discussion Anybody like puzzles?

[Peter Gillson]

Hi
one for anybody who likes puzzels.

Yesterday was my birthday and my children bought me a book called "Cain's Jawbone", It is a murder mystery book and the object is to read the 100 pages it and work out who has been murdered by whom.

Fairly straightforward? Not with my children.

The complication is that the pages are not printed in the correct order! To make it harder the vast majority or pages end with the end of a sentence.

it was first printed in the 1930's and only 3 people have solved it, I am not expecting to be number 4!

i am planning how to go about this. My initial idea is to start by making a list pf all the people in it, and any family relationships - then separating all 100 pages, fortunat;ey they are printed only on one side.

Does anybody else fancy attempting it?

Peter

 

[stillp]

A few years ago I was researching the history of a listed building I know, and found that the current owner (a developer) had had to have an archaeological survey carried out before renovating it. The survey report was publicly accessible, but the document was in the local authority office in hard copy. The paper copy was 186 pages, scanned from an original, but the page numbers only go up to 102. Whoever scanned it had scanned parts of each page, some of them twice, in different orientations, and in no particular order, sometimes scanning the top half of two random pages together. I can only assume that the developer didn't want anyone to be able to read the report.
I had to OCR the who;e thing and try to make sense of the resulting text - took me many hours!
Pete

 

[wotan]

Peter

Sounds like fun I just ordered one.

John

 

[Peter Gillson]

Peter - looks like you have the experience to do this one.

John - I'm not sure if 'fun' is the right word, although I expect my children will get a lot of enjoyment out of the struggles I will no doubt have. good luck with ot when it arrives.

if you solve the 6 murders and put the 100 pages in the right order before the end pf the year, there is a £250 prize From the publishers.

Peter

 

[Guest]

Belated Happy Birthday Peter .

 

[davecov]

I asked my partner to buy me this book for Christmas last year. I haven't even started it yet but I hope to be number 4!

Dave

 

[Peter Gillson]

john - cheers mate.

Dave - the trouble I see with it is that it will be best to be able to set aside decent chunks of time, I doubt if the odd 5 -10 minutes here and there will not do, I think I will need a couple of hours at a time to get my head around it.

Good luck when you do start.

Peter

 

[Dave Ward]

I have heard of this book from a friend ( who does the Times crossword over his breakfast ) He told me he had photocopied each page & laminated it - then they were put into a ring binder, so he could shuffle the pages, as he worked out the order! I asked him, why laminated? - The answer was he could write bullet points on each page adding & deleting as necessary. This guy was a COBOL programmer before he retired, so he must have that particular type of mind - Me? Where's Wally is more my line!
Dave

 

[Peter Gillson]

Dave = laminating each page - that it taking is seriously. The book is printed with just a little under a third blank for notes, which I am sure will be well used.

Peter

 

[wotan]

So Peter did you make a start yet? I have never used google so much and been so thoroughly confused!

John

 

[davecov]

I have heard of this book from a friend ( who does the Times crossword over his breakfast ) He told me he had photocopied each page & laminated it - then they were put into a ring binder, so he could shuffle the pages, as he worked out the order! I asked him, why laminated? - The answer was he could write bullet points on each page adding & deleting as necessary. This guy was a COBOL programmer before he retired, so he must have that particular type of mind - Me? Where's Wally is more my line!
Dave

I'm an ex-COBOL programmer but I never would have thought of laminating the pages. Perhaps I am bit of a Wally myself!

Dave

 

[Dave Ward]

I'm an ex-COBOL programmer but I never would have thought of laminating the pages. Perhaps I am bit of a Wally myself!

Dave

He is still a bit of a weirdo - I've never seen him wear anything else than a Tweed sports coat, collar and plaid tie, with grey trousers, no matter the time of year, or where I see him! I've known him for 20+ years, but in my recollection he still looks the same as when I first met him!
Dave

 

[scottie3158]

Given that only 3 people have solved it since the 1930's the prize money seems very cheap.

 

[Peter Gillson]

Hi .Guys

John - I have not actually started yet, just planning how to approach it. I think this is going to be the approach:

1 - speed read it to identify all of the people, any family connections and any special characteristics; fat, thin, bald etc.
2 - make a little card for each person,
3 - focus on page endings. Most of the pages end with a full stop - only one page ends mid sentance. Some end midway through quoting a poem so I will try to identify the poems so I can link those pages together.
4 - have a stiff drink
5 - i haven't thought past step 3 so i'll have another drink!

Dave & Dave - laminating, interesting idea, but probably cheaper to buy another copy of the book.

Paul - the prize is quite small. i think guess the reason is that it is a small publisher. an outfit called Unbound, which claims to be the world's first crowd-funding publisher. The book includes a long list of names of people who contributed.

peter

 

[Ian M]

laminating, interesting idea, but probably cheaper to buy another copy of the book.

Or just scan or take a photo of each page and save them .pdf file...

 

[Tim Marlow]

Or just scan or take a photo of each page and save them .pdf file...

Exactly what I was going to say. You can then highlight, link, and put in post it reminders using the computer….and re-order it to your hearts content…..

 

[wotan]

Identifying the characters is not as simple as it might seem since there are lots of references to characters who are not in the story. There does seem to be several narrators however with some hints in the text as to who they might be.

John

 

[Peter Gillson]

Ian & Tim - interesting idea, scanning the pages, it would result in having a clean set of pages which could be reprinted if needed, but I am not keen on using them on a computer. my gut feeling is that it will be easier to lay out the pages on our dining room table so that they can be easily seen and re-ordered. If I put in all of the extensions our table may, just be big enough.

John - Oh dear, that is not good news. I think I will still start with getting a list of the individuals. It may not be perfect but at least it will be a starting place.

now I just need a rainy day to get me out lf the garden ...

Peter

 

[wotan]

Peter

If you look around online you can find a PDF version of the book that is free to download. And just to add to the confusion there are at least 40 odd references to Henry and very few of them seem to be the same person.

John