When was the last time you were part of a mystery-solving team, guessed the end of a mystery correctly and felt great about it? Well, if you haven’t done this, then you can now because there is a book out there that helps you choose your own way while solving a mystery. And for any mystery lover, that’s the ultimate experience.

You Choose Stories’ Scooby-Doo: The Case of the Cheese Thief not only makes you an observing part of the Mystery Inc. but also lets you help solve a mystery alongside Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby.

This book begins with our favourite ‘meddling kids’ finding themselves on a train on vacation in Europe, but this is no ordinary train. It houses participants of a cheese convention and their prized possessions, besides other passengers. When one of the participants’ million-dollar mozzarella is stolen off the moving train, the gang has a tough decision to make. Should they solve the mystery of the stolen recipe or continue their holiday?

If they do take on the case, where should they start? Should they suspect the other participants or go after the brother-sister duo who could be posing as victims? Mystery Inc. will find out the answer, but not without your help. Yes, your help is invaluable here because unlike the normal mystery stories, this one isn’t written in a linear format. Every page leads to another page someplace else on the book, making solving a mystery all the more enjoyable and difficult at the same time.

What makes this book special is the fact that even when you take the wrong path, there is another story to follow, until it leads to either the team getting off the train without solving the mystery or the person they are chasing having an airtight alibi, sending them back to square one.

In both the cases, you will be given a clue as to where you went wrong so that you can move back to that page and start over, this time with another outcome, depending on how you play it. Think of it as Snakes and Ladders in a book form — one wrong move and you would go down like they do in Snakes and Ladders. So be careful!

In short, every step the Mystery Inc. takes, it will be your decision instead of theirs. They are like puppets in your hand and you can make them follow any character you want. Try to think like Scooby-Doo and Gang and everything will become as clear as the sky. Select the right path instead of the wrong one, as only the right one will lead you to the eventual thief.

Add the brilliant illustrations and a narrative that teaches you about the surroundings, as well as mystery-solving, and you are just one step behind the villain. And when you solve the mystery, read the book again and deliberately take the wrong step to find out where else you could have landed.

Interesting, isn’t it? Test your friends with this book and find out which one is the fastest in solving the mystery, like Scooby-Doo!

Published in Dawn, Young World, June 20th, 2020