This week’s Inquisitor set by Vismut is entitled Whodunnit, so we have a mystery on our hands.
The preamble told us that each down clue has an extra letter in the wordplay to be removed before solving; when read in clue order these spell out something that might have happened. The position of these extra letters in the clue indexes a new order for the same letters, each used once, which spells out a description. The person who confessed to doing it can be found by changing three letters in the final grid where appropriate. The confessor, plus the victim in this case – another supporter of 6, who then appears, minus a sign – must be highlighted (16 letters).
I got off to a slow start in the down clues because I didn’t read the preamble properly. For a while, I thought we had to remove a letter from the wordplay after we had solved the clue, a bit like ‘the wordplay generates an extra letter which must be removed before entry in the grid’. Eventually I realised my mistake and the solving got a bit easier.
I made steady progress after that, but the message from the down clues didn’t seem to make much sense. There were no obvious words appearing like ‘letter’, ‘cells’ ‘highlight’, erase’ etc. Even after I got the message, it didn’t make sense immediately. I could see HARD LINES was there, so I was trying to deduce something beginning with S for the next word.
The realisation that the letters to be omitted would all fall in distinct positions 1 to 22 in the clues was helpful as I neared the end of the gridfill because it gave me an idea where the extra letters might be located in the clues that I hadn’t yet solved..
When the grid was complete, I had the message HARDLINESS TRUSTED CHEAT which still didn’t mean much, so I tried the reformatting such that the extra letter in position 1 was followed by the letter that was omitted from position 2. That gave me something that made sense – CHRIST AND THE ADULTERESS.
I suspect I wasn’t the only solver who then spent a few fruitless minutes searching for the name of the adulteress. I discovered that there were several portraits by different artists with the title CHRIST AND THE ADULTERESS. The artists included de Boulogne, Lucas Cranach the Younger and Titian as well as Breugel, Guercino and Rembrandt (although their paintings were all entitled Christ and the Woman taken in Adultery). Reading about those artists and paintings didn’t help.
Finally, when I followed up a version by Vermeer everything fell into place. I learnt about the Dutch forger Hans VAN MEEGEREN (1889 – 1947) who made a career and a lot of money by forging and selling fake Vermeers. Apparently VAN MEEGEREN was a Nazi sympathiser (supporter of 6 [HITLER]) who did a deal with Herman Goering (anglicised spelling) to ‘sell’ a fake Vermeer CHRIST AND THE ADULTERESS in exchange for 137 paintings already in Goering’s collection.
It was at this point that I realised that the message from the extra letters in the down clues was actually HARD LINE SS TRUSTED CHEAT which given the circumstances could well be true. Goering can definitely be described as HARDLINE SS and another supporter of HITLER given his connection with the Gestapo police and the SS (Schutzstaffel) security organisation during his time as one of the leaders alongside Adolf HITLER from 1932 / 3 to 1945.
By changing three letters in the main NW- SE diagonal we can create the name VAN MEEGEREN form rows 2 to 12. The G introduced at the beginning of 29 across to form GOTTEN from ROTTEN also acts a the first letter of the name GORING reading down from the inital G. The missing sign referred to in the preamble is the umlaut that should be above the O of GORING.
We have now fulfilled all the requirements of the preamble and the grid remains filled with real words. The changes to generate VAN MEEGEREN give us BRAVES from BREVES at 12 across, SMALLS from SMELLS at 3 down and NAILED from RAILED at 14 across, as well as GOTTEN mentioned above.
The extra letters, positions in clue and re-ordering of the letters by these positions is shown below taking us from HARDLINE SS TRUSTED CHEAT to CHRIST AND THE ADULTERESS.
The development of the grid is shown in the following animation
I found the puzzle quite difficult but the end result was satisfying and I learnt a lot about Hans VAN MEEGEREN that I didn’t know before.
The clues were quite complex, but I think I have got the parsing right.
There was an interesting circular definition with AREA defined as ZONE at 4 down and ZONE defined as AREA at 21 down
The title WHODUNNIT refers to ‘who was the forger who sold the fake Vermeer to Hermann Goering. The answer being VAN MEEGEREN
I would be fascinated to know how Vismut developed the idea for this puzzle. Is it a well known fact that the message and title of the painting are anagrams? Did Vismut start with VAN MEEGEREN and look for an anagram of the title of the painting? How easy was it to write 22 clues knowing that cerain letters had to be in specific positions in the clues? Some letters occurred more than once so there was some flexibility with A, D, E, R, S and T as they are used more than once, but C, H, I, L, N and U are constrained to one position. In addition to the constraints on the position of letters, the clues had to read sensibly with and without the extra letters.
Thanks to Vismut for a fun puzzle.
| No |
Clue |
|
| Across | ||
| 1 |
Scottish legally stop pronounced growth (4) SIST (Scots legal term meaning to stop or stay) SIST (sounds like [pronounced] CYST [sac or bag-like structure, whether normal or containing diseased matter; growth]) SIST |
|
| 7 |
Circuit colder, regularly making freezing point (6) ICICLE (hanging, tapering [pointed] piece of ice formed by the freezing of dropping water; freezing point) ICICLE (letters 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 [regularly] of CIRCUIT COLDER) ICICLE |
|
| 11 |
Cream going off? (10, 2 words) BRAIN DRAIN (the continuing loss of citizens of high intelligence and creativity through emigration; cream going off) BRAIN (intellectual; cream of intelligence) + DRAIN (go away) BRAIN DRAIN |
|
| 12 |
Notes, from before conjugated verbs, written without English (6) BREVES (obsolescent notes [from before], twice as long as the longest now generally used [the semibreve]) Anagram of (conjugated) VERBS containing (written without [outside] E [English]) BREV (E) S* |
|
| 13 |
Fan of Nicholas maybe, in Dire Straits (7) TSARIST (supporter of the Russian Tsars of whom Nicholas was an example) Anagram of (Dire) STRAITS TSARIST* |
|
| 14 |
Scoffed recipe celebrity chef reviewed (6) RAILED (used vigorously or mockingly reproachful language; scoffed) (DELIA [reference DELIA Smith [born 1941], celebrity chef + R [recipe]) all reversed (reviewed) (R AILED)< |
|
| 16 |
Religion prepared animals repeatedly polled (5) ISLAM (a relligion) Anagram of (prepared) ANIMALS excluding each of the first two letters (repeatedly polled [taking top or first letter off]) A and N ISLAM* |
|
| 18 |
The masculine German introducing county professor (8) DECLARER (one who professes) DER (one of the German forms of ‘the’) containing (introducing) CLARE (western County of the Irish Republic) DE (CLARE) R |
|
| 20 |
Past value of a singular glue (6) ASSIZE (a historical [past] statute settling the weight, measure, or price of anything; past value) A + S (singular) + SIZE (weak glue) A S SIZE |
|
| 22 |
Zero ducks and animals kept here (3) ZOO (a park where animals are kept) Z (zero) + O (character representing zero, a score that is termed a duck in cricket) + O (another duck to give ducks) Z O O |
|
| 23 |
Foreign monsieur eating pea’s an attachment to Brussels (11) EUROPEANISM (showing an attachment to the policies of the European Union whose headquarters are in Brussels) Anagram of (foreign) MONSIEUR containing (eating) PEA EURO (PEA) NISM* |
|
| 26 |
Uncovered body, dead peculiar (3) ODD (strange; peculiar) OD (letters left in BODY when the outer letters B and Y are excluded [uncovered]) + D (dead) OD D |
|
| 29 |
Rent to ugly Sex Pistol (6) ROTTEN (reference Johnny ROTTEN [stage name of John Lydon [born 1956], member of the band the Sex Pistols from 1975 to 1978 and in various revivals at later dates) Anagram of (ugly) RENT TO ROTTEN* |
|
| 31 |
New plan to acquire old console machine (8) NINTENDO (name of a Japanese multinational consumer electronics company that makes video ganes consoles that are often known by the name of the company even through there have been various different models) N (new) + INTEND (plan) + O (old) N INTEND O |
|
| 33 |
High place has Queen and Empress in sight (5) EYRIE (any high or inaccessible place) RI (Regina et Imperatrix, Queen and Empress) contained in (in) EYE (the power of seeing; sight) EY (RI) E |
|
| 35 |
Noisy sleeper from central section of Elverson Road twisted (6) SNORER (descriptive of a person who makes noises by breathing roughly whilst asleep) Anagram of (twisted) the central six letters ERSONR of the 12 letter ELVERSON ROAD) SNORER* |
|
| 37 |
Kind old sovereign cast string of letters (7) TYPEBAR (line of type cast in one piece; string of letters) TYPE (kind) + BAR (a sovereign [£ sterling]) TYPE BAR |
|
| 38 |
Non-masculine young ladies to welcome Italy’s immigrants (6) ISSEIS (Japanese immigrants in the United States or Canada after 1907) MISSES (young ladies) excluding (non) M (masculine) and containing (to welcome) I (International Vehicle Registration for Italy) ISSE (I) S |
|
| 39 |
Maybe worried crew starts to take shelter in these? (10) EMBAYMENTS (sea BAYs where a worried ship’s crew might take shelter) Anagram of (worried) MAYBE + MEN (crew) + TS (first letters [starts to] of each of TAKE and SHELTER) EMBAY* MEN TS |
|
| 40 |
Prevent swelling that is concealing marks (6) STYMIE (frustrate; thwart; prevent – derives from a historic situation in golf where your opponent’s ball on the green is on the line from your ball to the hole thereby preventing you holing a putt. For a long time now, the offending ball is lifted and the position marked) (STY [inflamed swelling at the edge of the eylid] + IE (id est; that is]) containing (concealing) M (marks, old German currency) STY (M) IE |
|
| 41 |
Cups are tucked into scanty G-string (4) TYGS (alternative spelling of TIGS [old drinking cups with two or more handles]) TYGS (hidden word [tucked into] SCANTY G-STRING) TYGS |
|
| Down |
Clue Amended Clue |
Letter Position |
| 1 |
Chat “buenos dias” excited in church offices (13) Cat “buenos dias” excited in church offices (13) SUBDIACONATES (the offices or periods of service of sub-deacons; Anagram of (excited) CAT BUENOS DIAS SUBDIACONATES* |
H 2 |
| 2 |
See relay dropping time during second half of unwise French drunkenness (7) See rely dropping time during second half of unwise French drunkenness (7) IVRESSE (French word for drunkenness) (V [vide; Latin for see] + REST [RELY can be defined as REST on as a support] excluding [dropping] T [time]) all contained in (during) ISE (second three letters of six [half] in UNWISE) I (V RES) SE |
A 7 |
| 3 |
Mobile found in trader society hums (6) Mobile found in trade society hums (6) SMELLS (hums) M (mobile) contained in (found in) (SELL [trade] + S [society]) S (M) ELL S |
R 19 |
| 4 |
In Harare danger zone (4) In Harare anger zone (4) AREA (zone) AREA (hidden word [in] HARARE ANGER) AREA |
D 9 |
| 5 |
Attractive girl’s lover entertaining a very pious Jew (5) Attractive girl’s over entertaining a very pious Jew (5) HASID (very pious Jew) DISH (good looking girl) reversed (over) containing (entertaining) A H (A) SID< |
L 16 |
| 6 |
Basis to be excluded by blithe becoming careless, republican despot (6) Bass to be excluded by blithe becoming careless, republican despot (6) HITLER (reference Adolf HITLER [1889 – 1945], German leader, dictator and despot from 1933 to 1945) Anagram of (becoming careless) BLITHE excluding (to be excluded) B (bass) + R (Republican) HITLE* R |
I 4 |
| 7 |
Dry splints manufactured ain’t for six-footers (7) Dry splits manufactured ain’t for six-footers (7) INSECTA (arthropods having a distinct head, thorax and abdomen, with three pairs of legs attached to the thorax; six-footed creatures) SEC ([of wines] dry) contained in (splits) an anagram of (manufactured) AINT IN (SEC) TA* |
N 8 |
| 8 |
Exasperation over runes. Italy faked make-believe (9) Exasperation over runs. Italy faked make-believe (9) IRREALITY (unreality; make-believe) (IRE [anger; exasperation] containing [over] R [runs]) + an anagram of (faked) ITALY IR (R) E ALITY* |
E 20 |
| 9 |
In the past Ian’s tribute say, collected in tin (4) In the past Ian’s tribute ay, collected in tin (4) CAIN (in Scotland and Ireland, rent paid in kind, esp in produce from a tenanted farm, also known as a tribute) I (a bit convoluted here but Chambers says I3 is the same as AYE2 which is also the same as AY3) contained in (collected in) CAN (tin) CA (I) N |
S 21 |
| 10 |
Logs, spotty ones put inside, getting acorn worms (13) Logs, potty ones put inside, getting acorn worms (13) ENTEROPNEUSTS (any animal of the ENTEROPNEUSTa [literally, gut-breathers] the Hemichordata or a division of them including Balanaglossus. An acorn worm is defined as any of various wormlike sea-animals [ENTEROPNEUSTS] of the Hemichordata) Anagram of (potty) ONES PUT contained in (put inside) ENTERS (logs) ENTER (OPNEUST*) S |
S 5 |
| 15 |
Lion’s tour England lost primarily going backwards (3) Lion’s our England lost primarily going backwards (3) LEO (the Lion) LEO (first letters of [primarily] each of OUR, ENGLAND and LOST) reversed (going backwards) LEO< |
T 6 |
| 17 |
Strokes irate ram out in wind (9) Stokes irate ram out in wind (9) AIRSTREAM (flow of air, such as wind) Anagram of (out) S (Stokes, unit of kinematic viscosity) and IRATE RAM AIRSTREAM* |
R 3 |
| 19 |
Fibonacci say, causing number to become material (4) Fibonacci say, casing number to become material (4) LENO (thin muslin-like fabric) LEO (reference FIBONACCI who developed a series of numbers that bears his name. He was born LEOnardo Bonacci in 1170) containing (casing) N (number) LE (N) O |
U 15 |
| 21 |
Area’s cross nationalists on base (4) Area’s cross nationalist on base (4) ZONE (area) ZO (a kind of hybrid domestic cattle found in parts of the Himalayas, said to be a cross between the male yak and the common horned cow) + N (nationalist) + E (base of natural logarithms) ZO N E |
S 22 |
| 24 |
Pound Manet forged for Eliot? (7, 2 words) Pound Mane forged for Eliot? (7, 2 words) PEN NAME (George ELIOT was the PEN NAME of Mary Ann Evans [1819-1880], the author of Middlemarch) PEN (pound) + an anagram of (forged) MANE PEN NAME* |
T 10 |
| 25 |
Bent mini Gene Paisley’s bemoaning (7) Bent mini Gen Paisley’s bemoaning (7) MEINING (Scottish [Paisley is a town near Glasgow] word for moaning) Anagram of (bent) MINI GEN MEINING* |
E 12 |
| 27 |
Approve deleted content of sign (3) Approve delete content of sign (3) DIG (understand or approve) D (delete) + IG (central letters of [content of] SIGN) D IG |
D 14 |
| 28 |
Cold in short frock, Australian at the front loves (6) Old in short frock, Australian at the front loves (6) ADORES (loves) A (Australia) + (O [old] contained in [in] DRESS [frock] excluding the final letter [short] S) A D (O) RES |
C 1 |
| 30 |
Lottery, Ruth’s last entry disappearing suspiciously in palm (6) Lottery, Rut’s last entry disappearing suspiciously in palm (6) TROELY (the bussu palm; its leaf) Anagram of (suspiciously) LOTTERY excluding (disappearing) T (final letter of [last entry] RUT) TROELY* |
H 11 |
| 32 |
E.g. keeper’s after Nile seal (5) E.g. keeper’s after Nil seal (5) O-RING (a toroidal ring, usually of circular cross-section, used eg as an air or oil seal) O (character representing zero or nil) + RING (a KEEPER is defined as a guard RING) O RING |
E 18 |
| 34 |
No longer in coat maybe, boy’s outside at the big house in Scotland (4) No longer in cot maybe, boy’s outside at the big house in Scotland (4) UPBY (a term in Scotland meaning ‘at the big house’) UP (out of bed; no longer in one’s cot or bed) + BY (first and last letters of [outside] BOY) UPBY |
A 13 |
| 36 |
French is leader of this person from the Baltic (4) French is leader of his person from the Baltic (4) ESTH (an Estonian; a person from one of the Baltic Republics) EST (French for ‘is’) + H (first letter of [leader of] HIS) EST H |
T 17 |
After struggling recently with the thematic design of another puzzle by this setter, I enjoyed every aspect of this puzzle, of which the main highlight was the ingenious way in which the clever anagram of the 22-letter decoded message was revealed. (And it was all too easy to be sidetracked by ‘hard lines’.) Other highlights were (1) the fact that we were told which clues (all the Downs) had an extra letter and (2) the unannounced fact that the changes made to reveal the forger’s name left four new (real) words in the grid.
I must also mention the excellent set of clues.
Thanks to Vismut for the puzzle, and to Duncan for an interesting and clear blog.
Thanks for the blog Duncanshiell and in response to your query. The idea for this puzzle came after watching a BBC documentary on Van Meegeren. I was struck by the similarity between his name and Vermeer’s and the puzzle developed from there. The word count on the title of the painting was about right for either all the down or across clues so I just had to fix on a gimmick. Extra letters are always popular, but I thought it might be fun to see if the title of the picture would form an anagram. It was a bit of a struggle but once I’d seen cheat and used SS the other bits fell into place nicely. Yes it was very hard to write clues with a specific letter in a specific place and took a long time. I had valuable input from Dysart and Wan too, who test solved it for me when I wrote it which was well over a year ago. I found it hard too when I got it back for proof reading, but I’m glad you got there as this is one of my favourite puzzles and the subject matter, to me anyway, fascinating.
Absolutely lovely puzzle: just the right level of difficulty and a satisfying payoff. I was slow to understand the message from the extra letters, but once the penny dropped I was even more impressed. It’s fair to say that Vismut now ranks alongside Ifor and Chalicea as one of the IQ setters I enjoy the most (that’s not to belittle the many other setters who also produce excellent puzzles, of course).
I thought that this puzzle was charming & delightful. The grid-fill didn’t take me that long and while I was looking through the possible artists I spotted VERMEER on the (unadulterated) diagonal – after that it was easy to spot which 3 letters were to be changed & GORING duly appeared, minus his umlaut.
Most enjoyable – thanks Vismut and also Duncan for the blog.
Vismut@2
Thanks for the information about how the puzzle developed – very interesting.
HolyGhost@4
It’s amazing what a blogger can miss when fixated on different [parts of the puzzle. I hadn’t noticed that VERMEER was on the diagonal until your comment appeared. I might have saved a bit of time if I had, but it was interesting to do the research on other artists who have painted the scene with Christ and the Adulteress.
Yes, I agree with the above comments. Most enjoyable. I spotted Vermeer, and, being lazy, wrote a small spreadsheet to sort the letters of the Hard . . .message. I’ve been proofreading some German documents recently, so the “minus a sign” comment gave me Göring straight away. and the jump to the forger was quick.
A triumph of a grid Vismut. Thank you very much.
I filled the grid
Got the phrase-and the other one
Veni Vidi sed non vinci
I first came across this story in Orson Welles’s very entertaining film, F For Fake. He says ‘everything you see and hear in the next hour is true…’ – the problem being, the film is ninety minutes long.
An excellent puzzle, really intricate, but fully solvable – and of course a crossword compiler would detect Vermeer under Van Meegeren. Many thanks to Vismut and duncanshiell
I was similarly puzzled for a while by “hard lines”, but found the puzzle on a whole to be fairly straightforward, and thoroughly enjoyable.
Another delightful puzzle from Vismut. Plenty of PDMs and like others I had a bit of a wild goose chase for the name of thr adultress until I stumbled upon the story about Van Meegeren’s fake and Goering.
Loved the way this came together layer after layer, bravo Vismut for the construction and many thanks Duncan for the super blog.
An excellent puzzle. Highly enjoyable. Thanks to Vismut and Duncan.
Top notch stuff Vismut thank you. I particularly enjoyed several of the definitions.
Thanks for the feedback everyone, it’s lovely to get it.
Duncan@5, I’m just wondering how many other people missed Vermeer along the diagonal now, the point of the puzzle Whoddunnit, Vermeer or Van Meegeren may have been missed by some. A fault in the preamble perhaps.
Vismut, thanks for the further explanation. I’m afraid that I also failed to spot Vermeer, and I know that my parents did the same.