Dubious Documents: A Puzzle (Wordplay, Ephemera, Interactive Mystery)

Each page is a more delightful adventure than the one before it. The art is detailed and captivating.

This book is a perfect amalgamation of Nick Bantock’s artistic and wordplay genius— and an engrossing (and challenging!) puzzle to solve— requires all cylinders firing. (At least for me!) Perfect for any who love mysteries and crossword puzzles. Nick Bantock’s art is always stunning and awe-inducing. This book is fun. I’ve been “working” it alone, but it would probably be even more fun to do with others— I’m stuck (for now) on #8!

When I first opened it I was amazed at how beautiful everything was. I really liked the layout. I actually put it away because it looked really hard. A few months later I was hanging out with my mom and we were bored (cable was out because of weather) so I pulled this out. Man, once we got started- we were up with our eyes burning working on it. We are not great puzzlers, but this has us both hooked. I want another one.... looking through amazon now trying to find another that is similar.

I ordered this book because I love reading mysteries and solving puzzles. In addition, I enjoy paper crafts, so the beautiful images caught my eye. Ignore the reviewers who are "humble bragging" about how the puzzles are too easy and how quickly they solved them. Sure, the puzzles aren't super difficult, but they're fun and entertaining, and the contents are visually pleasant to peruse, so just enjoy them.

I love this art style to begin with, and really enjoyed the backstory and puzzle to solve. My only wish is for it to have been longer. This could be the basis of a grand adventure. I solved it in a few hours... would have loved it to have lasted much, much longer.

Great book. Glad I found it with a really good price

Nick Bantock loves to layer his images and he builds his story on interlacing pictures, words, and ephemeral bits of things so that you enjoy the humor woven into each piece. This puzzle book has a set of envelopes in a lovely case binding. The puzzle comes with a bunch of clues so you can folliw along or just enjoy looking at the envelopes and contents.

I'm a big fan of Nick Bantock's work and I love puzzles and hunts so I was super excited to get this one. The premise is really interesting so I immediately sat down to dig in.... and I solved the puzzle in about 30 minutes. As another review mentioned, the clues give you everything and some clues are solvable without even looking at the document. Some are visibly obvious even without the clue too. A couple are more interesting in that the require putting together multiple parts of the document to decode the word, but most are very straight forward. All that aside, I find this one the least visually interesting of his books. When (quickly) solving the document, I wasn't pulled in to the piece like I usually am by his work. Like I said, I am a big fan.... but these don't have the visual intrigue and complete and nuanced composition that for me defines his art. It feels like a half-baked execution and lacks the depth, intrigue, and beauty of his other work. I'm still a huge fan and love looking at all of the other books of his in my collection, so I'm chalking this one up to (I'm imagining) an agent or publisher with a deadline resulting in a rushed and not fully explored concept and end product. I hope he revisits the idea and takes it to the level of visual and conceptual depth that is so amazing. If you're looking to try some of his books, the Griffin & Sabine series is popular because it's amazing, and Urgent 2nd Class is a fascinating exploration into his process and methods.

La presentación es fantástica, y es una pena que no hayan libros como este en español (al menos yo no los conozco) porque me encantaría regalarlo a algunas amigas. Cada reto te lleva a un documento que tiene escondidas pistas, alfanuméricas y pictóricas, y te obliga a utilizar pensamiento lateral para resolver el jeroglífico. La impresión y la presentación son deliciosas. Espero pronto el siguiente!

Tolles Design. Das Buch besteht eigentlich aus Briefumschlägen und drinnen die dubiosen Dokumente. Es macht Spaß es durch zu gehen und einzelne Dokumente hab ich sogar auf gehangen. Wer diese Art des Artworks und den Autor mag, KAUFEN :) Das Buch wenn man es so nennen will beinhaltet ein Rätsel zum tieferen Sinn des Lebens. Hab es bis dato noch nicht raus gefunden.

Pristine , gorgeous for ephemera and got it a very decent price ! Thanks amazon !

This is another fun project of Nick Bantock’s. Some riddles were easy but some had us stumped. I would recommend not only for the fun factor, but the original art. Note: there’s a typo on the very last page.

Unusual puzzle book. Great for puzzle lovers.