Bundle · Large print

All Nine Cases

Nine name-elimination puzzles: in each one a town signs a ledger of 2,000 names, something goes missing or turns up unexplained, and 12 or 13 clues strike out every name but one.

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Instant PDF download on Etsy. You print it at home; nothing is mailed.

Players: 1 to 6; a Team Sheet in every case for groups
Time: about an hour per case at a table of four; 2 hours or more alone
You need: pencils and a ruler; no scissors, no app, no host
Print: US Letter and A4; black ink is enough
Print size: Standard ledger 10 pt; Large Print edition 16 pt

At the table

You open Case File No. 1 and read the first clue aloud: “The culprit sat at table 14 or lower.” Pencils move down the ledger. An hour later one name is left, and there are eight more evenings like it on the shelf.

The nine cases

Eight cases in Maplewood, one at the lighthouse. None of them has a villain, only a reason.

No. 1, The Potluck Ledger: Maplewood, October 1958. A recipe box vanishes from the Harvest Supper. 12 clues.
No. 2, The Christmas Star: Maplewood, Christmas Eve 1958. The carved star is gone from the tree when the lights come up. 13 clues.
No. 3, The Lighthouse Visitors’ Book: Port Alder, Harbor Day 1959. The fog bell’s iron clapper walks down 112 steps. 12 clues.
No. 4, The Caroler Who Wasn’t There: Maplewood, Carol Night 1959. One caroler slips out of the line. 13 clues.
No. 5, The Pie With No Name: Maplewood, Thanksgiving 1959. Twelve years of pies, and not one of them signed. 13 clues.
No. 6, The First-Footer: Maplewood, New Year’s Eve 1959. Bread, salt and coal on thirteen doorsteps. 13 clues.
No. 7, The Closing-Time Diner: Maplewood, March 1960. On the diner’s twenty-fifth birthday someone pays off every tab in the book. 13 clues.
No. 8, The Retirement Gift: Maplewood, June 1960. A retiring teacher’s gold watch vanishes from the gift table and comes back by morning, mended. 13 clues.
No. 9, The Blue Ribbon Quilt: Maplewood Fair, August 1960. The best quilt in the hall wins the blue ribbon with no maker’s name on it. 13 clues.

How the clues work

Each clue rules people out, never in. “The culprit sat at table 14 or lower”: strike out everyone at table 15 and up. “The culprit’s first name contains the letter A”: Clara stays, Rose is struck out. Every reading rule (strictly fewer, through, double letter, share a letter) is spelled out on each How to Play page with an example, so there is nothing to argue about at the table.

Inside the bundle

Case Files No. 1 to 9

Why it works

In every case exactly one name survives all the clues: each chain was checked by program twice, the second time on the finished PDF. Leave any one clue out and two or more names survive, so there is no guessing and no dead end. A count line is printed on every ledger page, and each Detective’s Log has check-points every three clues, so a missed name shows up at once, without seeing the answer. And in every case the answer has been hiding in plain sight since page two; the Solution Pack says where.

Made for: A whole year of puzzle evenings, book clubs, church fellowship hours and family tables, or a gift for the one person in the family who always finishes the crossword first.