The Researcher's First Murder: A New Cain's Jawbone Puzzle...
...by John Finnemore!
One of the coolest books out there is Cain’s Jawbone, a murder mystery that you have to solve in order to decipher the true story within the book.
There are two distinct editions of this book: one boxed edition with thick paper cards, and a bound edition you need to rip the pages off of.
The reason why this violent action is needed in the bound edition is due to the peculiar nature of this book: it is a murder mystery, but it’s all jumbled up. So you don’t actually receive the book with the correct timeline of events.
The funny thing is that, according to the information I found - and DO NOT correct me if I am wrong, because this makes for a funnier theory - the bound edition is actually the first edition of the book. That leads me to believe that too many people were upset about ripping off the pages of a book, so when the second edition was made, they went with loose cards.
The original Cain’s Jawbone was published in 1934, authored by Edward Powys Mathers, who chose the pseudonym Torquemada to go with there.
I have no witty comments about this. Except maybe, that John Finnemore writes Listener Crosswords for the New York Times under the name Emu, so maybe this peculiar name thing is something you have to have to go on creating these mysteries (you need a paid subscription to play the Listener Crosswords, and I spent my last money releasing Finnemore’s mystery murder from the claws of customs last week, so you’ll have to check them for yourself). Funnily enough, Mathers was ALSO a crossword writer, for The Observer.
A few years ago there was a prize linked to Cain’s Jawbone; those who managed to figure out the order in which the pages should be, would send in their findings, and if they were right - because to make things even more difficult there is more than one solution to this book, but only one solution is right - they’d receive a money prize.
There are three people known to have solved the mystery; the most recent one, in 2020, was writer
, who you may know from shows on British TV or, more famously, for his BBC Radio 4 series, Cabin Pressure and John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme.He got the money in the bag (the money prize was terminated after that because that’s what you get with late stage capitalism), and he eventually got invited to create his own Cain’s Jawbone murder mystery.
I have the original mystery on my shelf since 2019 but, unlike Finnemore, I read the first page and quickly realised that if I needed to solve it, I would have to dedicate my life to it entirely for a while.
I mean, to be honest, Finnemore also thought that, but he invoked a pandemic in order to be able to solve it, while I gave up entirely, so he had a bit of a leg up on me. I I’m not saying the pandemic is his fault but if there is another pandemic and you see me rushing to solve this new mystery, it may as well be.
“The first time I opened the box, I swiftly concluded that it was way out of my league, and the only way I’d even have a shot at it was if I were for some bizarre reason trapped in my own home for months on end, with nowhere to go and no one to see. Unfortunately, the universe heard me,” Finnemore said.” (The Guardian)
At the time that I decided to face my fear and potentially tackle the book, I had quite a lot of other books to read. I had just recently started working at a bookshop, and the tempting discount took its toll on my wallet and shelf space (and free time).
Eventually I also added games to that list, and allotting time to solving the mystery became trickier - and let’s face it, a Capricorn isn’t going to solve a money prize mystery when there’s no money involved, our time is valuable. So I put it aside for “one day”.
I wish this Substack was me telling you I finally decided to give it a proper try, but alas.
My unattempt at solving the first book didn’t stop me from immediately freak out when I got news of a new Cain’s Jawbone mystery, now at the hands of Finnemore. If we’ve learned something from the paragraph above is that I am great at collecting things! So I backed it up immediately.
Then I also immediately forgot about it (after telling everyone I knew how excited I was for it), until I realised a couple of weeks ago that a subscription email I kept deleting because I thought was spam or not interesting to me anymore, was actually giving me updates of the book and when it would be delivered. And this week, after being held at customs, it finally arrived.
I was a bit pissed off about the customs situation at first, I must say, although not for the reason you might think.
I was expecting a keyboard to arrive around the same time (an Aula F75 in case anyone cares; it would have been great if I had been typing this on it, but I did type it on my phone at work, don’t tell my boss, after customs I clearly can’t afford to be fired), and I was super happy cause I got a really good deal on it, but added with the price of customs - of which I had not been warned about - the deal went down the drain, really. But it turns out the keyboard was not to blame, it was me and my fickle memory all along. And Brexit, of course, but that’s a whole different conversation I’m not having.
But I digress. I paid customs, I can still afford to eat. I have a cool mechanical keyboard I didn’t have to pay extra for. And I have a really, really cool new murder mystery.
And if you’re thinking, Ah it’s probably doable, guessing the right order: the first book can be arranged into 9.33×10157 (factorial of 100) possible combinations.
Don’t ask me how much this is in simple numbers, I also do not know. But it seems like an awful lot. Way more than necessary, in my opinion. Especially for, like, £1000? Can barely afford the new Pret A Manger subscription card with that.
The Researcher's First Murder: A New Cain's Jawbone Puzzle
The thing I loved the most about this new book, is that it puts you - yes you, the reader, the eventual solverer of things - in the role of the murderer.
Now wait, that sounds kinda creepy.
I mean, it makes you a a character in the book and, if you’re a reader and murder solverer (this is a word now), you probably dreamt of becoming a character on one of your reads. And if you haven’t, well, if you purchased this and wish to solve it, you better get easily acquainted with the idea.
So, as the reader, you become the murderer. Of a body found stabbed to death in a locked room with no weapon, no motive (I mean, if the victim is one of those people who are like Oh I never dreamed of becoming a character in a book, maybe that’s enough motive, just the possibility certainly threw me off), and no suspects (just because it threw me off doesn’t mean I did it. Like, what the hell, since when did we start accusing people like this?).
So the murderer - you, me, I’m confused - has in their possession (plural? Us??) a box of one hundred cryptic picture postcards which will explain one true murder but also - AHAH! - nine others! (Oh em gee, we’re serial killers, wtf).
The solvers (Us? We’re the murderers and the solvers? How does that work? Do we have amnesia?), very much like the first book - which doesn’t mean I’m accusing Finnemore of being unoriginal, where are all these thoughts coming from? - need to rearrange pages and identify the murderer, victim, weapon, and location of each of the ten murders.
(It is not a freaking icicle. Or at least I hope it isn’t, imagine that. Ha. Wait, what if?)
Okay, I’m gonna be honest, I’m reading the rules as I write this, and suddenly this second mystery seems a lot more difficult than the last one. But we strive on.
On top of the written text, you must also consider separated puzzles contained in the images at the back of the text cards.
Now, this sounds all very good, but not even a new pandemic would make me feel even remotely capable of solving this. For free, anyway (and yes, I do realise I actually paid for it).
But fear not, no use in losing hope so early on in the game. On the Unboud website, Finnemore has words of encouragement for those who feel capable of solving this puzzle:
I’m very pleased to announce that the thing that has been driving me half mad for two years is called The Researcher’s First Murder. I very much hope it will do the same to you later this year.”
Hum, okay, maybe there are ACTUAL words of encouragement in the book itself.
(…) it is believed that once the solver has found the correct answer, they will be in no doubt about it. It follows that if at any point they are not sure if they have finished yet… they haven’t finished yet.
Good luck. But not too much.
John Finnemore
Well, THAT doesn’t help. If anything, it made it worse, really.
A Look Inside
Now, I know that there’s a pressing question at the edge of your lips, and I understand: you want to know if this new puzzle comes with a prize for those who solve it.
Well I could tell you that but then what if there is a prize? A money prize to boot? Then you’d likely buy the book? Beat me to it and there would be no prize for me in about thirty years, when I retire and finally decide I want to tackle it. By then my mind will be even fickler (more fickle?) than what it is now and I’ll have no chance to solve it either way. Wait, in that case it makes sense I share it.
Yes, there is a prize… to be paid. Your own sanity.*
If you want to use that valuable coin, I wish you luck. You’re gonna need it.
Personally I prefer to use my mind to g-
*I wield the mysterious murder weapon and strike, killing my opponent instantly. I pick up the murder mystery cards, and leave.*
***
And here is an unboxing:
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*(There is a money prize: £1000 for the first person who solves the puzzle within six months after its release. No account for inflation or lack of pandemic. *sighs* Still. Maybe the books and games can wait. Maybe it is time to go buy some red string.)