INQUISITOR 1955 A Process of Elimination
One word (3+ letters) in each clue must have a letter removed, or be eliminated entirely, to enable solving. In clue order, the 19 letters removed give a forename and a question; the 25 words lead to an individual with the name, a famous woman and an instruction. Solvers must answer the question appropriately by listing the 10 letters of the alphabet found in the forename and/or the woman’s name, and applying the instruction to each letter in turn.
OK, here we go. As usual the preamble makes little sense so I dive in to the clues. Amazingly, I read the first four words of 1a, “It secures French window …” and I knew straight away that the answer was ESPAGNOLETTE. I wouldn’t have known that until a few years back when I needed to have the espagnolette replaced on my front door when it suddenly wouldn’t close. I called a doors and window company and as I was trying to explain that the sticky-outy thingy that secures the door just isn’t moving, the lady I was speaking to said, “Oh, you mean the espagnolette?”
Anyway, enough rambling, let’s get down to the crossword itself. We’re used to extra words in these puzzles and we’re used to extra letters but this was a device I don’t think I’d come across before. Not only that but there were a lot of unusual words as well as a lot of tricky/obscure definitions.
A good few days after starting, I had a completed grid though there were plenty of gaps in both the words and the letters. So, I decided to start building the table of clues, answers, etc. and hope that things started to fall into place.
Seeing the words PETER and CRIME AUTHOR set me off in completely the wrong direction but eventually I saw CRIME AUTHOR … WENT MISSING and I thought of Agatha Christie who famously went missing for 11 days in 1926. But what on Earth has Peter to do with it?
Further revelations, of course, gave me BESIDE THE HARBOUR and I can’t remember exactly how I got there but I found this. It is a statue of Agatha Christie with her dog Peter.
Eventually I had all extra letters and words to my satisfaction and they are: PETER, WHAT IS ON HER LAP? And HIS OWNER, THE CRIME AUTHOR, WHO ONCE WENT MISSING, NOW SITS WITH HIM BESIDE THE HARBOUR. ERASE ENTRY FOR EACH CLUE THAT STARTS WITH LETTER.
The letter alluded to comes from the preamble, which implies that we need to take the letters of PETER and AGATHA CHRISTIE and eliminate duplicates, giving us ACEGHIPRST.
Now here’s where I managed to mess myself up as I had extracted the word ONE, instead of EACH from 18d. Erase entry for ONE clue that starts with letter, of course, made no sense at all.
Still, I got there in the end. Erasing all the answers for clues starting A, C, E, G, H, I, P, R, S or T leaves AND THEN THERE WERE NONE in the grid. Another bit of research shows a close-up of the book in Ms Christie’s lap, which you can see here. And, of course, we have our PROCESS OF ELIMINATION.
What an amazing puzzle. Many thanks to Sauce.
| ACROSS | Entry | Letter | Word | Wordplay |
| 1 It secures French window, having rectified gap – one’s pleased at outcome, finally (12) | ESPAGNOLETTE | P |
GAP ONE”S+LET (leased)+[outcom]E (finally) anag: rectified | |
| 9 Border chief not using his intelligence (4) | RAND | HIS |
[g]RAND (chief) minus G ([general] I[ntelligence] | |
| 10 Roman gentry ride guarded by escort, cycling (7) | EQUITES | E |
SEE (escort; rev: cycling) around QUIT (rid) | |
| 12 These contain some seeds: stick ten in soil, months early (7) | LOMENTA | T |
LOAM (soil; Months moved forward) around TEN (anag: sick) | |
| 15 Ghastly tome I don’t use (4) | OMIT | E |
TOM I (anag: ghastly) | |
| 16 Owner put back last of three articles depicting goddess (6) | ATHENA | OWNER |
A, THE, AN (articles) with last one reversed: put back | |
| 17 Cut the endless hollow criticisms (6) | SNIPES | THE |
SNIP (cut)+E[ndles]S (hollow) | |
| 19 Sudden attack with bludgeon, gripping opening of crime novel (4) | SNAP | CRIME |
SAP (bludgeon) around N[ovel] (opening) | |
| 21 Hydrocarbon mix any oil manufacturer can use, ultimately (6) | XYLENE | R |
[mi]X [an]Y [oi]L [manufactur]E [ca]N [us]E ultimately | |
| 23 Ape‘s whoop reverberated (5) | ORANG | W |
O (hoop (shaped))+RANG (reverberated) | |
| 24 Old poetry’s author easily engrossed by these themes (4) | ETHE | AUTHOR |
thesE THEmes hidden (engrossed by) | |
| 25 Guebres who study these texts essentially puzzled by conclusion (4) | ZEND | WHO |
[puz]Z[led] (essentially)+END (conclusion) | |
| 27 Hold gathering inspiring slimmers, initially very overweight (5) | OBESE | H |
Old+BEE (gathering) around S[limmers] (initially) | |
| 28 Parisian oaf and unkempt son in spectators’ gallery (6) | DEDANS | A |
DE (of: French)+AND (anag: unkempt)+Son | |
| 29 Jug for water and antique pot returned, left once by Charlie (4) | EWER | ONCE |
[c]REWE (pot; rev: returned) | |
| 31 Contemptuous type went round New York’s West Side (6) | SNORTY | WENT |
SORT (type) round New+Y[ork] (west side) | |
| 33 Transmute uncertainty into rage about replacing source for missing faith (6) | AURIFY | MISSING |
[f]URY (rage) around IF (uncertainty) with About replacing F[aith] | |
| 35 Vessel for heating liquids stowed in cabinet now, naturally (4) | ETNA | NOW |
cabinET NAturally hidden (stowed in) | |
| 36 Snub-nosed dog sits probing tropical plant for arachnids (7) | SOLPUGA | SITS |
SOLA (tropical plant) around PUG (snub-node dog) | |
| 38 Number Ten blocking artificial stimulant and soporific (7) | HYPNONE | T |
HYPE (artificial stimulant) around NO (number) N (en) | |
| 39 House located in Asturias, with a cañón to the west (4) | CASA | WITH |
AsturiAS A Canon (hidden: located; rev: to the west) | |
| 40 Imposing punishment after difficulty with editor, they cleared him of parking offences, perhaps (12) | FIXED-PENALTY | HIM |
FIX (difficulty)+EDitor+PENAL (imposing punishment)+T[he]Y (cleared) | |
| DOWN | ||||
| 1 Resembling worker from Georgia engaged by said editor (8) | ERGATOID | I |
EDITOR (anag: sad) around GA (Georgia; US state) | |
| 2 Mariner hung around beside rear of hostel (4) | SALT | BESIDE |
SAT (hung) around [hoste]L rear) | |
| 3 Named the displaced workers in publicity (5) | ADMEN | THE |
NAMED (anag: displaced) | |
| 4 Navigation systems move on (3) | GEE | S |
(double def) | |
| 5 Durban’s harbour men securing traffickers’ prime ways of escape (4) | OUTS | HARBOUR |
OUS (men in South Africa) around Traffickers (prime) | |
| 6 Manage at last to erase documents outing female star of Amélie? (6) | ETOILE | ERASE |
[manag]E (at last)+TO+[f]ILE (documents; without Female) | |
| 7 Moderator‘s closure of chatroom thwarting revolutionary poet before instigation of riot (8) | TEMPERER | O |
PET (rev: revolutionary) around [chatroo]M+ERE (before)+R[iot] | |
| 8 Accepted entry in set about food (4) | EATS | ENTRY |
SET (anag: about) around Accepted | |
| 11 Branches of study, for centuries neglected, base of Duccio’s school (7) | SIENESE | FOR |
S[c]IEN[c]ES (minus CC)+E (base) | |
| 13 Scruff‘s close to presentable after rinsing face (4) | NAPE | N |
PAN (face; rev: rising)+[presentabl]E (close) | |
| 14 Frenchwoman’s chore in no way treated carelessly (6) | ANYHOW | H |
[frenc]H[woman] (core) inside NO WAY (anag: treated) | |
| 18 Each new trench excavated revealing former vegetation (7) | GREENTH | EACH |
GREEN (new)+T[renc]H (excavated) | |
| 19 Type of agate displayed by Italian islander over robes, I hear (8) | SARDONYX | E |
SARDinian (Italian islander)+Over+NYX (sounds like nicks) | |
| 20 John supporting race’s representatives (6) | AGENTS | R |
Ace+GENTS (john as in toilet) | |
| 22 Editor, alas, admitting clue really is common (8) | EVERYDAY | CLUE |
EDitor around VERY (really)+AY (alas) | |
| 25 Riding blanket from Princess’s daughter least worn by Prince (6) | ZARAPE | L |
ZARA (Princess Anne’s daughter)+Prince+East | |
| 26 Portion that college lost in transfer (4) | DEAL | THAT |
DE[c]AL (transfer; minus College) | |
| 30 Oddball starts mounting a rocket, say (5) | ERUCA | STARTS |
CURE (oddball[ rev: mounting)+A | |
| 31 Eccentric ahead of schedule climbing sand dune (4) | SEIF | A |
FIE (eccentric)+S[chedule] (head of) rev: climbing | |
| 32 Dropping poles, overturned with silly sobbing sound (4) | YOOP | WITH |
[s]POO[n]Y (silly; rev: overturned; minus S&N (poles)) | |
| 34 Fear spots appearing regularly in quick succession (4) | FAST | P |
F[e]A[r] S[o]T[s] (regularly) | |
| 37 Write frank letter, withholding nothing (3) | PEN | LETTER |
[o]PEN (frank; minus O (nothing) | |
Yes great puzzle.
I got there, and easily saw the item, but had lots of extra letters as didn’t follow the instructions properly. I rubbed everything out and then wrote in the answers from clues not beginning with the ten letters. Which should work? It didn’t quite.
The fact there are ten letters to be eliminated is relevant of course, to the former title of the book. (Different times, as they say.)
An excellent thematic puzzle with a surprising ending. To start with, I appreciated being told the total number of clues of each type. As it turned out, I got all 19 extra letters when I still had four (Down) clues left whose surplus words I had yet to work out. The effect of the final instruction to erase several entries was amazing. I knew nothing of Agatha Christie’s disappearance in 1926 (or indeed about her life) until I tackled this puzzle. It must have been challenging for the setter to start each clue with, or without, one of the 10 thematic letters (those in GRAPHICSET).
Having failed to fully resolve the theme of several puzzles this year so far, I was glad to have had success with the endgame of this one. There was an abundance of originality and ingenuity in the clues, which I particularly liked. The idea of (nearly) emptying the grid reminded me of an Inquisitor puzzle a long time ago (no. 1586 by Eclogue, March 2019) about Pandora’s Box.
Many thanks to Sauce, and to kenmac for his interesting and clear blog.
A fabulous puzzle with the most wonderfully apt of titles! The PDM, when it came, was a delight, I very much enjoyed the slow reveal from erasing the various answers.
I did fail to solve 33a though, so thanks kenmac for explaining that one (though I can’t work out where you erroneously got ONE from!)
Thanks to Sauce for the excellent puzzle and to kenmac for the blog.
I meant, I correctly identified EACH but write down ONE. I blame my pencil
I loved this; properly Agatha Christie-like in the way the instructions and then ultimate solution emerged from what seemed like random unconnected words. As Cillagoose says, the progressive elimination of ten characters, leaving none, following the theme of a nursery rhyme, is the plot of the book, whatever its title happens to be in a particular decade (I think it’s been through three since original publication in 1939), so it’s a hugely clever puzzle and a worthy tribute to a very clever mystery story. Congratulations to Sauce, and commiserations to Ken for the initial error; after messing up last week through inattentive carelessness it’s reassuring that bloggers can do this sort of thing too!
A delight, with a splendid payoff! All thanks to Sauce and kenmac.
As in the blog, CRIME AUTHOR … WENT MISSING suggested Agatha Christie at once, though for a while I knew only that the forename ended in ER and tried hard to make it ROGER (as in ACKROYD). Otherwise all went well, if not exactly easily. Once the grid was full I could see the book title, already found in an online photo of the statue, and it was a pleasure to confirm that the required P of E left just those words.
Absolutely outstanding puzzle. Applause for Sauce and big thanks to kenmac too of course.
It’s always a lot more difficult when there’s two different forms of clue manipulation in play before answering. But I got there in the end; and I loved the endgame (personally too lazy to reach for the eraser, but once I saw “And” it wasn’t hard to see what else would remain). I’d already pegged this is one of the best of the year, clearly a widely shared opinion. Thanks to Sauce and kenmac a couple of questions.
Just popping in to add to the praise for this excellent puzzle. It was very satisfying to get to the finish with a lovely endgame. I didn’t spot the connection between elimination of 10 letters and the plot of the book until coming here, so that made for an extra little twist to appreciate.
Many thanks to Sauce (looking forward to your next IQ) and to Kenmac for the blog.