July 2021 - Poirot

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Location: Appointment with Death

  1. Wherever there is a clue of 1 outside the grid, the closest building must be of height 5, because it blocks all other buildings from being seen.
  2. Once all the heights have been determined, find the one building that is surrounded by taller buildings.
  3. LICHEN'S GROTTO

The Mysterious Affair at Styles

  1. The items of clothing on the left need to be matched up with the alibis on the right in some way.
  2. Words may have multiple meanings.
  3. For example, “skirt” is also a verb that means “avoid”.
  4. Top 5: skirt = avoid, sock = smack, watch = observe, tie = tether, coat = glaze.
  5. Bottom 4: boot = evict, dress = bandage, scarf = gobble, purse = pucker.
  6. Draw lines to connect the matching pairs, and the remaining letters spell out the answer.
  7. CRIME OF FASHION

The A.B.C. Murders

  1. How do the words fit? The eight words share an interesting property...
  2. The shaded letters in each word are consecutive letters of the alphabet.
  3. The letters below the grid are the letters that go in each column, in some order. They can help you find an answer or two that you might be stuck on.
  4. POETIC DEVICE, SYNOPSIS, MONOPOLY, QR SCANNER, RUBBER STAMP, COSTUME, XENOPHOBIA, POP QUIZZES
  5. The middle shaded column spells out the answer.
  6. DOORSTOP

Five Little Pigs

  1. The fifteen words clued in the table can be found in the word search.
  2. Mr. Hamm has three different types of porcine creatures. In the word search, the symbol represents any one of the three types.
  3. The three types of porcine creatures are “pig”, “hog”, and “boar”. Each column of the table clues words that contain “pig”, “hog”, or “boar”, respectively.
  4. PIGS: ePIGlottis, PIGeonhole, PIGment, PIGpen, sPIGot
  5. HOGS: hedgeHOG, HOGwash, maHOGany, patHOGen, sHOGun
  6. BOARS: BOARdwalk, cardBOARd, headBOARd, pegBOARd, starBOARd
  7. After finding all the words in the word search, the remaining letters spell out a phrase that will lead you to the answer.
  8. Remaining letters: WART(HOG) FROM THE LION KING
  9. PUMBAA

Murder on the Orient Express

  1. The train track is one single continuous line, so all pieces must eventually connect to the beginning and the end. Avoid leaving track ends stranded in places from which they cannot get out. It is helpful to mark squares that do or do not contain track pieces, even if you do not yet know which way the track turns.
  2. Once the train track’s path is found, follow the path and do the calculations one step at a time ignoring the traditional order of operations in math.
  3. The result SHOULD be a big number! Don't let a big number stop you from continuing!
  4. The result of the calculation is 321738. Try looking at this number differently.
  5. If you type the number into a calculator and read it upside-down, it spells out the answer.
  6. BELIZE

Meta: The Big Four

  1. This puzzle reuses the map from the location puzzle. Now that you have the answers to the four puzzles, do some of the map locations look familiar?
  2. There are four map locations that are anagrams of the four puzzle answers, but with an extra letter each.
  3. CRIME OF FASHION + N = finnish cafe room, DOORSTOP + E = rodeo post, PUMBAA + W = wama pub, BELIZE + S = lee's biz.
  4. The extra letter indicates the direction of the final location.
  5. The location is the THIRD BUTTE DELI
  6. Anagram the location to find Hastings final exclamation.
  7. THE BUTLER DID IT

Bonus: Cards on the Table

  1. Clues 1, 2, and 6 are hidden word clues. Clues 4 and 5 are anagram clues. Clue 3 is a double definition.
  2. The definition portion of each of the clues are as follows: (1) one and the other; (2) the last letter; (3) “warm up” and “race”; (4) hits lightly; (5) stadium; and (6) fake.
  3. The 6 answers are: 1. BOTH, 2. OMEGA, 3. HEAT, 4. RAPS, 5. ARENA, 6. SHAM
  4. Read the letters on the spade symbols left-to-right to find out the name of The Butler.
  5. RHETT