The Prize Rose
- A case in 10 chapters
- Free to play
- Large print
- Read in order
How the case begins
The county garden show has run every June since anyone's grandmother, and its heart is the rose class, renamed eight years ago for its late founder, Franklin Pruett, whose own rose, a red the catalogs never matched, took the trophy so often they finally gave him a permanent one. This year his widow Lila has entered the famous rose for the first time since he died. And this year, one by one, the other entrants are withdrawing. No reasons given. Just pale faces at the entry table, and a line drawn through a name. Nell Baxter, first-time entrant and too stubborn to scare, is the one who finally shows the committee why: an envelope left in her trug basket, its message pasted from seed-catalog print, letters cut crooked and glued patient: WITHDRAW FROM THE ROSE CLASS OR THE TOWN LEARNS WHAT YOU WOULD RATHER IT DID NOT. Every withdrawn entrant, pressed gently, admits to one the same. Somebody at the show knows everybody's small shames, and is spending them like coins, and whatever they are protecting sits somewhere in the rose tent, breathing quietly among the blooms.
Each chapter is a short scene and a puzzle, and every puzzle leaves you one clue. Keep all nine. The finale needs them.
- 1The Withdrawals
- 2Nell's Basket
- 3The Torn Catalogs
- 4Flour and Water
- 5The Left Hand
- 6The Founder's Notebook
- 7The French Label
- 8Who Holds the Keys
- 9The Nurseryman's Eye
- 10The Rose Tentbring your clues
The people of the case
- Constance Ferris. The show's chairwoman, thirty years on the committee. Franklin Pruett's oldest friend, and the keeper of everything the show remembers.
- Lila Pruett. The founder's widow. Entering the famous rose for the first time since Franklin died, to a chorus of raised eyebrows.
- Edmund Tate. The head judge. Rigid about the rules, proud of it, and impossible to imagine whispering anything.
- Nell Baxter. A first-time entrant with a strong seedling and a stronger spine. The only recipient who refused to fold.
- Gideon Plum. The nurseryman. Sold half the county its roses, and can identify the other half's from across a tent.
Prefer pen and paper?
The whole case as one large-print booklet: every chapter and its puzzle, a clue ledger to fill in, and the ending sealed on the last page.