The Unsolvable Puzzle

A literary mystery!!

Dec 10, 2021

Mystery Mob!

Thanks for the patience this morn. As promised, here’s this week’s nib nib…

We’re leaning hard into the puzzle/mystery side of things this week with “one of the hardest and most beguiling word puzzles ever published.”

This word puzzle is widely considered to be one of the toughest literary mysteries to crack.

Now grab your deerstalker hat, pipe, and magnifying glass because we’re going to crack this 87-year old case wide open…

Only FOUR people have solved it in its 87 years of existence.

The Origins

Edward Powys Mathers was an English translator and poet as well as one of the pioneers of advanced cryptic crosswords. His long and storied career eventually led him to The Observer, where he wrote his crosswords under the pseudonym, Torquemada. And in 1934, a rather peculiar book he wrote was published – Cain’s Jawbone.

According to Mathers himself:

“The pages have been printed in an entirely haphazard and incorrect order, a fact which reflects little credit on somebody. The author assures his readers, however, that while it is now too late for him to remedy the ordering of the pages, it is quite possible for them, should they care to take the trouble, to re-order them correctly for themselves.”

The number of possible combinations (for this first step alone) is a figure with 158 digits.

Then one must solve the names of the murderers and victims within the story via a series of quotes, references, puns, spoonerisms, and other word games.

I am an Amazing Human Slash Genius

Out of the four solves, two of them happened in the 1930s- a Mr. Sydney Turner and a Mr. W Kennedy, both of whom won 25 pounds. And, after the passing of the author, the solution was thought to be lost once the two winners had died as well. Until one day, Patrick Wildugst, a museum curator at Shandy Hall was able to match his answer to one of the original solves.

The mystery was then reissued with a prize of 1000 pounds to anyone who could solve it within a year of publishing. This timeline, of course, led into COVID and lockdowns and emerging victoriously was John Finnemore, a British comedy writer. According to Finnemore, Cain’s Jawbone was “far and away the most difficult puzzle I’ve ever attempted.”

Finnemore & Wildgust have agreed to keep the solution “a closely guarded secret, so the puzzle can be enjoyed by future generations,” and Shandy Hall will confirm any further correct solutions if they are submitted.

Godspeed

That’s enough of a tease! Think you’re ready to dive into the mystery itself?

As always,

Stay ‘spicious

-Andy & Mark

Mystery Nibbles

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