bout de papier, Vol. 10, No. 1 (1993) — Winter 1993 // Hiver 1993, pp. 47–48
“Cyanide in his nasal spray — it happened so fast, he probably never knew what hit him,” said Chief Inspector DeToombs sadly. LDC Liebnitz looked curiously at the contorted features of Roger Blooz, puzzle editor for MossGather Magazine, the Journal of Record for Rock ’N’ Roll. The ace logician had been lunching with DeToombs when the detective had been called to the scene of the crime, and had invited Liebnitz along.
“Blooz was our main source of information about a big drug and payola operation here,” the Chief Inspector continued. “One of the big record promoters was paying off in cocaine for falsification of the Top Ten charts. A spot on those charts can make millions for the record companies. Blooz agreed to help us find out who it was, but he was a total paranoid, and would only communicate in writing through some crazy indirect channel — a different one every time. Well, if he left a last message for us, the killer found it — you can believe we’ve searched the place with a fine-tooth comb. Blooz must have been closer than we thought.”
“We know that his killer had to be one of five men: Reggie Dwight, Steve Georgiou, Rick Starkey, Art Wellesley or Rob Zimmerman. It being Saturday, anyone coming to work has to sign in with the guard — they were the only ones in all morning, and they were all still around when we got here. They also all had access to the charts. The guard saw Blooz take a hefty shot from his nasal spray in the lobby when he arrived — so there was certainly nothing wrong with it then. Roger always had that thing in his face — he must have cement sinuses. I guess someone slipped into his office when he was out and doctored the bottle. No fingerprints, of course.”
Liebnitz looked at the desk on which Blooz was slumped. “He had just finished a puzzle, by the looks of things. Maybe it will tell us something.” He carefully extracted the sheets from under the dead man’s clenched fist and scanned the text:
The following clues relate to songs what were Number One on the USA or UK charts at some point in the 1960s or 1970s. In each case, you are looking for the longest word in the title of that song; one title has two different longest words of the same length. The number in brackets at the end of each clue is the number of letters in the word(s) you are seeking. The resulting list will come out in alphabetical order of the words sought (the first such word in the case of the two-word clue)
(a) Don McLean eats dessert, 1972 (8)
(b) Queen goes to Prague, 1975: reissued 1991 and heard
in a really excellent movie, not! (8)
(c) The Eagles stay here on the Coast, 1977 (10)
(d) The Monkees go late by rail, 1967 (11)
(e) Abba meets a terpsichorean monarch, 1976 (7)
(f) Herman’s Hermits praise a beauty, 1965 (8)
(g) Otis Redding by the sea, 1968 (4)
(h) David Bowie extols notoriety, movie title, 1975 (4)
(i) James Taylor promises companionship, 1971 (6)
(j) Marvin Gaye gets the lowdown by informal channels,
1968 (9)
(k) Neil Young, good fellow with a metallic ticker, 1972 (5)
(l) The Supremes have trouble accelerating affection, 1966 (5)
(m) The Rolling Stones have a gas leaping, 1968 (7)
(n) The Doors play with matches, 1967 (5)
(o) The Beatles meet the Material Girl, 1968 (7)
(p) The Mamas and the Papas start off the week well, 1966 (6)
(q) Roy Orbison meets Julia Roberts, 1964 (6)
(r) The Animals go gambling at dawn, 1964 (6)
(s) Simon and Garfunkel meet Crusoe’s wife, 1968 (8)
(t) Mick can’t get none, 1965 (12)
(u) The Bee Gees get sick over the weekend, 1978 (8)
(v) Eric Clapton kills a policeman, 1974 (7)
(w) Simon and Garfunkel listen hard, 1966 (7)
(x) The Bee Gees survive, 1978 (7)
(y) The Beatles go undersea, 1966 (9)
(z) The Lovin’ Spoonful endure urban heat, 1966 (6)
(aa) Stevie Wonder gets personal good weather, 1973 (8)
(bb) ….. but he doesn’t walk under ladders, also 1973 (12)
(cc) The Byrds and Dylan both shake his drum in 1965 (10)
(dd) The Troggs: this savage makes their hearts sing, 1966 (5)
(ee) The Turtles are most content with each other, 1967 (8)
(ff) The Bee Gees meet their terrible fate, 1979 (7)
(gg) Simon and Garfunkel pass above the rapids, 1970 (8)
(hh) The Byrds revolve thrice, 1965 (4)
(ii) The Beach Boys get happily shook up, 1966 (10)
(jj) Abba meets Napoleon’s fate, 1974 (8)
(kk) Procol Harum gets bleached, 1967 (6)
(ll) Three Dog Night preaches global happiness, 1971 (5)
(mm) The Beatles dwell on the immediate past 1965 (9)
(nn) Carly Simon makes accusations of arrogance, 1976 (5)
To make things a little easier, here are the words you are looking for.
Of course, they’re out of order and in anagram form (ignore hyphens):
RUNT, MEAF, OK-DC, GILTH, THERA, NIGHT, DROWL, OUREY, RHYUR, TYPRET, GRINIS, REFIND, WRITHE, MUMSER, DYNAMO, LOWER-OAT, DAMANON, JUNG-IMP, GNANDIC, GYRATED, GASTINY, LICENSE, REFFISH, SOBORNIN, HUNI- NESS, RUYS-DATA, DEATHRUG, MAINCARE, DARSOPHY, GOR- TEETH, HAMBOINE, DEBORTUL, PAVINGEER, EASY-TRYED, NUMBARIES, RUIN-ME-BOAT, ROBS-VANITI, FAIR- NICOLA, KRILL-CALVES, PTEROSIN-SUIT, FATTI-CASINOS.
Once you’ve got the words, fit them into the attached skeleton puzzle, together with a KNOT to tie the ends together. One long horizontal word goes in backwards, and one short vertical word goes up instead of down.
“That’s strange,” muttered Liebnitz. “There are forty clues, which makes forty-one words including the double. That checks with the anagrams. Assuming that the reference to KNOT means that should be included in the skeleton as well, we should have forty-two. And yet there are only forty spaces in the skeleton. Which ones are left out?”
He examined the list closely, then said, “Oh-ho, so that’s your game, Blooz. Well, I know the name of the killer, and that’s half the battle. The other clue must have something to do with the company involved in the scam — you have a short-list, DeToombs?” Replied the Chief Inspector, “Of course: MegaDreck Records, Thatcher Delors, Iso-Fantastic, Zen Boogie Associates and Doo Wah Delight.”
With some scrambling, Liebnitz solved that as well. Can you duplicate his feat by filling in the skeleton and revealing the two “extra” words, then naming the murderer and the company involved? As an extra challenge (not necessary in the solution to the puzzle), do you notice anything unusual about the other four murder suspects?
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 10, No. 1 (1993) — Winter 1993 // Hiver 1993, pp. 47–48. Read the rest of this issue →
