Inquisitor

A relatively straightforward offering by Samuel, whose last puzzle in this series was on Christmas Eve 2011. Five characters filled five of the eight unclued entries. The sixth character was to have a … Read more >>

This puzzle had quite a long preamble, as follows: ‘Initially the filled grid will contain seven consecutive empty cells.  One letter must be removed from the answers to 20 clues and the residue … Read more >>

Augeas’s second Inquisitor puzzle, so an appropriate title? And forgive me if I’m brief – on a week’s break for Easter, just outside Hay-on-Wye.   Four items have something in common, three of … Read more >>

There’s a misprint in the definition in all clues. In clue order, they spell out a two part instruction, which will help us to identify a “running joke.” Once the grid’s complete, we have to transform … Read more >>

Reasonable start this week, but a tricky finish. We were asked to identify a “joiner” from “components” deduced from the unclued entries, and from misprinted letters in 15 clues. There were also blank … Read more >>

The preamble for this puzzle appeared mind-bogglingly complex on first read through.  It went as follows: What started off as x (between a, b and cde) may have been compromised by a direction … Read more >>

Answers to 16 clues have one letter removed (wherever it occurs) before entry; wordplay refers to the entry. The three unclued entries are of a kind with what these missing letters suggest. Ten … Read more >>

The preamble tells us that there are misprints in the definitions in some clues but doesn’t tell us how many. The corrected letters give a cryptic link to a location. Once the grid’s … Read more >>

This gave us a good workout and a dialogue between Ba and me (Hi) eventually sorted everything out with one minor exception in 20A. We had three parts to consider according to the rubric. 1) … Read more >>

The preamble stated that ‘Solvers must fill the central cell and highlight it together with 12 others, so identifying a character whose first action provides the theme.  Each perimeter entry is a pair … Read more >>

Four clues have a misprint, and the rest have a redundant word. A jumble of the corrections to the misprints form a word that is thematically associated with eight unclued entries, and the … Read more >>

Phew what a workout! I just hope Schadenfreude derived a lot of “freude” from everyone’s’ “schade!” However, I got there in the end. Each answer had to be entered with one letter misprinted, though (as … Read more >>

We had to find a writer (1,4) and a work by him, with the first line in the top and bottom spaces and a mournful cry elsewhere in the diagram. The clues were … Read more >>

The preamble stated "the grid exhibits 90 degrees symmetry.  Clues are in conventional order.  One letter must be omitted from each answer before entry in the grid; definitions and letter-counts refer to the … Read more >>

Down answers are ‘affected’ before entry; Across clues are ‘affected’ before solving.  Either I got lucky, or this was easy (or both). Started with the down clues, as they are normal – solved … Read more >>