Read The Puzzler's Mansion Online
Authors: Eric Berlin
The Puzzler's Mansion
Puzzle your way through these
other Winston Breen books:
The Puzzling World of Winston Breen
The Puzzling World of Winston Breen:
The Potato Chip Puzzles
ERIC BERLIN
G. P. Putnam's Sons
Penguin Young Readers Group
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
A division of Penguin Young Readers Group.
Published by The Penguin Group.
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4PÂ 2Y3, Canada
(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.).
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2RÂ 0RL, England.
Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen's Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.).
Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia
(a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd).
Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhiâ110Â 017, India.
Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand
(a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd).
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank,
Johannesburg 2196, South Africa.
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2RÂ 0RL, England.
Copyright © 2012 by Eric Berlin.
Ink drawings by Katrina Damkoehler.
“Sutton Hammill” paintings by Mark Halpin.
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form
without permission in writing from the publisher, G. P. Putnam's Sons,
a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014.
G. P. Putnam's Sons, Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off. The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book
via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal
and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate
in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author's rights is
appreciated. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility
for author or third-party websites or their content.
Published simultaneously in Canada. Printed in the United States of America.
Design by Annie Ericsson. Text set in ITC Century.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Berlin, Eric. The puzzler's mansion / Eric Berlin ; [ink drawings by Katrina Damkoehler].
p. cm.â(The puzzling world of Winston Breen ; 3)
Summary: Winston attends a weekend of puzzles at a famous musician's mansion,
but when he and other young guests pursue a thief, they find themselves in big trouble.
Puzzles for the reader to solve are included throughout the text.
[1. PuzzlesâFiction. 2. Robbers and outlawsâFiction. 3. MusiciansâFiction.
4. MansionsâFiction. 5. Mystery and detective stories.] I. Damkoehler, Katrina. II. Title.
PZ7.B45335Ptp 2012 [Fic]âdc23 2011031624
ISBN: 978-1-101-59147-5
1Â Â Â 3Â Â Â 5Â Â Â 7Â Â Â 9Â Â Â 10Â Â Â 8Â Â Â 6Â Â Â 4Â Â Â 2
| ALWAYS LEARNING | PEARSON |
For teachers who make a difference.
And while we're on the subject, this book is for
Claire Donohue, Robert Sarli, and Bill Scott.
Also, thanks to Joshua Kosman for his musical expertise,
Lance Nathan for his puzzle assistance,
and Mark Halpin and Francis Heaney, nitpickers extraordinaire.
This book contains quite a few puzzles. You can solve them if you want, although you don't
have
to solve them to enjoy the story. Most of the answers can be found in the back of the book. Some of the puzzles are so important to the story, however, that the answer appears on the very next page. You'll see which ones those are when you get to them. Note that you can't really skip those puzzles and come back to them later, because you'll learn the answer almost immediately. Take a few minutes to try them, and then continue reading.
And if you don't want to write in this book, just head over to
www.winstonbreen.com
. There you can download and print out all the puzzles. Happy solving!
The Continuing Adventure of Puzzleman
WINSTON BREEN HAD
never been in trouble beforeânot
this
much trouble. Winston's father shook his head. He looked tired and disappointed. Somehow that was worse than angry.
They were sitting together on the sofa. Winston's mom and his sister, Katie, were in the kitchen playing a board game and taking turns glancing over to the living room. His mom looked worried, while Katie's expression combined sisterly concern with smug satisfaction that she was not the one in trouble.
Unfortunately, Winston had been summoned to the living room sofa quite a few times lately.
The problem was this: Winston's social studies teacher, Mr. Burke, was a walking, talking sleeping pill. Winston had never fully appreciated the way other teachers made their lessons interesting, even entertaining. Mr. Burke was not there to entertain them. The man had said as much on the first day of school: he was there to teach American history, not to amuse them. And from that day forward, Mr. Burke stood at the front of the room, rocking on his heels and droning about Lewis and Clark or Plymouth Rock or whatever,
occasionally referring to his notes but otherwise not moving an inch.
Paying attention to this man was impossible. Impossible! The mind was forced to wander, and Winston's mind, as usual, wandered to puzzles. His notebook contained the occasional scribble about the lesson, but mostly it was filled with attempts to anagram Lewis and Clark or Plymouth Rock into funny new phrases. (War Dance Kills! Pluck Thy Room!)
Mr. Burke soon figured out that his students weren't hanging on his every word. He would call on kids to repeat what he'd just said, and when the unfortunate victim could not, he would send a note home to be signed by that kid's parents. Totally unfair.
Winston had received three notes in five weeks. His mother and father were not happy. He tried explaining that Mr. Burke was the most boring teacher on earth, that he
had
to think about more interesting things in order to stay awake. His parents didn't want to hear it. They warned him that his love of puzzles was interfering with his schoolwork, and if it continued, there would be a price to pay.
For a while, everything was fine. Winston paid attention in class and resisted sketching out puzzle ideas. He planted his elbow on his desk, fastened his chin to the palm of his hand, and stared at Mr. Burke, determined not to receive another aggravating note.
And then, after all that, it was
science
class where Winston had his big downfall. Like a boxer who's too focused on an opponent's left jab, Winston got hit with a right hook that he never saw coming.
Science was a perfectly fine class. Mrs. Haider was a short, energetic woman who made her subject seem pretty interestingâway more than Mr. Burke managed, anyway. And twice a week there were labs, which Winston always enjoyed.
His lab partner, by virtue of alphabetical order, was a girl named Pamela Cassetti. She was absent on the day Winston landed in the vice principal's office, and that was probably half the problem right there. If Pamela had been around, Winston might have paid more attention to that day's experiment, which involved pendulums. But, no. Winston's eyes settled on some glass beakers, rinsed out and drying by the sink, close to his lab station. They reminded him of a puzzle he had seen some time ago, and he wondered if could re-create it.
There was plenty of time left to get his experiment done, so he took the three beakers to his table and examined them.
