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The Second Encore
The Second Encore

Shelf Nineteen

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Chapter 4 of 10

The pawnshop on Ludlow keeps its music on high shelves behind the counter: a cracked clarinet, two trombones gone green, paper goods under a ledger of dust. The owner remembers it without checking. Shelf nineteen, eight years of receipts: pawned in 1953, renewed each season like rent on a grave, the loan never closed out. Then, this spring, a young man at the counter, not browsing: asking by shelf and tag number, the way you ask when somebody has told you where a thing sleeps. He sold it against the lapsed loan and forgot it until the papers began printing the word discovery. From a cigar box he reads the old pawn tag: the man who brought the book in, in 1953, hungry. It is not a name anyone discovers. It is a name you would have to already know.

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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 Second Encore, 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 Second Encore 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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