Welcome to Hawk – new to the Inquisitor but not to the Listener.
Preamble: All clues are normal. Each Across answer must pass a letter to the answer which follows it to form the next entry, i.e. from 1ac to 5ac, from 5ac to 9ac etc, the answer to 38ac passing a letter to the entry for 1ac. All transformations leave real words or phrases. Starting at a place and in a direction to be determined, passed letters spell the theme, to be illustrated by highlighting six words in alternate rows, some of which are examples of their type (22 cells in all). Answers to the across clues at 9, 16 and 37 are in Collins.
Having read the preamble I was somewhat apprehensive, and it seemed natural to start on the down clues. First time through I solved only about a quarter, but including the rather useful 2d EPHAH, 3d LUNGFUL, and 10d GOEL. On to the acrosses: 9a was PLUE to be entered as PLUG having passed the E to 11a and received a G from 5a GOINGS, probably the first; and 15a was MANN entered as MANG having donated an N and inherited the G. Progress was slow – the clues were tough, especially as there was a lot of cold-solving to be done, but they were good & very fair. 
I found myself in a bit of a tangle with 16a: the answer was COURIE (or COORIE) and it had to lose a letter & receive an N from 15a but that didn’t mesh well with the intersecting down entries … until I realised that an incoming letter wasn’t necessarily a direct replacement for the outgoing one: in this case COURIE had to pass on the I, shuffle a couple of letters across, and pop in the N between the O & the U to give CONURE.
I could make OF BEING from the passed letters of answers to 27a back through 14a (obviously not destined for The Unbearable Lightness of Being) and after some more solving I had enough to Google THE GREAT CHAIN OF BEING that “begins with God and descends through angels, humans, animals and plants to minerals” (thank you Wiki).
With the passed letters in hand, I solved the remaining clues bar 38a – the only words I could find to fit the grid & the rubric were COSTER becoming CO-STAR, but that was clearly wrong! Anyway, on to the endgame. It wasn’t too difficult to pick out GOD ANGEL MAN WOLF ASH in the even-numbered rows but where was the mineral in the bottom row? Aha – it had to be SPAR and the resolution to 38a was CASPER becoming CASPAR. Phew! What a workout. But worth it.
Thanks, Hawk. The grid construction is an absolutely marvellous piece of work.
| No. | Clue | Answer | Entry | Wordplay |
| Across | ||||
| 1 | Mottled horse just about under control (6) | MARLED | MEALED | MAR(e) (horse) LED (under control) |
| 5 | Behaviour when day’s good for departures (6) | GOINGS | O-RINGS | DOINGS (behaviour) with D(ay) replacing G(ood) |
| 9 | Prince with uncommon syphilis cut Victoria’s old fur (4) | PLUE | PLUG | P(rince) LUE(s) (syphilis) |
| 11 | Short muscle man in the frame (5) | LATHE | ELATE | LAT (muscle, latissimus dorsi) HE (man) |
| 13 | Applied wrapping without frills and dispatched (4) | SENT | SHEN | SET (applied) around (a)N(d) |
| 14 | Start to broadcast end of lasting peace (6, 2 words) | GO LIVE | OLIVET | (lastin)G OLIVE (peace) |
| 15 | Novelist consumed by human nature (4) | MANN | MANG | (hu)MAN N(ature) |
| 16 | Caught chill in Thurso? Snuggle up there (6) | COURIE | CONURE | C(aught) OURIE (chill, Scot) |
| 18 | Spotted, unruly picketers fled, abandoning working pits (9) | FLECKERED | FLICKERED | [PICKETERS FLED]* ¬ [PITS]* |
| 19 | Dances, expressing advanced curves (6) | RHUMBS | RHEUMS | RHUMBAS (dances) ¬ A(dvanced) |
| 25 | Bars for sailors housing railroad WC, say (6) | FIELDS | BIELDS | FIDS (bars used on ships) around EL (railroad) |
| 27 | Pay court to record damaged sack bales (9) | WOOLPACKS | WOLFPACKS | WOO (pay court to) LP (record) [SACK]* |
| 30 | Call to report syringing bottles (6, 2 words) | RING IN | ORIGIN | (sy)RINGIN(g) |
| 32 | Twice-peeled masala shrimp in which Indian may be dressed (4) | SARI | SNAR | (ma)SA(la) (sh)RI(mp) |
| 33 | Withdrew, Roderigo’s opening parts cut (6) | SHRANK | SHRINK | R(oderigo) in SHANK (cut) |
| 34 | Numbers leaving caff to praise from poet (4) | HERY | AERY | NOSHERY (caff, sl) ¬ NOS (numbers) |
| 35 | Change ensign after docking (5) | PENCE | PHENE | PENCE(l) (ensign) |
| 36 | Regularly turns into mole, for instance (4) | UNIT | UNCI | (t)U(r)N(s) I(n)T(o) |
| 37 | Salvation Army improvised on cello-like instrument (6) | SARODE | STRODE | SA (Salvation Army) RODE (improvised) |
| 38 | Piece of cake, according to friendly spirit (6) | CASPER | CASPAR | C(ake) AS PER (according to) |
| Down | ||||
| 1 | Past master abruptly hired fellow German physician (6) | MESMER | MES (master, obs) MER(c) (hired fellow) | |
| 2 | Handouts initially in heap reordered for good measure (5) | EPHAH | H(andouts) in [HEAP]* | |
| 3 | Lines about topless martial art a great inspiration (7) | LUNGFUL | LL (lines) around (K)UNG FOO (martial art) | |
| 4 | Rather odd when queen goes over-dressed (7) | DOLLISH | DROLLISH (rather odd) ¬ R (queen) | |
| 5 | Lyrical as I, but not I (4) | ODIC | IODIC (as I, iodine) ¬ I | |
| 6 | Recall always turning up to eat well (6) | REVOKE | EVER< (always) around OK (well) | |
| 7 | Former fools: they need no instruction (8) | NATURALS | double definition | |
| 8 | Stuck-up headteachers oddly cancelled break (6) | SECEDE | (h)E(a)D(t)E(a)C(h)E(r)S< | |
| 10 | Truth disheartened Hebrew blood avenger (4) | GOEL | GO(sp)EL (truth) | |
| 12 | No longer tear up or maintain fences (6) | TO-REND | OR in TEND (maintain) | |
| 17 | One with strong feelings about Israel misbehaving (8) | REALISER | RE (about) [ISRAEL]* | |
| 20 | Expression of joy a difficult thing in 622 AD! (6) | HOORAH | HOOR (a difficult thing) AH (anno Hegirae, in the year of Hegira, 622 AD) | |
| 21 | Connecting at summit, alumnus admired leaving institute (7) | OBCONIC | OB (old boy, alumnus) ICONIC (admired) ¬ I(institute) | |
| 22 | Gordon’s dogs eat a non-smoker (7) | MESSANS | MESS (eat) A NS (non-smoker) | |
| 23 | Rushes answer, essentially my mistake (6) | SWOOPS | (an)SW(er) OOPS (my mistake) | |
| 24 | Coiled jumping spider (6) | SPIRED | [SPIDER]* | |
| 26 | Rose: skipping adult with more agility (6) | SPRYER | SPRAYER (rose) ¬ A(dult) | |
| 28 | Monarchy twice elevated NZ resident (4) | KUKU | UK×2 (monarchy) rev. | |
| 29 | Girl in distant flats viewed through telescope (5) | MARIA | MARIA (level areas on the Moon or Mars) | |
| 31 | Cardinal rebuffed evening quarters (4) | NINE | (ev)ENIN(g) rev. | |
As HG says, some challenging clues here; I never did parse MESMER or HOORAH properly, though the answers were clear enough, and fortunately I had Caspar the Friendly Ghost in some recess of memory. Once the Great Chain of Being emerged it wasn’t hard to spot its links. Thanks to Hawk and HolyGhost.
It was indeed a tough work-out, and MESMER and HOORAH gave me trouble too. I’d been mentally using the word “chain” about the sequence of across answers, so it was a slight jolt to see that word emerging. Amazing grid construction, indeed. The usual hearty thanks to Hawk and HG.
A tough one indeed, perhaps more Type 2 than Type 1 fun on occasion but impressive to behold and a fun theme. Plus as an interesting bonus, I learnt the source of the word mesmerise!
I was OK with that clue though both HOORAH and HERY (a “noshery”, really?) eluded me so thank you for the clarification.
Thank you both.
I think the paucity of comments says it all! I decided to give up on this on at least 5 times but then solved another clue and persevered. I though the idea of moving the letters to change the answers was very neat. However the complication this produced was exacerbated by the very challenging clues. Not only did Hawk pick the most obscure defintions he could find (9, 16 and 37 are not in our 2 editions of Collins) but also plenty of (to me) unfamiliar words in the wordplay (bars = fids). Nonetheless, the clues were all very sound once the pennies had dropped. I could kick myself for not spotting WC = FIELDS sooner! I too failed to parse HOORAH.
I anticipated the quote once I had about half the letters and a quick look at Wiki confirmed the endgame.
Thanks to Hawk for giving my grey cells a hammering and to HG for his stirling report after picking the short straw.
Archer @1. As you will realise, you meant CASPER
Thanks HolyGhost (I think you’re at the top of this particular scale) and others – you’re very kind.
I haven’t written a blog for this one – I don’t think it’s the done thing for Inquisitor puzzles, is it? For those that care about setting methods, I found the letter-passing mechanism first. This was quite restrictive when the passed letters had to spell a message. I looked for a chain-related theme, and the metaphysical one popped up. It needed the highlighted example, which only restricted things further, and I ended up with some pretty crossword-unfriendly answers to clue. Still, I hadn’t seen it done anywhere else, so sent it in.
I know many folks do puzzles for recreation rather than mind-bending, and this was of the latter sort, but you’re past it now! Enjoy your 2026 Inquisitor series!
Dave W @4 has described very well the characteristics of both the design and the clueing of this puzzle that made it very time-consuming to solve, and I didn’t really enjoy the letter-passing device in the Across clues. I stopped when I realised I would not finish the puzzle in the time I had. By way of consolation, though, I did enjoy the originality and ingenuity evident in several clues (e.g. ‘caff’ = ‘noshery’? Yes, indeed!)
Thanks anyway to Hawk for the puzzle and to HG for the excellent blog.
Yes, tough with so many transformations, but I found the ingenuity very stimulating – having limped to the end of the endgame (didn’t spot ‘ash’, didn’t know ‘spar’) with several cells unfilled. Guessing ‘great chain of being’ quite early was a big help, reverse-engineering-wise.
Warm welcome to Hawk and thanks to HG.
Hawk @5: sorry for my very delayed response. You’re quite right – setter’s blogs are uncommon for Inquisitor puzzles (I think it’s only Phi who does one) but it’s always welcome when a setter drops in with a comment especially if further clarification or explanation is felt to be appropriate. Thanks once again for the puzzle – mind-bending and recreational are in general not mutually exclusive for me at least!