The Riddles of Epsilon

Angry at her parents for dragging her away from her friends just because she got expelled from school for drinking beer and having a tiny nose ring, Jess does everything to annoy them. When she runs away and takes the shovel with her so her father cannot sand the skirting boards, she finds an abandoned cottage. Jess is thrilled about finding a hideout and even more thrilled to see that it is fully furnished. She finds carvings on the doorstep which say ‘WHERE _ _SILON DWELLS’ and a few weird symbols. Going inside, she sees a man, or maybe she thought she saw one. Her suspicions are confirmed when a rocking chair starts moving by itself. Running out, she presses her forehead to the exact spot on the wall where there is an arrow pointing toward the ground. Thankful for the shovel, she starts digging and finds a bucket.

The mysterious ‘V’, who enters her personal chat room and leaves without a trace instructs her to place the bucket in the middle of the windowsill of her bedroom. Jess does what he says and symbols appear. She deciphers them by using the doorstep symbols. That night she dreams about a boy, lying in her bed, he suddenly jumps out, scribbles something and follows an eerie flute sound to the cottage. Waking up, Jess writes it all down and realizes that she can still hear the flute.

She reaches the cottage and finds the cottage door closed despite the fact that she had left it open. As she enters, the flute falls from midair. She picks it up but it is all dusty. There is no trace that someone had touched the flute in almost hundred years, less play it not a moment ago. There is a paper in it, blowing it out, she sees a sketch of herself and her description by Sebastian Wren, dated 1894.

As ‘V’ helps her in solving this treasure hunt, she realizes that there are both good and evil forces on the island, and she has to decide whom to trust. If she goes wrong, the price will be her mother’s life.

Riddles of Epsilon is a thriller with a lot of suspense and mystery. The book is totally unpredictable with the most unexpected twists and turns at the most unexpected time. There are Jess’s diary entries and chat room conversations with her best friend Avril and ‘V’. The book is all about riddles and puzzles which Jess solves that confuse her at first but then lead her to her mother. You need to read this book, at least once because of the anticipating story line and the need to know what really happened with Sebastian and what is happening with Jess and her mother. The book is a little philosophical, having all the stuff about good and bad, but it’s not at all boring. It is a young adult novel without any romance. Every single page offers something new and exciting. It is a page turner and I couldn’t keep it down until I finished it. As I said before, you have to read it, at least once.

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