Inquisitor 1602: Mystery Man by Vismut

This is Vismut’s second puzzle in the Inquisitor series.  I blogged her previous one which was themed on the nursery rhyme, Oranges & Lemons.  There was a good deal of thematic material in that puzzle, so this new one should be interesting

 

 

 

Last week’s preamble was thematically terse.  This week, Vismut gives us a book to read.

The preamble states: Running round the perimeter of the grid are a number of mysteries to be finished.  

Previously the man behind them was involved in another mystery partially described by an album title and a group given by the wordplay of 19 across clues.  

More clarity is given by removing extra letters from 8 down clues before solving, using their position to determine which letter from the answer is to be used [e.g. 3rd letter in clue = 3rd letter from answer] and reading these in grid row order.  

Letters in two of the perimeter mysteries must be changed (leaving real words) to reveal the man’s name and the removed letters in the down clues resolved into yet another mystery to be written below the grid.  

Unchecked letters in the perimeter before amending might give HRH DENCH FLOOR TEST GRAND

First thoughts are that this looks like a puzzle where solvers need to identify everything to solve the puzzle and the end game fully. It’s not a puzzle where solvers can submit a grid without understanding all the endgame activities. Actually, with hindsight, that assertion is not true, as it is not necessary to highlight everything related to the down clue amendments.

For the down clues it is clear that the extra letter will be early in the clue.  Indeed, there is no down entry longer than 7 letters, so it is likely that each extra letter will be in the first or second word of the clue.  In the event, I found identification of the extra letters to be the easiest part of the puzzle.

For the across clues, there were 22 in total, so three would be normal

I got of to a quick start with ENCASH at 7 across intersecting with INVERT at 2 down.  INTAGLIOS (19 across) and FIGHTS (4 down) also fell quickly.

I started to get a feel for the message from the extra letters in the word play of the across clues when I was about half way through solving the puzzle as A DAY AT THE RACES QUEEN became a possibility.,  It also looked like that the position of the down clue letters was leading the creation of the word DIAGONAL in the grid.  When I saw that the main left right diagonal began DEVON …, everything fell into place and the mystery man could only be DICK FRANCIS, steeplechase jockey and author of thrillers / mysteries centred on the world of horse racing.

I have read a few of the books by DICK FRANCIS, but nothing like all of them, so a bit of research was required to track down all the incomplete [unfinished] titles in the perimeter..  Reading clockwise from the cell at row 1, column 2, these are: (unchecked letters in fuchsia below)

RISK

FORFEIT

DEAD CERT

BOLT

LONGSHOT

THE DANGER and

WHIPHAND

The twenty-two letters in fuchsia can be rearranged to form HRH DENCH FLOOR TEST GRAND

The diagonal reads DEVON LOCH FELL, a reference to the 1956 Grand National where the horse DEVON LOCH, ridden by DICK FRANCIS fell in the final straight, 40 yards from the finish whilst in the lead by five lengths.  Various theories exist as to why DEVON LOCH fell or tried to jump an imaginary fence.  A final link to the puzzle is that DEVON LOCH was owned by QUEEN Elizabeth the Queen Mother, giving us a reference to the group, QUEEN , that recorded A DAY AT THE RACES

To form DICK FRANCIS in the grid, we have to amend the titles RISK and FORFEIT in the top row,  This amendment generates new down entries at 3 (RHO from OHO), 4 (NIGHTS from FIGHTS) and 6 (SAILS from TAILS).  The other down entries at 1, 2 and 5 are unaffected by the amendments.

Finally we had to resolve the removed letters from the Down clues into another mystery.  These letters were IGSRTHTA and these form an anagram of STRAIGHT, again a novel by DICK FRANCIS

The grids shown below illustrate how all the thematic material built up in the grid.

Vismut has given us another tour de force in grid construction.  Her Oranges and Lemons puzzle (Inquisitor 1561) was equally stunning in its grid construction.  1561 required an O and S positioned in top left and bottom right using the names churches in the nursery rhyme.  This time we needed a D and an L in similar positions using titles from the DICK FRANCIS book list and also we need a four letter and a seven letter title to be capable of changing to DICK FRANCIS centrally in the top row whilst still leaving real words.

With so much thematic stuff going on it is easy to overlook the clues easy to overlook the clues.  Clues always seem easier when writing a blog, but they didn’t seem that easy whilst looking for extra letters (in different forms across and down).  There was a more scientific bent to the clues and entries than is often the case in crosswords.  I’m all for that.  ABVOLT, OOGONIA, OORT, ROTORS, HAEMAL, TRIODE, GYMBAL, KALONG and TRIONES all have a scientific tinge.

I look forward to many more puzzles from Vismut

The original filled grid looked like this

Note that it is not necessary to highlight the letters of the word DIAGONAL. I have used highlighting simply to illustrate how the word is derived

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once the mystery titles in the perimeter were filled in the grid looked like this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, highlighting the author and adding the additional title below the grid we have the following grid. Here, I have highlighted the DEVON LOCH incident as well, but it is not necessary for submission

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                  STRAIGHT

The title, MYSTERY MAN is fairly self-explanatory given the explanation in the blog text above

 

Across
No.	Clue	Letter	Wordplay	Letter	Entry
7	Realize empty edition has confused Sacha (6)		EN (letters remaining in EDITION when the central letters DITIO are removed [empty]) + an anagram of (confused) SACHA EN CASH*	A	ENCASH (convert into coins or paper money; realize)
9	Grey finished maiden (3)		DID (finished) + M (maiden) DI M	D	DIM (dark; dull; grey)
10	See, in a flash, tiny measure of potential (6)		V (vide [Latin for see]) contained in (in) (A + BOLT [flash]) A B (V) OLT		ABVOLT (10-8 volts [unit of electrical potential], i.e. a very tiny measure of potential)
12	Do they produce more tangles from uncovered wool one Angora’s shed right away ?(7)		OO (central letters of [uncovered] WOOL) + an anagram of [away] (I [Roman numeral for 1] and ANGORA excluding [shed] R) OO GONIA*	A	OOGONIA (female reproductive organ in seaweeds and fungi; tangle is a type of coarse seaweed)
13	Orion’s capital.  Top forty for astronomer (4)		O (first letter of [capital of] ORION) + FORTY (excluding the first letter [top] F) O ORT	Y	OORT (reference Jan OORT [1900 – 1992], Dutch astronomer who made a significant difference to our understanding of the Milky Way])
16	Change load: it’s out of date (3)		Anagram of *change) LOAD OLD*	A	OLD (out of date)
17	Norm, one who might drop in shortly (4)		PAR (norm) + A (one) PAR A		PARA (short form of PARAtrooper, one who might drop in [from the sky])
18	Mount goes back and forth on section’s turning parts (6)		TOR (mount) reversed (goes back) + TOR (written forward;[goes] forth) + S ROT< ORS	T	ROTORS (mechanical parts that turn)
19	Recast giant lions without new hollowed out designs (9)		Anagram of (recast) GIANT LIONS excluding (without) N (new) I suppose it could just be an anagram of GIANT + LIONS INTAGLIOS*		INTAGLIOS (stones or gems in which the design is hollowed out)
20	Casual, turbulent teen in engineers’ old tale (4)		TED (teddy boy; turbulent teen) contained in (in) RE (Royal Engineers) R (ED) E	T	REDE (archaic [old] word for story or tale)
21	Hugh not content about corrupt male of the blood (6)		HH (HUGH excluding the letters forming the central content [not content] UG) + A (about) +  an anagram of (corrupt) MALE H A EMAL*	H	HAEMAL (of the blood)
23	Artists Ed and Hope go round Penny out.  "Surprised" (6, 2 words)		Anagram of (go round) RA (Royal Academicians; artists) and ED and HOPE excluding (out) P OH DEAR*	E	OH DEAR (expression of one who is surprised)
25	Put on levy (4)		WAGER (put money on the outcome of something) WAGE	R	WAGE (levy can de defined as begin to WAGE)
27	Briefest show is held by actors without end of finale (9)		CON (teach or show) + (IS contained in [held by] [CAST {actors} containing {without; outside} E {end of (last letter of) FINALE}]) CON (C (IS) (E) ST)	A	CONCISEST (briefest)
30	14dn exchanges numbers for system with three conductors (6)		TRIONES (14 down) with ONES (numbers) replaced by (exchanges for) CODE (system) TRI ODE	C	TRIODE (with three electrodes)
31	Returning psycho could ….? (4)		BATES (reference Norman BATES, the lead character and psychopath in the film Psycho) reversed (returning) STAB<	E	STAB (wound or pierce with a knife; a likely action of a psychopath)
32	Commons agreements announced view (3)		EYES (sounds like [announced] AYES [indications of agreements in the House of Commons]) EYE	S	EYE (view)
34	In places alternate sequel cut French slave (4)		SQE (letters 1, 3 and 5 [in places alternate] of SEQUEL) + RF (Republique Francais [abbreviation for [cut] French) SE RF	Q	SERF (person in modified slavery and bound to work on the land)
35	Pellet gun rule Australia reformed (7)		Anagram of (reformed) GUN RULE and A (Australian) GRANULE*	U	GRANULE (pellet)
37	Age and grain of a branch (6)		ERA (age) + MEAL (grain) RA MEAL	E	RAMEAL (of a branch)
38	Crucial Köchel study (3)		K (Kõchel number, applied to categorise the works of Mozart) + EYE (study) K EY	E	KEY (crucial)
39	PE flat area ignored: it’ll keep things level (6)		GYM (GYMnastics; Physical Exercise; PE) + BANAL (flat) excluding (ignored) A GYM BAL	N	GYMBAL (a contrivance with self-aligning bearings for keeping eg hanging objects, nautical instruments, etc horizontal)
Down
No	Clue Amended Clue	Letter (position)	Wordplay	Letter	Entry
1	Turn up at Parisian Green (6)		IN (at) + VERT (French [Parisian] for green) IN VERT		INVERT (turn up)
2	Big bait Jack spread out (6) Big bat Jack spread out (6)	I (6)	KA (Scottish word for a jackdaw; jack) + LONG (spread out) KA LONG	G	KALONG (large fruit bat)
3	Interjection from leaderless section of Westminster (3)		SOHO (part of Westminster) excluding the first letter (leaderless) S OHO		OHO (an interjection)
4	Stairs short of length. Add special spars (6)		FLIGHT (stairs) excluding (short of) L (length) + S (special) FIGHT S		FIGHTS (spars)
5	Overlook return of Queen by soldier (6)		(ER [Elizabeth Regina; Queen] + ON [by] + GI [American soldier]) all reversed (return of) (IG NO RE)<		IGNORE (overlook)
6	Regars from a silt compost (5) Rears from a silt compost (5)	G (3)	Anagram of (compound) A SILT TAILS*	I	TAILS (rears)
8	Walk slowly by second tramp without work (6)		S (second) + TROLLOP (tramp) excluding (without) OP (opus; work) S TROLL		STROLL (walk slowly)
9	S Barker perhaps squealer at Melbourne (3) Barker perhaps squealer at Melbourne (3)	S (1)	DOG (a DOG barks) DOG	D	DOG (Australian [Melbourne] term for a traitor or informer [squealer])
11	Parle inside British Academy for old, African master (5) Pale inside British Academy for old, African master (5)	R (3)	WAN (pale) contained in (inside) (B [British] + A [Academy]) B (WAN) A	A	BWANA (obsolete [old] East African term for master)
14	Starts short journey on borders of Emirates (7) Stars short journey on borders of Emirates (7)	T (5)	TRIP (journey) excluding the final letter (short) P + ON + ES (outer letters of [borders of] EMIRATES) TRI ON ES	N	TRIONES (the seven stars of the Plough)
15	Maybe Inquisitor dismisses angry phrase (4)		CROSSWORD (the Inquisitor is an example of a crossword) excluding (dismisses) CROSS (angry) WORD		WORD (as a verb, phrase)
22	Scottish complain independence in pieces (4)		I (independence) contained in (in) MEN (pieces in chess for example) ME (I) N		MEIN (Scottish word for moan or complain)
23	Has yellow paint you nearly returned got dear in Paris (6) As yellow paint you nearly returned got dear in Paris (6)	H (1)	YOU reversed (returned) excluding the last letter (nearly) U containing (got) CHER (French for dear) O (CHER) Y<	O	OCHERY (like the colour of yellow paint)
24	Pats a nanny holding position in yoga (5) Pas a nanny holding position in yoga (5)	T (3)	ASANA (hidden word in [holding] PAS A NANNY) ASANA	A	ASANA (any of the positions taught in yoga)
26	Fat Greek has rest (6)		GR (Greek) + EASE (rest) GR EASE		GREASE (fat)
27	Steal second from game to dally (6)		CROQUET (game, played on a lawn, in which wooden balls are driven by means of long-handled mallets through a series of hoops) excluding (steal … from) R [second letter of the word] COQUET		COQUET (flirt; dally)
28	Harims whipped up seamless garments (6)		Anagram of (whipped up) HARIMS IHRAMS*		IHRAMS (seamless white cotton garments worn by Muslim pilgrims to Mecca)
29	Pie eaten around noon resembling volcano (6)		Anagram of (pie) EATEN containing (around) N (noon) ET (N) EAN*		ETNEAN (relating or resembling the characteristics of the volcano, Mount Etna)
30	Said to be worn out.  Mini wheels are for example (5)		TYRED (sounds like [said to be] TIRED [worn out]) TYRED		TYRED (The wheels of a Mini car will have TYREs and therefore will be TYRED)
33	Palace reduced year’s work steadily (3) Place reduced year’s work steadily (3)	A (2)	PL (abbreviation for [reduced] PLACE) + Y (year) PL Y	L	PLY (work at steadily)
36	Self-confidence mega at heart.  Got unlimited (3)		EG (central letters of [at heart] MEGA) + O (letter remaining in GOT when the two outer letters G and T are excluded [unlimited]) EG O		EGO (self-confidence)