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THREAD! Earlier this year @JohnFinnemore spread out 100 pages of an 85 year old murder mystery novel Cain's Jawbone and tried to put them in the right order. It was no ordinary novel, for the author was Edward Powys Mathers aka the famous Observer crossword compiler Torquemada
Cain’s Jawbone (named for the first murderer and his weapon), first appeared in 1934 at the back of The Torquemada Puzzle Book: It’s a whodunit, accidentally bound in an 'incorrect order' The reader was invited to reorder the pages correctly to reveal the six murderers.
The publisher Gollancz offered a £15 prize. On March 31, 1935, The Observer revealed, 'Of the very many who attempted to reshuffle the disordered pages of Cain’s Jawbone only two succeeded.' Of one, Mr WS Kennedy little is known, however, the other was Saxon Sydney-Turner...
'There was probably no one less entertaining in the world', is how a fellow student described him. His friend Leonard Woolf was kinder, 'an eccentric in the best English tradition'. He was part of Bloomsbury Group, he is the shiny headed man standing behind Vanessa Bell...
But... the solution was never published. Last year @johnmitchinson @unbounders were approached by @LSterneTrust. Would we like to publish Cain's Jawbone and launch a new competition? YES! But... did a solution exist anywhere? A retired headmaster came to the rescue...
John Price, had become obsessed with discovering the solution to Cain's Jawbone after coming across a 2nd hand copy. In 1988, he appealed for information in the pages of the magazine run by the national Crossword Club. Amazingly, he received an answer.
It came 'from an elderly gentleman who lived in a nursing home in Nether Wallop,' who solved the problem in the 30s and even had a written congratulation from Torquemada. We published the book as a boxset of 100 cards with prize of £1000. This time round there was only one winner
And the winner was @JohnFinnemore who besides writing many fine comedy shows also writes crosswords for @thetimes. If you would like to have a go at solving the 'Novel Problem' of Cain's Jawbone you can buy it here... https://unbound.com/books/cains-jawbone/
