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The Monochrome Mystery

Chester

The Monochrome Mystery

£19.99

Explore Chester and solve the case of the city's stolen colour!

An original puzzle-led city adventure inspired by Chester's history, buildings and hidden details.

2-3 hours

2 miles

Play at your own pace

One Book per group

WHAT YOU'LL RECEIVE
A beautifully designed, 36-page, full-colour A5 treasure hunt book, supplied in a free gift-ready presentation envelope.

Free delivery

30-day returns

Choose any 3 treasure hunts and pay for just 2 – applied automatically.

A fun day out

Together or solo

An ideal gift

Explore a city

Read the briefing

A crime has been committed. Meet the suspects and take on the case.

Follow the route

Explore the city as each discovery leads you closer to the truth.

Crack the clues

Use signs, statues and hidden details to decode fun visual puzzles.

Solve the case

Piece together the evidence and catch the culprit before they escape!

Your Chester Case

Starting at Northgate and ending on Watergate Street, this self-guided walk through Chester makes for a brilliant day out. As well as Chester's black-and-white streets, you'll visit Grosvenor Park, the Roman Gardens, and stroll by the river.

On the journey, fun and ingenious puzzles will draw on some of the most interesting buildings and signs of the town. You'll pass by many of the highlights of Chester's history - and there'll be plenty of opportunities to stop off for food and drink.

Along the way, you'll solve the case of a thief trying to steal all the colour from Chester's streets, and discover which of our six suspects is guilty!

Start at Northgate

End at Watergate Street

Puzzles, fun facts & historic pubs on the way

Original puzzles inspired by Chester

Chester is a stunning place to explore. Plenty of towns have black-and-white timbered buildings, but nowhere embraces the look quite as impressively, so it became central to both the story and the puzzles.

The clues draw on both the colourful Roman history, and the monochrome theme. Beautiful mosaics clash with crosswords, chess pieces, and a 'top trumps' game based on black and white animals.

What the detectives say...

"The puzzles were so clever"

Emma, Bristol

"A brilliant day"

Katherine, Manchester

"Can't wait to do another!"

James, Ealing

Created by a puzzle author. Researched on real streets.

I’m Matt, the creator of Puzzle Detectives. I’ve spent 15 years writing and publishing puzzle, quiz and activity books, which have sold around 140,000 copies and received more than 2,200 five-star Amazon ratings.

I research, photograph and test every city hunt on location.

Read our story →

Want to know more?

No. The hunts are self-guided, and you can undertake them whenever you want - although we recommend daytime if you want a clear view of the clues. You can stop as many times as you like, and can even split the hunt across more than one day.

Each book has a page with hints, that should explain how the puzzle works. If you get really stuck, there are also the answers to all the puzzles at the back of the book. If you can't find the location for a puzzle, then the book has a link to a secret page on our website, with photos of all the clues.

As we sell physical books, rather than app based treasure hunts, they make great gifts. All our books are sent out with a free presentation envelope (you can see the design below), so if you're giving the treasure hunt as a gift, it'll look really special! The envelope is unsealed and has space for the recipient's name, so you can personalise it yourself.

The books are aimed primarily at adults, and older teens.

However, we've found that younger children also enjoy the puzzles, even if they need a little more help. They tend to be very good at spotting locations!

Still have a question? View our full FAQ →

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