In the ageless mists of time, dark sorcerers tried to destroy our world until three great wizards; Merlin, Blaise, and Kells; thwarted them with a powerful wand they mystically forged at Stonehenge. Frustrated, the vengeful sorcerers sent the enchantress Nimue to steal it, but she fell rapturously in love with Merlin. In desperation, the diabolical sorcerers themselves came to seize it. Thus the wand was lost for millennia in a terrible spell-battle... or was it? Using only their wits and the words and pictures in the book, readers will attempt to unlock the magical spell that reclaims the wand; and win a huge cash prize in the process.The Merlin Mystery will be published worldwide on 9/7/98, and the first reader who solves the mystery will win not only a fabulous gold and silver wand being held in a British bank for safekeeping, but the massive cash prize that accompanies it, estimated to be over $100,000.Warner Books is launching a major advertising and promotional campaign to back the worldwide publication of The Merlin Mystery, with the additional support of a global publicity agency.Foreign publication rights have been sold in Germany, Japan, France, Holland, and Italy, with a number of other countries expressing interest.Masquerade (Schocken, 1984), an earlier mystery-puzzler, elicited a phenomenal response when nearly two million readers attempted to solve the book's master riddle.Jonathan Gunson is a former creative director at the McCann-Erickson advertising agency. Artist Marten Coombe is an animator for Aladdin, among other projects. Both live in Auckland, New Zealand.