Armchair PuzzlesCalm, large-print word searches
The Overdue Book
The Overdue Book

Under the Covers

Print

Chapter 3 of 10

Mr. Pettigrew arrives Thursday on schedule, checkbook and courtesy, and is shown the dummy without being told it is one. It takes him ninety seconds. What he says next is the real cargo: the true first edition, he explains, has one oddity every collector knows. The endpapers, the marbled sheets pasted inside each cover, were lifted and re-laid after binding, the paste a different age than the boards. Sloppy repair, the trade assumed, on an otherwise immaculate copy. Miss Aldous thanks him with a face like a closed drawer. Ruth walks him out and comes back thinking what a re-laid endpaper is for. It is a pocket: flat, hidden, the width of a page, sealed inside the one object in town too valuable to handle. The question stops being who copied the book. It becomes what the book was keeping.

N
E
I
S
L
I
R
I
I
E
G
Y
O
R
E
I
N
M
R
T
O
S
D
R
A
O
B
M
G
S
D
E
L
B
R
A
M
A
B
A
L
T
D
E
T
E
K
C
O
P
Y
R
E
P
A
I
R
U
N
H
U
U
S
G
R
I
R
L
F
Y
A
O
E
L
W
B
N
A
E
E
R
C
O
L
L
E
C
T
O
R
I
K
O
O
B
K
C
E
H
C

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 Overdue Book, a mystery told in word searches. Each chapter leaves you one clue; the finale needs them all.

How a mystery chapter works

  1. 1
    Read the scene first.Every chapter opens with a scene from the case. The word list is drawn from it, and so is the clue.
  2. 2
    Find the words.Tap a word's first letter, then tap along to its last, or press and drag. Found words colour themselves in and cross off the list.
  3. 3
    One 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.
  4. 4
    The 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.

Prefer pen and paper?

Print The Overdue Book as one large-print booklet: every chapter and its puzzle, a clue ledger, and the ending sealed on the last page.

Print the case bookletPrinting tips →

All chapters of The Overdue Book

More to explore:All Mystery Cases word searchesPrintable Mystery Cases word searches

↑ Back to the puzzle