Inquisitor

Shark is a new setter to me, so I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started the puzzle. We were told that the wordplay in each clue leads to the answer with … Read more >>

Back in spring, Augeas’s first puzzle for the Listener was published, and now, before summer (?) is over, Augeas appears for the first time with an Inquisitor puzzle.  Some highlighting is to be … Read more >>

The preamble, rather vaguely, tells us that we need to highlight 23 squares and blank out 1 row. These items depict a musical reference and express the sentiment leading directly to the return … Read more >>

Has Charybdis been on holiday to Cornwall recently? If so he set a corking crossword while there! The rubric was pretty complex and, having read through it and not understood much, I cracked … Read more >>

The preamble seemed quite complex on the first read through.  It stated “possible associations (not themselves in the grid) of eight unclued entries must be correctly paired.  Each pair is then completed by … Read more >>

I have to say, this was a masterful offering from Schadenfreude, an old friend of the Inquisitor, and invariably ‘firm but fair’ – this was no exception.   The puzzle concerns two people … Read more >>

There are nine unclued entries. Eight of them represent eleven from a set and the ninth represents the last line of a quote formed by superfluous words in across clues. In the same … Read more >>

After reading how disappointed Chalicea was that HolyGhost found her puzzle easy, I’m a bit hesitant about saying that this was one of my quicker Inquisitor solves. The clues seemed very straightforward, and … Read more >>

Plumrot is a new compiler to me so I wasn’t sure what to expect in this puzzle.  The grid was a fairly compact 11 * 11 size, presumably to fit with key elements … Read more >>

Chalicea – a setter new to the Inquisitor {but see comment 7}, and, appropriately for me, I flew to Zürich the day after the puzzle’s publication and I’m blogging from the Bernese alps. … Read more >>

The blog now arriving on platform 152 is the late running 1183 from kenmac. What a tough offering from Samuel!  This puzzle came out on the day of the Sloggers and Betters do … Read more >>

It was relatively easy to identify the Guru of the title, less so to complete this multi-threaded puzzle. First there were two completely barred off squares, one preceded the IKE of ikebana, the … Read more >>

The preamble stated that unchecked letters of the 10 unclued grid entries, including mutual crossing letters, spell CELIBATE BEDTIME WEEK. The unclued entries could be described by 13 contiguous cells (3,6,4) which extend … Read more >>

Extra letters in the wordplay of across clues indicate how answers to down clues are to be entered. Seven letters have to be highlighted in the completed grid.   An 11×11 grid, and … Read more >>

Unusually, I think, the title virtually gives away the theme.   Certainly I wasn’t at all surprised when the theme revealed itself. Twelve of the clues lead to an extra letter which spell … Read more >>