Well, I thought I’d do my little bit to help you all pass the time – so I thought I’d write another of my little puzzles. And by little, I mean insanely complicated…
So, here we go, let me explain.
Here is a wordsearch.
Oh, you want more instructions. OK.
Hidden in the wordsearch are 44 words, all of which are the key words of a number of classic crime novels. Note I have removed short words like “and”, “the”, etc and also the words “Death”, “Murder”, “Mystery” and “Case”. All the books were released in the same year (you have to work out which one) and were all written by members of the Detection Club. Oh, and one word is used in two different titles but only appears once. When you have found all the words, you can then solve the puzzle by finding another title along with its author, also from the same year, also by a member of the Detection Club, spelled out by the unused letters. The duplicate word is a vague hint to the title. Simple, no? [Note, one book was published under a different title in the UK in the previous year, but was published in the US with the title used in the puzzle in the correct year. So I didn’t make a mistake. Honest.]
If you find the answer, just leave the initials of the title in the comments down below, so I know you’ve solved it but it won’t spoil it for everyone else. Enjoy!
In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel 
TMWWT? Although I can’t get the missing letters to spell the name of the author.
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Yes. Must have got one of the words wrong.
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@Mike
Which letters are you missing for the author ? Which letters are you getting extra ?
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I’ll post the solution in a while. Please don’t discuss the intricacies of the solution while others are still attempting it.
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Also, according to Wikipedia, one of the books was published in a different year. Although I’d probably trust you ahead of Wikipedia on golden age detective fiction…
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Not according to gadetection – of course they might be using the US publication dates.
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Yes, it was published under that title in US in that year. It was published in UK a year earlier, but under a different name.
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I got TMWWT too (I did get it to spell the author’s name). This was really fun and challenging – thanks for a diverting way to spend a few hours.
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Glad it worked.
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Just to confirm, I have used a US title for one of them which had the wrong year (one earlier) – there’s an error on gadetection. Whoops.
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Actually, there’s no mistake. The first time the book was published with the title that I used was in the year of the puzzle. So there.
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That’s what I told !
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it’s a lot of fun, thank you! Although I’m not as clever as you lot, I’m missing 3 words and the final solution! I’ll get there eventually… I hope. I better otherwise it’ll drive me nuts 🙂
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I’ll post the solution in a few days.
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Having checked my answer with the others in the comments, it seems I have finally got the answer.
I’m glad I decided to print it out. My eyes started getting rather boggled by the end.
Good fun though.
Thanks for taking the time to make it.
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I do wonder if everyone found the right words… and there will be more to come.
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Well I look forward to seeing what fiendish puzzles you craft next.
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I was able to find the 44 words in 24 novels. Finally I was able to spell out the final title (TMWWT) and also the author. But I find 2 extra letters B and Y in between.
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Then you’ve not got the right words… Answer soon…
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Or you’re missing something obvious…
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Is the preposition “by” included between the title and the author’s name ?
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The title is TMWWT “by” A G. The year was easy. An “Error” gave me that very quickly.
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I got TMWWT eventually. As for the author, I got “his”name too.
Great puzzle, enjoyed wrestling with it.
Also learned which college “Clerihew” went to, in passing, what a coincidence!
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