Bundle · Large print

Mysteries, Season Three

In each case Maplewood signs a book of 2,000 names in 1960, somebody does something kind and will not own up to it, and 13 clues 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; 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 diner case and read the first clue aloud: “The tab-payer sat at table 14 or lower.” Pencils move down the anniversary book. An hour later one name is left, and two more cases are waiting for the next free evening.

The three cases

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

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 tab-payer sat at table 14 or lower”: strike out everyone at tables 15 to 24. “The mender’s first name contains the letter E”: Helen stays, Mary 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 File No. 7
Case File No. 8
Case File No. 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 (“Check: clue 1 leaves 31 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: Any free evening: puzzle parties, book clubs, church fellowship halls, retirement parties, summer get-togethers and family tables.