If you only do one IO puzzle this year, let this one be it.
A fabulous theme, I didn’t want it to end! IO has taken a quite different approach on this puzzle, and I think it is far more mainstream than his usual tricksy offerings. Unless you’re completely unfamiliar with the theme, I think this is an infinitely doable IO puzzle with some helpful ‘write-ins’ to fill in some of the longer clues, allowing more time (or patience maybe?) to consider the very tricky ones. Many thanks to the setter!
AC[t] (performance, without T (timeless)) in JOB 1 (first working role)
Derek Jacobi acted in the more recent ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ and had a couple of other roles in Agatha Christie productions
Before HO[me] (taking me off), C (caught) + O[ne]’s (first)
Cryptic definition
NO EL (or No ‘L’) i.e. missing a letter
ADIOS (so long) after R (writing)
As in one of the ‘3 R’s’ of UK education: reading, writing, arithmetic
In F[u]SSY (particular): LO (look) for U (university)
PO (the fourth Teletubby) + CHE (red)
An architectural term
“WEES” (uses bog, “broadcast”)
[c]LASSIE[r] (more stylish, nude)
[invisib]LE I[nk] (written in)
Commonly presented to tourists arriving in Hawaii
[o]F[f] T[o] S[e]E[k] (regulars going)
CHAR (do) + E.G.< (like, <retro)
([l]A[s]T (not having taken the odds) + HURRAH)* (*bizarrely) + STINGS (pains)
Hastings is to Poirot as Watson is to Holmes
[mori]ARTY (sleuth’s enemy) has bumped MORI (researchers) off
A crossover reference to Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis (by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
(NOT + JAR (this))* (*styles) = TROJAN
Not 100% sure about this one. Initially wanted it the other way round with the definition being ‘TROJAN’ (i.e. computer virus) but neither way has me totally convinced. Of course grating should have ‘jarring’ as a synonym, not just ‘jar’.
RIGA (Baltic por) awarded AU (gold)
The ‘charioteer’ constellation
AH (I see) on FOOL< (sweet, <counter)
A fool is an English dessert
“PIECE” (a bit, “outspoken”)
APT (ready) in LOP (dock)
Cryptic definition
James Cleverly works IN F[oreign] O[ffice], as the current Foreign Secretary
And another crossover reference to Barbara Cleverly, another famous ‘whodunnit’ author
(NAME)* (*changed) in JAR (beer) + (PE (games), L (litre) drunk)
Agatha Christie’s amateur detective, better known as ‘Miss Marple’
NOT ICE (steam or water)
In A GATE (a passage), (THIS RICH A)* (*suspect) is introduced
PP (tuppence) supports (JOINT CAPERS)* (*rumbling)
Japp is a character in some Agatha Christie novels, while Tuppence is one of the writer’s duo, Tommy and Tuppence
(HOTEL CROUPIER)* (*dodgy)
Agatha Christie’s most famous detective character
“picking up”: “CLUE” (something criminal left behind) + “SO” (that will do)
The famous Pink Panther detective, created by Blake Edwards but based largely on Christie’s Poirot
FELICITY (blessing) + LEMON (something worthless)
Poirot’s very efficient secretary from Christie’s novels
BAH (I’m annoyed), ((OUR)* (*fancy) + H (hotel)) introduced + A
ARIA (song) + END< (finishing, <up) + OLIVER (musical)
Poirot’s friend, the mystery novelist
GA[l]LIC (the first of the French), hands has changed
I.e. L (left) becomes R (right)
Thanks, Io and Oriel!
JAR
Parsed it almost as you did.
(TROJAN)* *styles=not JAR (this)
(hardly a difference).
As JAR as a noun means ‘a discordant sound’ and ‘grating’ as a noun means ‘a grating sound’, the
def seems fine.
CLOUSEAU
Is it pronounced like KLOO SO or KLOOZO?
Great fun to solve with a very helpful theme
Many thanks to Io and Oriel
Took a while to get going on this. until I’d solved AURIGA and LAPTOP and the “Tuppence” in 4d told me I was looking for a character named ?APP.
It could have been Elizabeth MAPP, but I already had NOEL, so INSPECTOR (James – who knew?) JAPP cracked the case for me.
Had similar trouble remembering the forenames of Miss Lemon & Captain Hastings. ARIADNE OLIVER was posh enough to always be mentioned in full.
Derek JACOBI also played mediaeval sleuth Cadfael. Brilliant stuff!
Thanks IO&O
Took a while to remember Miss Marple’s forename, too.
POCHE needs an acute accent and OLIVER! (like OKLAHOMA!) needs an exclamation mark. TWANG!! – remember that? – needed two.
KVa@1 nicely clears up the parse of JAR.
KVa@2 – The French would pronounce CLOUSEAU as CLUE ZO. The !rish would pronounce WHEEZE as HWEEZE.
But this is a British crossword, so we Europeans’ll just have to lump it.
Excellent.
For FELICITY LEMON and ARIADNE OLIVER-I sort of had to guess and google to check as my GK on these things is only averageTripped up
on FTSE and FLOSSY (which is unforgiveable-great clue)
thanks IO and Oriel
What a slog, but after I worked out the theme, some answers became more explainable. (Is “explainable” really a word?)
“Quean” at 13A was totally unknown to me.
Thanks to setter, solver and those who offered comments.
Thanks for the blog, it is surprising how much you can know about Agatha Christie without really being interested.
TROJAN a rare compond anagram for a daily puzzle.
QUEAN is a Scrabble favourite and cleverly gives the Scottish flavour of the answer.
I think I’ve only ever completed and enjoyed one puzzle from this setter, so I didn’t even print off the grid today. But now I read Oriel’s “If you only do one IO puzzle this year, let this one be it.” This spurred me to read through the blog, and I’m sorry to say that there’s still plenty there that would have flummoxed me. Maybe next time …
I’m sorry but I beg to differ with you on this. I can usually have a fair crack at IO’s puzzles, but I found this one completely impenetrable. Although I have a smattering of knowledge of detective fiction, the answers to many of these were far too abstruse for me. Rather than waste any more of my time on this, I thought I’d better do something more constructive like clear the drains instead. Perhaps next time…
Deezzaa, I spent the time re-organising my sock drawer. 🙂
I agree with GDU and Deezaa. I did have a useful task: cutting the hedge, so the morning was not wasted. I usually complete an IO puzzle but ….
Lucked out by getting AGATHA CHRISTIE after 10 minutes blankness, then guessed and googled the rest. Strangely, while Google (given ‘agatha christie + [first name]’) automatically completes the names of Arthur Hastings, Ariadne Oliver, Jane Marple, it is stumped by Felicity Lemon, suggesting only Kendall, Jones and Huff.
I wonder if NOEL is there because it is Hercule Poirot’s Christmas. Oddly, since HERCULE is 5d, Hercule Poirot’s Christmas could be a book in which 5 doesn’t appear.
I did give this a go, but it was too difficult for me to finish in an evening. Opposite to Roz, I was surprised to realise how little I knew about Christie’s characters. I am aligned with the “what a slog” crowd, and in the end I processed some photos and watched a rerun on TV.
I admire those that succeeded.
Thanks Oriel and Io
I found this tough but highly satisfying. I completed without aids but failed to parse ‘info’ or ‘poche’. ‘Educated’ guesses are acceptable in competition conditions, so I’m quite satisfied. Thanks to setter and blogger.
Martyn@14 in the UK we have had a stream of Christie adaptions as TV serials, especially Miss Marple and Poirot, and there are numerous films shown. I do not think I have ever seen one complete episode but they are in the cultural background. It is similar with Sherlock Holmes, I probably know quite a bit without realising it.
An Agatha Christie/ Inspector theme wrapped up neatly in an Io blog What’s not to love?!
Made my day. Agree completely with Oriel’s billing and super blog.
Sorry, I meant Io grid.
Roz@16 I have seen some of the same Christie adaptions, and was slightly surprised how little of them I absorbed.
On the other hand, I have not seen one episode of Teletubbies.
Managed three or four after an hour then gave up.
Yes this was tough. Managed to finish only after considerable googling and use of the check feature. Very satisfied to have got there at all.
Some great ones here in between the ‘characters’ but too much googling puts me off my game and spoils the fun for me. Also had there not been typos the previous two days I might have trusted Quean enough to google that sooner! But thanks anyway to all concerned.
Completely beyond my pay grade. I found this horrible. An hour of my life wasted on a theme about which I have no knowledge. should’ve come with a warning. Googling to solve crosswords puzzles is not fair sport and the editor should’ve put a line through this one.
Honestly, I thought it was a disgrace.
I’m being a bit tough saying a “disgrace”. But I wasted a lot of my time making no progress here, not helped, I’m afraid by being told in the introduction to the blog (after I’ve given up the first time) that there were a number of write-ins. I’d love to know what these were as I couldn’t see them. The only two I could find were Lei and Coho (because I know my fish).
What were the long write-ins? If they demanded knowledge of Agatha Christie,
/ the detective, genre, they were not write-ins.
Moly@24 if it’s any consolation my experience was similar until I stumbled upon ARTHUR HASTINGS and googled him to crack the theme. After that, but only then, some clues did become obvious.
Thanks Nick @24.
Even if I stumbled upon Arthur Hastings, I would’ve had no idea who he was.
I have a deep and passionate interest in the parasites of equatorial Africa. I’m sure a crossword filled with these creatures, would have many write-ins for me. But that wouldn’t have made it a fair crossword.
I’m still in the foothills of crossword solving – even though I’ve been there for quite a long time. But what really disappoints me is when I’ve wasted a lot of time trying to solve a puzzle which is basically unsolvable if you don’t have a certain level of general knowledge in a particular topic.
Puzzles like this should come with a warning so that people like me don’t waste our precious time.
Late to the party on this one. I gathered that it was a theme involving characters from some author’s work, but if I had not had a lucky guess of Agatha Christie, and then googled a list of her characters, I think that this would have been virtually unsolvable. For me, laboriously retrofitting the parsing after researching (or flat-out guessing) the solutions is kind of tedious. Not familiar with MORI, POCHE (not in Chambers?), or “char” (in this sense), but the only non-theme solution that I did not guess right away was PEACE (which seems comparatively straightforward, in retrospect). NOEL did elicit a chuckle.
Came late to this after reading the “must do this one” preamble from Oriel. Struggled at first, but got Hercule Poirot and then carried on from there. Failed on 15ac as I couldn’t think of a “word” beginning FT – er… which newspaper was this in? How did I miss that? Not keen on several of the other clues/answers, but heigh ho, got most of it and enjoyed the challenge. Thanks IO and Oriel.
Flummoxed. Came here for insight, pretty sure the two clues I got (COHO and CLOUSEAU) are the only two I could even have parsed.
Echoing the “above my pay grade” comment above:
I have no illusions about my skill level – this one was not even close to within it.
Thoroughly enjoyed this one! I really enjoy Io’s clue constructions such as 1ac and 16ac. I love the challenge of unravelling his thought processes to work out his clues. I knew all the characters so didn’t bother parsing them which I consider to be cheating really but since I do the crosswords late at night, it saves time better used to tease out the others. Thank you both!