The Last Chapter

Winter, 1887. A collector of poetry and grudges has died without a will anyone can find, and his executor has given you seventy-five minutes in the library before it is sealed.

Mr. Alderman Vane, a collector of poetry and grudges, died in his Cabbagetown house in the winter of 1887 and left no will that anyone could find. His executor believes it is hidden in the library, and he has given you, the only people Vane ever allowed in, seventy-five minutes before the room is sealed and the estate goes to a nephew nobody likes.

The library is the room our set designer spent the longest on: 4,100 real books (about 300 of them matter), a rolling ladder, a globe that opens, a fireplace that does not, and a reading room that most teams find late, if at all. The puzzles are built on the books themselves: marginalia, mismatched spines, Tennyson quoted wrongly on purpose, an index that refers to pages that exist only in one edition. Solutions from one shelf unlock clues on another, and there is a meta-puzzle running underneath everything that only makes sense in the last fifteen minutes.

We rate The Last Chapter five of five and we mean it. It is non-linear, deliberately overloaded with false leads, and the hint system is stricter: three hints are included, and the fourth costs you five minutes off the clock. About 31% of teams escape. The current record, 58 minutes and 40 seconds, belongs to a couple who had played more than ninety rooms across Ontario and Quebec.

If your team has done fewer than four or five escape rooms, please play something else here first. We say that not to be precious about it but because a room that beats you in the first twenty minutes is not much fun, and a room you crack with two minutes left is the best night out in the city. Groups of two to four suit it best; six is possible but the reading room gets crowded.

What to expect inside

• Over 4,000 physical books, a rolling ladder and a hidden reading room
• Word, poetry and index puzzles; a magnifying glass and large-print sheets are supplied
• Non-linear structure with a running meta-puzzle
• A stricter hint system: three included, further hints cost time
• Ideal team: 2 to 4 experienced players; allow the full 75 minutes plus 20 for briefing and debrief

Good to know

Allow a full two hours for this one: 75 minutes on the clock plus the briefing and a debrief that tends to run long because everyone wants to know what the meta-puzzle was. Reading glasses are essential if you use them, and a magnifying glass is supplied. The hidden reading room is reached by one 18 cm step; ask for the ramp at check-in and it will be in place before you go in.

• Arrive 15 minutes early; late arrivals lose game time.
• Coats and bags go in a free locker outside the room.
• No photos inside; your game master takes the team photo afterwards.
• Raise accessibility or effects questions before the door closes.