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The Perfume Counter
The Perfume Counter

Forty-One Dollars

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Chapter 1 of 10

Artie Klein does not raise his voice, so when the bookkeeper appears at the office door holding a ledger like a wounded bird, the store notices. The perfume counter, he reports, is short. Forty-one dollars for the week. He has checked the register tapes against the drawer twice: they balance to the penny. He has checked the drawer against the ledger: forty-one dollars of air. By July the air has structure: forty-one dollars, no more, no less, always in the Thursday count. Frank Odell takes the folder with the pleasure of a man handed a good crossword. Thieves, he tells Artie, are greedy and irregular; this is modest and punctual, and in thirty years he has never arrested punctuality. He pins the tapes to his corkboard, seven Thursdays of innocent arithmetic, and writes one word under them: HOW.

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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 Perfume Counter, 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.

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Print The Perfume Counter 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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