Bundle · Large print

Holiday Mysteries, Season Two

In each case Maplewood signs a book of 2,000 names, somebody does something kind and will not own up to it, and 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; 3 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 the Thanksgiving case and read the first clue aloud: “The secret baker’s address does not end in the word Street.” Pencils move down the guest book. An hour later one name is left, and the next holiday has a case waiting.

The three cases

No crime in any of them: nobody does anything worse than a kindness.

No. 4, The Caroler Who Wasn’t There: Maplewood, Carol Night 1959. One caroler slips out of the line between the bandstand and the county home. 13 clues.
No. 5, The Pie With No Name: Maplewood, Thanksgiving 1959. For twelve years a pumpkin pie with no name has appeared on the dessert table. 13 clues.
No. 6, The First-Footer: Maplewood, New Year’s Eve 1959. By morning, thirteen doorsteps have bread, salt and coal on them. 13 clues.

How the clues work

Each clue rules people out, never in. “The first-footer sat in pew 14 or lower”: strike out everyone in pews 15 and up. “The secret baker’s first name contains the letter A”: Laura stays, Helen 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.

What you get5 files

Three case zips, one per casesix Player Packs each (Standard 2,000 names; Large Print 800 names at 16 pt with its own clue chain; Quick Case 800 names at 10 pt; all in Letter and A4). Standard editions run 51 pages each in Letter.
Start Here PDFwhat is in the box, the season rules, and the Season Two certificate with the rank earned after the third case.

Case File No. 4
Case File No. 5
Case File No. 6

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 (“Check: clue 1 leaves 30 of the 48 names on this 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: One case for each holiday: Thanksgiving tables, Christmas parties, New Year’s Eve at home, church fellowship halls and book clubs.