Before writing puzzle-based books, Ormond Sacker served as note-taker and assistant to a London-based consulting detective, a role he held until being controversially superseded by a more qualified and less strangely named replacement. As a young man, Sacker studied medicine at St Bartholemews before joining the British Army, where he was attached as a surgeon to the Berkshire Regiment of Foot. It was specifically feet that led to his dismissal, following an odd number (both in quantity and circumstance) of amputation errors. To this day he stands by his assertion that ""left"" and ""right"" are subjective terms that depend upon which end of the table one is standing. His military training, international travels, and experience of curious crime, together with an intimate relationship with the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, have given him a unique view of the world. Such a character is clearly the ideal author of a book of Holmes-based conundrums and problems. Ormond Sacker is sometimes mixed up. At such times he is no card smoker, and lives in cranked rooms.
Praise for The Sherlock Holmes Escape Book: Adventure of the London Waterworks ""The book is very nicely produced with plenty of helpful illustrations. Its clever design incorporates a 'code wheel' in the front cover, which is put to use throughout the escape exercise. There are puzzles, mazes, brain-teasers, riddles, references to the original Sherlock Holmes stories and mathematical problems that provide the code to guide you along the correct path - plus some red herrings. In some cases, if you get it wrong the first time, you receive a second chance to redeem yourself. If you really get stuck, there are hints provided to help you get back on track. And fret not - the solutions are given at the back of the book."" The District Messenger (The Newsletter of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London) Praise for The Sherlock Holmes Escape Book: The Adventure of the Analytical Engine ""This is a very attractive book... What makes the book quite pleasing to Sherlock Holmes aficionados is that the story is slotted neatly into the sequence of original Holmes stories... It is clear that a great deal of thought has gone not only into the puzzles but also into the storyline, which is genuinely intriguing, and more than just a framing device. ... As I hope this review makes clear, I really enjoyed working through this book, and I recommend it highly."" Christopher D. Hollings FIMA University of Oxford, Mathematics Today