Armchair treasure hunt book (same kind of thing as Masquerade)

Posted on behalf of someone else:-

I remember a similar book from the early to mid 80's but I can't remember the name of it, so that is what I'm asking really.

I remember it having a red cover and inside were lots of elaborate pictures that had hidden clues (I think you had to find hidden letters or numbers in the pages), and there were small golden keys I think.

I think it was set in an old city, and I can remember egg timers and roman numerals in the pictures.

I know my description of the book is no help at all, but this was over 20 years ago I read it.

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Apparently it is not Masquerade, The Key To The Kingdom, The Piper Of Dreams, or The Golden Key

Have you looked at the tag "Armchair treasurehunt"? It's only used by one member, but they seem to like that sort of thing, so they have quite a few. There may be other similar tags that are useful.

http://www.librarything.com/tag/Armchair+Treasurehunt
http://www.librarything.com/tag/armchair+treasure+hunt

Thanks, staffordcastle: none of those tagged books, apparently.

Animalia or The Eleventh Hour?

Nope, neither of those two. It wasn't a kids book - much more like Masquerade.

Conundrum - the Cadbury's Cream Egg Mystery?

http://www.treasureclub.net/publichunts/conundrum/index.html

The site gives info on other armchair treasure hunts.

Or, one of the Fighting Fantasy Puzzle Quest books?

http://www.librarything.com/series/Fighting+Fantasy+PuzzleQuest+Books

There were other, non-FF titles.

Neither of those, either. I'll update the list of what it ISN'T later....

Treasure by Dan Bane (no touchstone as it doesn't seem to be on LT - try this link instead: http://amzn.to/vL4SXK) - has a red cover and readers had to find gold coins and a bronze lute key. Split into five chapters, each chapter related to a particular county in Middle England. In each of these counties is hidden eight gold coins and one bronze lute key. Once all eight puzzles in any one chapter had been solved (each leading to a gold coin), each letter and number from the eight clues led the hunter to a bronze lute key. This lute key would fit into the specially made bronze lute to earn the finder an original painting from the book. Once all of the 40 clues had been solved there was then a final 'master riddle' to solve which would lead one hunter to a sixth lute key which could be exchanged for the top prize of £250,000 in year one, £150,000 in year two, and £50,000 in year three.

The Search for the Lost Railway Engine by Steve Bane might also be worth checking out.

The title you linked to is Treasure: A Magical, Mysterious, Brain-teasing Quest by Dan James; perhaps that will help.

>10 staffordcastle: Ah thanks, I couldn't get it to come up!

Welcome!

Oh, now #9 sounds promising: let me check...

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Sorry, apparently not.

Sigh: actually, Moomin_Mama was quite right in post #7 - it was indeed a Fighting Fantasy Quest book called The Tasks of Tantalon

Thanks, everyone.

touchstone fairy: The Tasks of Tantalon