Inquisitor 1633: Impersonation by Skylark

21 comments on “Inquisitor 1633: Impersonation by Skylark”

1. Another good one. Loved the way all the thematic elements fitted together, for once the subject matter being something I knew a little about.

   Regarding 29ac, the only parsing that made sense to me was that the AT came from “in”

2. Thanks Duncan

   I parsed 29ac as Jon_S did, MORE (other) in AT (in).

   26dn is G (good) RIAL (king, say) around [d]A[d].

3. I think that Jon_S is right about 29ac: in(1) has “at” as one of its meanings.

   At 29d “rial” is an alternative spelling for “ryal” which can be “a royal person”, so “King, say”.

   Thanks to Skylark and to Duncan for the blog.

4. Oops. comment 3 was too long in the preparation!

5. This is the second puzzle by Skylark that I have attempted, the first one (1614) being themed on the Beatles and Abbey Road. I remember that one took nearly a full grid for the theme to reveal itself, and this puzzle followed a similar path.

   When FOUR became FOURTH and joined up with a word that had to be LETTERS I realised that we were being treated to a device similar to that used in Chalicea’s puzzle only two weeks previously. On reading the complete message I saw how HERCULE POIROT would fit seamlessly down the central column (very neat) and then found two titles that I knew round the perimeter. The remaining titles slotted in easily with the help of the letters given.

   At the time of solving I had no idea what ‘the jeopardy’ is or was or who Stephen Norton was, although I later found Stephen Norton (aka Mr X, the ‘suspect’) when I looked up Curtain.  Thanks to Duncan for explaining ‘jeopardy’.

   I found this puzzle to be very challenging, and I gave up on it at one point. But I felt I could rely on these clues and eventually managed to fill in the patchy right-hand side of the grid. Once again, I appreciated being given useful data (not of the give-away sort) on the number of special clues and the unchecked letters in the perimeter.

6. I think it’s a shame this one followed so hard on the heels of Chalicea using a similar trick. Though it’s a very good trick (and presumably a real challenge to the setter). Consequence was that I saw ‘fourth’ quite early, and immediately found the message.

   On the other hand, I was grateful for all the help I could get; found this one quite tough, especially the bottom left quadrant, empty for ages. I needed Chambers Word Wizard and, obviously, a list of Dame Agatha’s titles… I hope Skylark didn’t have to read too many Christies to come across a villain with the same number of letters as Piorot.

   Thanks to Skylark for a satisfying challenge, with a nice final twist, and to Duncan for clearing up (most of) my questions.

    

    

7. I read Curtain quite recently but didn’t remember the name of the villain, and it didn’t help that I didn’t get it from the anagram at 3 down for ages. That meant I spent as long on the final stage as I did completing the rest of the puzzle – and my head still hurts from the facepalm I gave myself when the penny finally did drop.

   Good puzzle, but JEOPARDY seems to me an odd choice of word and I found it more of a hindrance than a help.

8. Duncan

   You say quite rightly, I’m sure, what a challenge it must be to write clues with the imposition of a letter fixed in the nth position of every clue (as Chalicea and Skylark have done, now and two weeks previously).

   I am inevitably reminded of one of my early Inqusitors, from June 2018, in which Ifor placed each letter of his message exactly in the middle of every clue.  That too must have taken a great deal of skill to engineer.

   I meant to say @5 how much I appreciated the setter’s feat in writing quality clues with that sort of constraint.  While I’m here, I’ll thank the setter for a rewarding puzzle and Duncan for an excellent blog.

9. An enjoyable puzzle from Skylark – so thanks, and also to Duncan for the blog. If I have minor one criticism (of the puzzle, not the blog) it would be that there were rather too many clues that relied on, for example, finding a very short synonym and then removing a letter, such as in 24a, where “win briefly” leads to GET. But a neat replacement to conclude the puzzle. Regarding the title – SPOILER ALERT – I seem to remember that the plot involves Poirot disguising himself as Norton in order to ‘establish’ that Norton was still alive when he wasn’t.

   Regarding Duncan’s “I’ll be really impressed when a setter refers us to the ‘twenty-seventh’ or similar letter in a future.” – Nudd did almost exactly that in Inquisitor 1280! Another SPOILER ALERT – the theme was members of the 27 Club, musicians including Amy WINEHOUSE, Brian JONES, Jim MORRISON, Janis JOPLIN, Jimi HENDRIX that died aged 27.

10. This one was a struggle at first but became easier as things began to fall into place, leading to a very satisfying conclusion. I agree pretty much with the above comments.

    I read quite a few Poirot books many years age but had no chance of remembering the names and titles. I messed around with 3D for a long time and eventually came up with STEPHEN NORTON as the only likely solution to the anagram but the name did not ring any bells. Then, when I found the fourth letter message, all became clear and I was able to oust him with the sleuth. A very neat construction. Then to the perimeter: DEATH seemed a possibility down the right-hand side and I suddenly recalled DEATH ON THE NILE. I managed to guess the other three titles by juggling the remaining given unchecked letters. Smugly, I did not bother to check the villain’s name or the titles and was relieved to find from Duncan that I was right for once.

    Thanks to Skylark and Duncan.

    I enjoyed the ladies quartet – you must offer it again, John. I thought the second two were definitely harder than the first two so, perhaps they could have been interlaced.

11. Thanks to duncanshiell and Skylark

    I enjoyed Skylark’s debut in the Listener and this too (I missed her previous Inquisitor).

    I parsed 29 as others have but I’m not really keen on swapping prepositions – their defs are just so vague that you’re never quite sure you’ve nailed it.

    I differ from the blog on a couple of things:

    14a “Gate” is Scottish and northern dialect for “way”, “street” etc.

    25d “C” is an abbreviation for “canine” in dentistry

    It’s obviously just a typo, but “g” in 12a is from “group” rather than “good”, although I can’t find “G” as an abbreviation for “group” anywhere.

    I had hoped to find that someone had an explanation for the use of “jeopardy”. It seems a little arbitrary, but perhaps there were constraints which necessitated it.

12. I forgot to ask re 1a: no-one has mentioned it so I’m sure there is one, but can anyone give me an example where “up” can be replaced by “success”?

13. Dansar @11
    I thought ‘jeopardy’ was chosen simply because it has 8 letters and thereby takes the hidden message to the very last clue. ‘Villain’ (for example) would have fallen short by one letter.

14. Dansar @ 12

    Yes,sorry the G / good is a typo.  G is in Chambers as group when you look at entries for G5, G7, G8, G10.

    For 1  across, as a very average golfer I consider it a ‘success’ if I am ‘up’ at the end of a match-play game.

    At 14a across, the clue referred to York, which has four gates or ways into the city, so I thought that my explanation was OK.  I didn’t look further in Chanbers to find the specific reference at the second entry for gate.

    Canine (C) for tooth in the wordplay for 25 down was implicit in the blog – sorry, I didn’t spell it out

    I referred to jeopardy as a villain / menace / threat in my description of the puzzle.  I agree with Alan Bs suggestion of why jeopardy was used in the message.

    Thanks to everyone who pointed out the better parsings for AMORET and GARIAL.  Both are far better than my suggestions.

15. Alan B and Duncan,

    Thanks but “criminal”, and “evildoer” are also 8 letters so I’m not yet convinced.

    I did consider the “G5,7” etc justifications for “G” = “group”, but I think that in these cases “G” = “group of”

16. Re query from Dansar at #12, maybe “successes and failures” would be “ups and downs”

17. Thanks for the once again very entertaining blog, Duncan and feedback and comments from solvers.

    Duncan – Wasn’t it lucky that their names had the same number of letters? And that some of the letters were the same was a great relief in grid construction, which I really enjoyed.  The fourth letters in clues was a challenge I set myself, and it was a push – in some cases more than others.

    In AMORET, Jon S and others are quite right, AT came from IN.

    John Lowe’s right about rial too, though it took  bit of dictionary scouring to come up with that.

    Holy Ghost – point taken about the short words. I was perhaps a bit too keen to leap on them.

    Alan B – yes, the 8 letters was exactly why I chose jeopardy.

    Dansar – criminal and evildoer would have given away too much, because I didn’t want to spoil the book for anyone who hasn’t read it.
    1a up = success in Chambers 2016 – 3rd entry under up as a noun.

    Neil Hunter – I didn’t HAVE to read quite a few Christies, I was DESPERATE to read them all as a youngster.
    Some of the later ones were a bit dark for a child, but I really enjoyed the better puzzles, Death On The Nile being one of my favourites.
    But the devastating one for me, when I finally managed to track it down as a young teen, was Curtain.

    I also really enjoyed Cat Among The Pigeons. The other two titles had to be short.

    So this was a delight to construct, if not always to solve!

18. Thought the theme was very much up my street, I’m afraid to say I thought the clueing itself was a little weak in places

19. Though, not thought

20. Bingybing – fair point. This was submitted before I’d had any puzzles published.
    Feedback from editors is helping me to learn more about clueing. I still have lots to learn in this area, but hopefully am making some progress.

21. I rhought this was a great puzzle, not always easy, but enjoyable, despite some very obscure words. I agree with Dansar that swapping prepositions is a bit unsatisfactory – you get into a woolly area it seems to me where you never really feel happy that it’s right (e.g. “at” for “in” in “amoret”), but it’s a minor quibble, and I guess setters will continue to do this!

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