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The Overdue Book
The Overdue Book

The Memorial Register

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The final chapter

Monday morning, before the vote that no longer matters, Miss Aldous asks the board to gather at the long table, and lays out the whole of it the way a librarian lays out a reference query: the cabinet's clean lock, the dummy's loving binding, the endpapers' forty-year pocket, the letters the inquest gave back, the lamplight at two, the catalog card a drawer out of place, the auction's ticking clock, the ashes in a cold grate, and the bookplate with its hair-fine smoke. Then she opens the memorial register to a page with fresh ink and turns it to face them. Your word list is your nine clues. Find them in the grid, and when the last is crossed off, the letters left over, read in order, spell out what she did and what it cost. Some books are overdue for forty years. This one came back.

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

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.

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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.

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