A Victorian murder mystery you solve with a pencil. Find the words, crack the ciphers, and name the killer before Scotland Yard does.
London, 14 January 1888.
Snow is falling on Castellan's Royal Circus, tucked away in its winter quarters on the south bank of the Thames. Inside, four hundred guests in furs cheer the trapeze artists, the clowns and the dancing white horses at the winter gala.
Across the snowy yard, the proprietor sits alone in his counting house with the night's takings.
At ten minutes to ten, the night watchman finds him dead. The strongbox is empty, and the roads are closed by snow. Nobody leaves tonight.
Inspector Lionel Graves of Scotland Yard has one question for everyone in the circus: "Does it fit the clock?" He needs an assistant to help him answer it.
That's you.
Every puzzle is a corner of the circus: the lion tamer's wagon, the trapeze, the clowns' dressing room, the counting house. Find all the hidden words in each themed word search.
Facing every word search is a cryptogram: a coded witness statement, letter or police note. Decode it to recover a piece of evidence.
Some clues are genuine. Some are red herrings, planted by chance or on purpose. Weigh them with the Inspector's Method, fill in your suspect tracker, and make your accusation. Then turn to the back and see if you were right.
Here's the first one, exactly as it appears in the book. Type a letter under any code letter and it fills in everywhere that letter appears.
"Every gala night, at a quarter past nine, the master counts the takings alone in the counting house. The whole circus knows it."
So everyone knew where he'd be, and when. That narrows nothing down. Or does it?
Pencil, armchair, a pot of tea. The classic way to solve a murder.
Buy on AmazonWrite straight on the page with your Apple Pencil, and tap to move around: every word search links to its cipher, every puzzle has a "Check answers" button, and the tracker and map are one tap away on every page. Answer pages never give away whether a clue is genuine, so checking your work won't spoil the case.
Download the GoodNotes EditionCastellan's partner for twenty years.
Desperate to break her contract.
With a bad habit at the card table.
Castellan's niece, who'd do anything to save her horses.
With a temper to match.
Who has shown the same three lions for twelve years.
Every book is a complete, standalone case, so you can start with this one.
London, 1887. A prima donna drinks from a golden goblet in her death scene, and never rises again.
London, 1888. A circus proprietor is found dead in his counting house on the night of the winter gala.
No. The book explains how, and the first ten ciphers each give you three letters to start. The hints thin out as you get better.
Not at all. It's a cosy mystery: fog, gaslight and secrets, with the violence kept off the page.
Yes. It's a fair-play mystery: every clue you need is in the 40 ciphers, and every red herring is disproved by a genuine clue.
No. Each case stands alone.
Yes, for your own use. You can also duplicate pages in your app to solve a puzzle again.
15×15 in both editions. They're printed large in the paperback and even larger on the iPad.
Pick up your pencil, Inspector's assistant. The circus is waiting.