PLEASE HELP!!! me find this book. Someone must know what it is.

[NotTheDuchessOfCambridge]

Hi all, hoping to find a book I read back in the 90s, though the book could be 80s.
It was a condensed book in a readers digest hardback book (4 different books in 1).
It was about a man (investigator??) who had to get all his clues to a treasure from an old painting.
The painting was obscure (think Salvador Dali), it had a chess board on the floor and all the people facing left had tears on their cheek because they were lying (the clues they gave were false).
There was a tree on a hill. A ladder maybe.
I cannot remember the name of the book or the author and it’s driving me crazy as I really want to read it again!
It has the feel of a Dan Brown book, following ancient clues.

Landscape of Lies, Peter Watson?

Arrrgh I love you!
I knew this was the right place to ask. Why didn’t I ask pat year, or the year before or the year before. I’ve been trying to remember this book for a very very long time. Thank you very much!!

The End.

That was pretty quick!

MN is fantastic for this!

This should be made into a game, someone thinks of a book, gives some clues and off you go....!

I'll go first.

There are three men. And they get into a boat.

Ok so there’s a boat, and three men.....I think I may know this one......!

Would it be upsetting to know I've never even read it, and that I'm just a bit handy with Google?

If so then forget what I just said

Oh oh is it Jaws?

Ah no! Really! I tried google but I’ve obviously not been putting in enough info.
It’s quite a good book, would probably be a bit dated now but It brings back memories. We didn’t have many books so I must have read it about 30 Times! Just totally blanked the title.

Definitely Jaws

Yes I tried a few times I like a challenge!

There is a book I've been desperate to remember from childhood and I have had no luck whatsoever on my own behalf, I don't have enough detail, only a girl went to some kind of underwater world where she saw creatures and it was the first time I read the word "gossamer". These things can drive you crazy.

Water babies?

No shark, but a dog, a tin of pineapple and a lost afternoon in Hampton Court Maze.

The Water Babies was about a chimney sweep called Tom.

Satsuki if you're quite young, could it have been "Ingo" ? There's a girl in that who goes to an underwater world.

I have one if these that's driven me crazy for YEARS.

Children's book. A lot of illustrations.

A young girl goes to the seaside at dark and the tide is out. She walks until she finds a city that is usually plunged underwater. I think people live there. And the tide starts to come in and she's running to beat the water.

I honestly don't know if I've made it up at this point. It's driven me crazy for decades.

I was born in 1984 if that helps. Was under 10 when read.

Yes, don't forget the dog!

No emmagrundy - definitely along the right lines plot wise I think but I am too old I read it late 80s/early 90s when I was 8-10, and think it would have been contemporary rather than a classic. Not Water Babies. Thanks, though.

I read a lot of Diana Wynne Jones and Vivien Alcock and always wondered if it was one of theirs but can't find one that fits the bill and remember most so think by someone different but must have been on the shelf with them.

Interested to know gymbunnie's one too!

Is it When Marnie Was There gymbunny

No bored. It wasn't that. But thanks for trying

Satsuma, was it "William and Mary", about a girl who has a shell which transports her under water?

Satsuki even - blimmin autocorrect.

William and Mary is by Penelope Farmer if that helps jog any memories.

Thank you - it could be a possibility but it's hard to tell from the synopsis, I can't find too much about it and I recall so little of it myself! Think there may have been a boy and a girl though and there can't be too many books with an underwater theme. A couple of the other Penelope Farmer titles seem familiar, I read Charlotte Sometimes, so likely I would have picked up others. I might have to track it down and read it to know for sure

I'm always autocorrecting to Satsuma on here, I might just change it

Mary is the daughter of a teacher (the head?) at a boys' boarding school and William is a pupil who is staying at school for the holidays. The shell transports them to various underwater worlds, including a tank at an aquarium.