An hour before the gates open on Sorrowby Heath, Pip Latch’s wooden partner has vanished from his crate. Seven people have nobody to vouch for them. Seven puzzles test their alibis, and exactly one alibi fails.
The evening and its puzzles are new, made for this page in the style of the book, and nothing in them spoils it. Play on screen, or print them and grab a pencil.
Mister Sawdust on his crate, from the cover of The Crooked Carnival
Pip Latch and Mister Sawdust. Two heads, one opinion.
Before the first night
The crate is empty
Doctor Lazarus Mourne’s Crooked Carnival travels only in fog. This evening it has pitched its leaning big top on Sorrowby Heath, and this afternoon the Doctor hired you: the Remarkable Nobody, a stage mind-reader with no powers at all, only sharp eyes and cold logic. The gates open at eight.
At ten past seven Pip Latch, the ventriloquist, finds you in your booth on the Midway, the color of candle wax. “He’s gone,” he whispers. “Mister Sawdust. Somebody has taken him out of his crate. You read minds. Read somebody’s.”
Mister Sawdust has insulted every soul on the grounds, so everybody has a reason. Seven of them have nobody to vouch for them.
Seven puzzlesFrom Medium to Fiendish, in the book’s own kinds: the barker’s patter-book, a coconut shy, a knife board, the Great Wheel, a tarot cipher, the Hall of Mirrors and the chalk ring.
One alibi eachEvery puzzle tests one person’s alibi, the way every night in the book does. Exactly one alibi fails.
The ReckoningWhen the evidence is in, say whose alibi fails and where Mister Sawdust is now.
Stuck?Every puzzle has hints, and you can show its answer. Your progress is kept on this device.
The missing
Mister Sawdust
A wooden gentleman with a monocle, a painted grin and a velvet jacket, ruder than Pip would ever dare to be. Last seen in his crate on the step of Pip’s wagon, in the Wagon Circle.
The window
At ten to seven the Lord Mayor, touring the grounds before his opening speech, stopped at Pip’s wagon to admire Mister Sawdust in his crate. He says the dummy gave him a look. At ten past seven Pip came back from rehearsal and found the crate empty.
So Mister Sawdust was taken between 6:50 and 7:10.
Also on the grounds
A one-eyed raven, who has been stealing spoons from the Cookhouse since the wagons arrived. He is not a suspect. He has no pockets.
Where everyone else was, from 6:50 to 7:10
The rest of the troupe rehearsed the Grand Parade in the ring from twenty to seven until ten past, in full view of one another and of the Doctor, who ran it: Pip (with a cushion), Barnaby, Ossian, Mathilde, Rosalind, Adaeze, the Cinder Brothers, the Tall Sisters, and Tobias at the calliope.
Gideon barked at the fog from the Gate all evening, beside the Hollow Man on his plinth.
Ines threw knives at her practice board all evening. The whole Midway heard them land.
Madame Vey read the cards for one customer in her tent, from a quarter to seven until a quarter past.
Crabbe, the wheelman, ran the Great Wheel’s test turn from the Wheel Hut, from ten to seven until ten past.
Old Silvering sat at the door of the Hall of Mirrors from half past six, when he had set its mirrors, until he let Emrys out at ten past seven.
You were in your booth on the Midway, practicing your mysterious look.
Gideon Crowl, barker and printer, never writes a line of patter down plainly: rival barkers would steal it. His patter-book lies open on the ticket wagon at tonight’s page, headed NEW PATTER, TRIED AT THE GATE FROM TWENTY TO SEVEN.
This tests Nettle’s alibi. “I was up a ladder on the Gate arch from twenty to seven till a quarter past, hanging the bulbs. Gideon tried his new patter on me the whole time. Something about ladies with fishes’ tails.”
How it works. Unscramble each word. The line of patter beside it is its clue, and the boxes give its length. Keep the letter in the shaded box, and read the kept letters down the page.
New patter, tried at the Gate from twenty to seven
Kept letters:
Evidence 1. Gideon’s new patter, tried at the Gate from twenty to seven, was all about MERMAIDS.
2
Coconut Shy
Back Soon. Fired.
MediumAbout 15 minutes
Barnaby Bolt, the human cannonball, set fresh posts in his coconut shy at twenty to seven, hung up a sign that says BACK SOON. FIRED., and went to rehearse. The numbers he chalks round the edge of the yard are all you have to go on.
This tests Abel Grubb’s alibi. “I was at Barnaby’s shy from a quarter to seven till a quarter past. He’d gone to rehearse, so it was free. I threw from the green spot, and I could see four coconuts the whole time. Never hit one.”
How it works. Every row and every column of the shy holds one post of each height, 1 to 5, with a coconut on top. A taller post hides every shorter one behind it. A number at the edge says how many coconuts a thrower standing there can see, looking straight along the row or column. The green spot has no number. Tap a square to set its post (or type a number).
Tap a square to cycle its post through 1 to 5, or type the number.
Evidence 2. From the green spot a thrower sees four coconuts: the posts run 1, 2, 3, 5, 4.
3
Knife Board
Ines Answers with Knives
HardAbout 20 minutes
Ines Montaño does not speak before a show. You ask her what Mother Hollis was doing in her booth, and she throws her answer into the lettered board: seven knives, one after another. Then she pulls every one of them out before you can look.
This tests Mother Hollis’s alibi. “I sat in Ines’s booth from half past six till a quarter past seven, letting out the seams of her bolero while she practiced. Ask her. She won’t say a word.”
How it works. One knife struck every row, every column and every painted panel, and no two knives touch, not even at a corner. Work out where they struck: the struck letters, read row by row from the top, spell her answer. Tap a square once for a knife and again to rule it out.
Struck letters:
Evidence 3. Ines’s knives spell MENDING: Mother Hollis was mending in her booth.
4
Wheel Seating
The Test Turn
HardAbout 20 minutes
Before the gates open, Crabbe the wheelman runs one long turn of the Great Wheel to test it, with Augustin Wren and five people from the front of the queue. A long turn takes twenty minutes, and nobody gets off halfway. Crabbe cannot remember who sat where, but he remembers what each of them was holding, because he had to catch most of it.
This tests Augustin Wren’s alibi. “I rode the Great Wheel’s test turn, from ten to seven till ten past. In the gold car, naturally. One does not ride in any other.”
How it works. The six cars are numbered 1 to 6 clockwise, starting from the gold car. One rider to a car, and each rider held one of the six things. Car 1 is next to cars 2 and 6, and directly across from car 4. Tap a square once for ✕ and twice for ✓.
The six cars, numbered clockwise from the gold car, and what is painted on each.
What Crabbe remembers (tap a line to tick it off)
The rider with the bunch of violets rode two cars clockwise from the rider with the tin whistle.
The Widow Pennyworth rode in an even-numbered car.
The rider with the ball of red wool and Prudence Coffinwright were exactly two cars apart.
The Widow Pennyworth and Prudence Coffinwright rode in neighboring cars.
Mr. Ashby rode in the next car clockwise after the rider with the bag of humbugs.
Josiah Coffinwright and the rider with the bunch of violets did not ride in neighboring cars.
Josiah Coffinwright was holding the bag of humbugs.
Mr. Ashby rode two cars clockwise from the rider with the ball of red wool.
The rider with the black umbrella and Josiah Coffinwright did not ride in neighboring cars.
The rider with the baked potato rode in car 3.
Dr. Dole rode in the next car clockwise after the rider with the black umbrella.
Evidence 4. The test turn, car by car: 1 Augustin Wren, with the ball of red wool; 2 Josiah Coffinwright, with the bag of humbugs; 3 Mr. Ashby, with the baked potato; 4 the Widow Pennyworth, with the tin whistle; 5 Prudence Coffinwright, with the black umbrella; 6 Dr. Dole, with the bunch of violets.
5
Tarot Cipher
Madame Vey’s Note
HardAbout 20 minutes
Madame Vey writes every reading and every private note as a row of cards from her own deck, the Crooked Tarot. She is in the middle of a reading and will not be interrupted, so she slides you her note across the velvet. She keys her spread to a different trump every evening. Tonight, out of sympathy, she has chosen the trump of the act that is missing its better half.
This tests Mrs. Agatha Gristle’s alibi. “I was having my fortune told in Madame Vey’s tent from a quarter to seven till a quarter past. She said I would come into money. I’m still waiting.”
How it works. Build the Crooked Spread: write the keyword across the top, each letter only once, then the rest of the alphabet in order, row by row; the last two cells stay empty. Each suit card stands for the letter in its cell: suit for the row, rank for the column. A card lying upside down is reversed: read the cell one step to its left in the same row (an Ace wraps round to the Seven). A trump ends a word. The keyword is the name of the trump of the act that is missing its better half, without THE.
The Crooked Tarot’s twenty-two trumps
0 The Nobody
I The Barker
II The Fortune-Teller
III The Strongwoman
IV The Ringmaster
V The Hollow Man
VI The Twins
VII The Cannon
VIII The Wire
IX The Stilts
X The Wheel
XI The Knife
XII The Chains
XIII The Undertaker
XIV The Calliope
XV The Dummy
XVI The Crooked Top
XVII The Crooked Star
XVIII The Moon
XIX The Juggler
XX The Clown
XXI The Fog
Madame Vey’s note, laid out on her velvet
Evidence 5. MISS PARCH, FROM QUARTER TO SEVEN. SHE WILL BE FAMOUS. Madame Vey’s one customer, from a quarter to seven until a quarter past, was Miss Parch of the Lamentation.
6
Hall of Mirrors
The Hall of a Hundred Doubts
FiendishAbout 25 minutes
Old Silvering sets the Hall’s pivot mirrors fresh at every new pitch and tells nobody how. “A hall with no doubts is only a corridor.” He will tell you which doorways see each other, and how many mirrors some sightlines bounce off. The spyhole is on the west wall, where Emrys says he found it.
This tests Emrys Harrow’s alibi. “I was lost in the Hall of Mirrors from half past six until Old Silvering let me out at ten past seven. Just before seven I found the spyhole, and through it I could see the Cookhouse window, with somebody in it grinning at me. I thought it was my reflection, so I waved. It did not wave back.”
How it works. A sightline runs straight until it meets a mirror, turns a right angle there and runs on until it leaves the Hall. The drawn mirrors are fixed. Each round pivot can be set either way: tap it to set it. Two doorways with the same letter see each other; a number says how many mirrors the sightline entering there bounces off. Set every pivot so that every letter and number is true, then follow the sightline from the spyhole.
Tap a round pivot to turn it. Tap any letter, number or name round the walls to follow its sightline.
Evidence 6. From the spyhole the sightline bounces off six mirrors and leaves the Hall facing the Cookhouse window.
7
The Chalk Ring
Five Stones
FiendishAbout 25 minutes
Carnival people settle an argument the old way. You chalk a ring on the Midway, and five of the crew draw stones from the leather bag before they step inside to say where Amos Grubb was: a white stone makes a Straight, a black stone a Crook and a gray stone a Patterer. Nobody else sees the stones.
This tests Amos Grubb’s alibi. “I was at the horse lines from half past six till the gates opened, brushing down the horses. They’ll vouch for me.”
How it works. Inside the chalk ring a Straight says only true things, a Crook only false things, and a Patterer’s statements take turns, true and false, starting with either. “…, or …, or both” is true when at least one part is true. “If …, then …” is false only when the first part is true and the second false. “Us” means the five in the ring. Amos was in one of four places all through the window: at the horse lines, in the Wagon Circle, in the Ladder Yard or on the Midway.
Evidence 7. Amos was at the horse lines all through the window. The stones: Nettle gray (a Patterer), Crabbe gray (a Patterer), Abel black (a Crook), Mother Hollis black (a Crook), Old Silvering white (a Straight).
✦
Close the night
The Reckoning
It is half past seven, and Pip is watching you the way a man watches a clock. Here is every alibi, and what the evidence says about it. On every night in the book, exactly one alibi fails. Tonight, too.
Nettlesays Gideon’s patter was about ladies with fishes’ tails.Not tested yet.
Abel Grubbsays he could see four coconuts from the green spot.Not tested yet.
Mother Hollissays she was letting out Ines’s bolero in her booth.Not tested yet.
Augustin Wrensays he rode the test turn in the gold car.Not tested yet.
Mrs. Agatha Gristlesays Madame Vey was telling her fortune.Not tested yet.
Emrys Harrowsays the spyhole looked out on the Cookhouse window.Not tested yet.
Amos Grubbsays he was at the horse lines.Not tested yet.
The question. Only one alibi fails. Whose? And where is Mister Sawdust now?
At a quarter to eight. You find him in the Cookhouse window, propped on a flour sack with his monocle glinting, grinning at the fog. On the roof a one-eyed raven sits with a stolen teaspoon, keeping his distance. “He’s been at my spoons since we pitched,” says Mrs. Gristle. “I needed the ugliest face on the grounds, and I didn’t like to ask.” “Madam,” says Mister Sawdust, “I have never been so flattered.” Pip holds him very tightly, without moving his lips. At eight the gates open. At eleven comes the Grand Finale, and that is where the book begins.
Owlbrook Grim Tales · Book Two
The Crooked Carnival
Every night the carnival performs. Every night one performer doesn’t take a bow.
That was one evening, before the gates opened. The book has nine nights on Sorrowby Heath, and on each of them a performer dies during the Grand Finale. Each night is a chain of five puzzles that tests five alibis, and the Reckoning shows you whose fails. After the ninth night comes the Last Bow: five final puzzles and your Accusation. Ten kinds of puzzle under the big top: knife boards, tarot ciphers, the chalk ring, running orders, alibi timelines, Great Wheel seating, the Hall of Mirrors, barker’s anagrams, coconut shies and midway plans. 50 puzzles, rising from medium to fiendish, every one checked by computer to have exactly one solution, with a hint and an answer check for each and full solutions.
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