“Dr. Jacob Ecco is a mathematical detective and puzzle solver. In this book he helps his clients discover treasures, outsmart kidnappers, and identify spies by means of deduction and insight. His clients’ puzzles are meant for you to solve as well. Dr. Ecco is accompanied by Professor Scarlet, who asks questions and records their adventures. Scarlet’s remarks and questioning will help you work toward your own solutions. The puzzles are inspired by the methods and thinking of researchers in computer science and mathematics. They require no special background in either subject, but solving them will lead you to some central ideas in the two fields.

[...]

Ecco received his Ph.D. from Harvard at age nineteen with a thesis called Combinatorial Catastrophe Theory. It was an extraordinary unification of two hitherto disparate fields and has become the basis for much research since then. But Ecco refused all offers of employment. He dropped out of academic life, moving to MacDougal Street in New York City’s Greenwich Village. He called himself an omniheurist— a person who solves all problems. Over the next ten years, he became a world famous puzzle solver with a global clientele.”

“You have to like challenges. Some puzzles have stumped physicists, a psychiatrist, and several computer science colleagues of mine for a long time. On the other hand, an artist I know well (my wife, Karen) has solved most of them. You don’t need training, only a clear head and imagination.”