William Wenton and the Luridium Thief

William is a boy in hiding with his family, living under a false identity and trying not to draw attention. He loves codes and puzzles, especially the impossible kind, but his parents want him to stay quiet for reasons he doesn’t fully understand.

When a nearly unsolvable puzzle is put on display at a museum, William can’t resist solving it. The discovery exposes his talent and brings dangerous attention down on him, forcing him into the orbit of a secret institute filled with robots, odd technology, and people who know more about his family’s past than he does.

As William is pulled deeper into the institute’s secrets, he has to figure out what luridium is, why people are hunting him, and what happened to his missing grandfather. Along the way he faces puzzles, chases, mechanical threats, and questions about whether the institute is a refuge or another trap.