Chapter 5 of 10
Whatever else the week is, it is harvest, a machine with no off switch. Wagons to the packing shed, ladders in the Baldwins, pickers to feed at noon, crates to nail after supper. The family works as families do when talking is dangerous: hard, side by side, about apples only. Ray hunts the deed in the days' margins, and the harvest defeats him. No hour finds everyone accounted for, because no one stands still: Grandmother in and out with coffee for pickers, Ivy between tallies and shed, Pearl everywhere, himself up ladders. Whoever moved that paper chose this week like a fish chooses water, he tells Ivy at midnight. Ivy, half asleep, asks the question that matters: why this week at all, unless the bank letter was the reason, and the letter reached this house before the deed left it?
Use the arrow keys to move between letters. Press Enter or Space on the first letter of a word, then again on the last letter. Press Escape to cancel.
armchairpuzzles.com · free large-print word searches
About this case
A chapter of The Cider Press, a mystery told in word searches. Each chapter leaves you one clue; the finale needs them all.
Prefer pen and paper?
Print The Cider Press as one large-print booklet: every chapter and its puzzle, a clue ledger, and the ending sealed on the last page.
How a mystery chapter works
- 1Read the scene first.Every chapter opens with a scene from the case. The word list is drawn from it, and so is the clue.
- 2Find the words.Tap a word's first letter, then tap along to its last, or press and drag. Found words color themselves in and cross off the list.
- 3One listed word is not in the grid.Find the other nine and the word left over is the chapter's clue. Note it down, or let the case page keep it for you.
- 4The finale needs every clue.The last puzzle's word list is the clues you collected, and once you find them all, the leftover letters spell out who did it, and why.