Cain's Jawbone

Over half a million copies soldSix murders. One hundred pages. Millions of possible combinations... but only one is correct. Can you solve Torquemada's murder mystery?In 1934, the Observer's cryptic crossword compiler, Edward Powys Mathers (aka Torquemada), released a novel that was simultaneously a murder mystery and the most fiendishly difficult literary puzzle ever written.The pages have been printed in an entirely haphazard order, but it is possible - through logic and intelligent reading - to sort the pages into the only correct order, revealing six murder victims and their respective murderers.Dare you take it on?Please note: this puzzle is extremely difficult and not for the faint-hearted.

Préface
MARKETING AND PUBLICITY

• Cain’s Jawbone has garnered recent press from The Washington Post and the TODAY show
• Advertising through regionals including PNBA
• Special display and giveaway at ALA

Auteur

Edward Powys Mathers (1892 – 1939) introduced the cryptic crossword to Britain in 1924 through the pages of the Observer. Known as Torquemada, he was acknowledged as a brilliant translator and a critic specialising in crime fiction. In 1934 he published a selection of his puzzles under the title The Torquemada Puzzle Book – the final hundred pages of which contained the novel-cum-puzzle Cain’s Jawbone.

The book is being reissued with the assistance of The Laurence Sterne Trust and Patrick Wildgust, the curator of Shandy Hall.

Texte du rabat

Cover illustrated by Tom Gauld, acclaimed cartoonist and author of Goliath. A famously difficult puzzle novel from the Observer **s legendary crossword composer. The prize of £1,000 for the first reader to solve the puzzle within a year of publication was awarded to the actor and comedy writer John Finnemore. Finnemore's win was covered by the Guardian, the *Telegraph *and the *London Review of Books *among others. The project was supported by Neil Gaiman and re-issued with help from the Laurence Sterne Trust. For fans of Alex Bellos, the Guardian's puzzles, the Today programme's Puzzle for Today.

Résumé

The original box set edition available again - individually numbered, limited run. 

'If James Joyce and Agatha Christie had a literary love child, this would be it' Daily Telegraph

'A unique hybrid of word puzzle and whodunnit' Literary Review

Six murders. One hundred pages. Millions of possible combinations… but only one is correct. Can you solve Torquemada’s murder mystery?

In 1934, the Observer’s cryptic crossword compiler, Edward Powys Mathers (aka Torquemada), released a novel that was simultaneously a murder mystery and the most fiendishly difficult literary puzzle ever written.

The pages have been printed in an entirely haphazard order, but it is possible – through logic and intelligent reading – to sort the pages into the only correct order, revealing six murder victims and their respective murderers.

Only three puzzlers have ever solved the mystery of Cain’s Jawbone: do you have what it takes to join their ranks?

Please note: this puzzle is extremely difficult and not for the faint-hearted.