A dead billionaire. A hidden fortune. 50,000 possible passcodes.
Can you uncover the only one worth £10 million?

There’s only one code that opens the safe. Unfortunately, this book contains another 49,999.

A bestselling mystery novelist has died, leaving behind four ungrateful children who have spent years waiting to inherit his fortune. Rather than reward their greed, he has devised one final challenge. Hidden inside his study is more than £10 million in gold, locked behind a safe that can only be opened with a six-digit passcode.

That passcode appears somewhere in this book. So do thousands of others.

Your task is simple: eliminate the wrong passcodes until only the right one remains.

Each clue narrows the field. Some rules depend on the digits themselves, others on where the numbers appear. Every deduction brings you closer to the fortune. You won’t need advanced maths or specialist knowledge – just careful observation, logical thinking and more curiosity than the novelist’s family has ever shown.

Along the way, you’ll uncover mathematical curiosities, famous dates, literary references, pop-culture nods and other hidden Easter eggs. They won’t reveal the winning code, but they’ll reward those who pay attention. The Code Isn’t 654321 is an immersive puzzle book that celebrates slow thinking, careful observation and the
quiet satisfaction of logical deduction.

One code.
One fortune.
Can you find it?

 

Alan Connor is one of Britain’s leading puzzle writers. A long-time setter for The Guardian, he has also written puzzles for The Observer, The Telegraph and numerous books, newspapers and magazines. His television credits include The Only Connect Story, House of Games and QI. He is the author of several bestselling puzzle and language books including 188 Words for Rain, The Joy of Quiz, The Traitors Interactive Game Book and The Joy of Puzzles.