Seventy-eight years after his death, the Observer's first crossword setter Torquemada has posthumously baffled puzzle enthusiasts with a murder mystery that has remained unsolved for decades. Now, a new edition of 'Cain's Jawbone' offers a £1,000 prize to the first person who can correctly order its 100 jumbled pages and identify both the killers and the victims.
Patrick Wildgust of Shandy Hall, home to the Laurence Sterne Trust, explained that the puzzle was originally published in 1934 as part of 'The Torquemada Puzzle Book'. The novel's pages were deliberately printed in a haphazard order, challenging readers to reconstruct the narrative. Despite numerous attempts over the years, the solution was lost until recently.
Wildgust received the book from Geoffrey Day, a Sterne scholar who had owned it for years without solving it. Intrigued, Wildgust began showing it to friends, visitors, and students, becoming increasingly fascinated by its complexity. Eventually, a contact was made that led to a new edition being published by Unbound, a crowdfunding publisher.
Edward Powys Mathers, the man behind Torquemada, was a literary figure known for his translations of Asian love poems and his love of detective fiction. He created the Torquemada persona for the Observer in 1926 and went on to produce over 670 puzzles under that name. The new edition of 'Cain's Jawbone' comes unbound in a box, with subscribers receiving the 100 pages to rearrange themselves.
The prize of £1,000 awaits the first correct solution, which must identify the victims and murderers in the correct narrative order. Wildgust expressed satisfaction with the outcome, though he declined to reveal details of the solution, saying only that it was 'completely satisfying'.
