enough, as Amy turns out to disappear on her fifth anniversary, leaving behind a trail of clues that are carefully planned to draw Nick into a larger, more sinister plot. in a novel of parallel narratives that fold back on themselves, amy’s clues are equally elusive, loaded with double meanings; shared jokes become secret weapons in this story of love curdling into hate.
10. mr penumbra’s 24 hour bookstore by robin sloan
This bibliophile quest begins in a second-hand bookstore with rolling ladders and shelves that span three floors. Redundant web designer turned bookstore assistant Clay Jannon discovers that his new workplace is critical to the existence of a hidden society whose members are dedicated to cracking a seemingly intractable 500-year-old code. What follows is a 16th-century treasure hunt using 21st-century techniques: analog and digital intersect as Clay and his friends implement data visualization, crowdsourcing, and book scanning, and enlist the help of headquarters. google central, on his quest for nothing less than the secret of immortality.
saraband publishes jane alexander’s novel, the last treasure hunt.
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