Mystery · Large print

Case File No. 1: The Potluck Ledger

Name elimination puzzle for your table: 2,000 guests signed the ledger at the 1958 Harvest Supper, and one of them walked home with Ida Prentiss’s recipe box. 12 clues, taken one at a time, strike out every name but one.

See price on Etsy

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

Players: 1 to 6, with a Team Sheet for groups
Time: about an hour at a table of four; 2 to 3 hours 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 read the first clue aloud: “The culprit sat at table 14 or lower.” Pencils move down the ledger and someone calls the count: 1,178 still standing. An hour later, one name is left.

No one in this town is a thief, I keep telling myself. But someone has my box.

How the clues work

Each clue rules people out, never in. Three from this case:

“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 and Anna stay, Rose is struck out.
“The culprit does not live on Cedar Avenue, Chestnut Street, Depot Street or Elm Avenue”: strike out those four streets, nobody else.

Every reading rule (strictly fewer, A through I, double letter, share a letter) is spelled out on the How to Play page with an example, so there is nothing to argue about at the table.

What you get5 files

Standard edition, US Letter (51 pages) and A4 (47 pages)letter, story, how to play, 12 clues, the 2,000-name ledger, a Detective’s Log with check-points, a Team Sheet
Large Print edition (zip, Letter 41 and A4 39 pages)the same case, its own 12-clue chain over 800 guests, 16 pt
Quick Case edition (zip, Letter 26 and A4 25 pages)the 800-guest chain at 10 pt, one evening

Why it works

Exactly one name survives all 12 clues: 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 (“Check: clue 1 leaves 31 of the 48 names on this page”), and the Detective’s Log has check-points after clues 3, 6 and 9, so a missed name shows up at once, without seeing the answer. The answer itself has been hiding in plain sight since page two; the Solution Pack says where.

Made for: Puzzle evenings, book clubs, church fellowship hours and family tables. No violence: a missing recipe box, a hall full of witnesses and one quiet culprit.