Listener 4232 A Murder Mystery By Hedge-Sparrow

[dr b]

What a long preamble, but what a fun puzzle. It took me a few minutes to get what the down message was telling me, but the P D'd, all was clear. Thanks hedge-sparrow.

[sunny-dave]

Which of course is the wrong one of the three ... oops ... back in a tick

[sunny-dave]

Think JDJE RHDFKPQ instead

[Patch49]

Thanks sunny dave but when I said third I actually meant the first... Senior moment!

[Askival]

Fantastic fun! I too, however, appear to be failing at finding the weapon. Well, I have one (and only one) which I'm not convinced by... And the "When you've got it you'll know" comment made earlier isn't overly encouraging... Curse these final steps! Tempted just to plump for it anyway, since the weapon I've found does match up to all of Hedge-sparrow's stipulations.

[Deviant]

Another one for the 'everything but the weapon' group here. I wish they'd specified the number of letters for this, as they've done with several crosswords recently.

Is it a "weapon" in the usual sense of the word? The only remotely possible thing I can find is only 3 letters, so I doubt if that's correct.

Grrr.

[crosswhit99]

QEVEJ FERREPQ SEVDHJR

[IainGrace]

Agree with comments. Enjoyable puzzle albeit one that is readily disposed of in a single session, rather than one that one agonises over for days. On which subject - defeated by the endgame in 4230.

[tnap]

Like some others, it took me far longer to find the weapon than fill the grid! I had even gone through the process of decoding (and encoding) the entire grid just in case. Now having found it, I can't help but feel a little disappointed.

However, as a word of encouragement to anyone still struggling with the last bit and having more tenacity than simply to throw the whole thing in the bin, keep going! You will know it's the correct weapon when you find it.

[fancydan]

I am a little confused about the middle detective's method of entry

[Whenland]

Like others we took a while to find the weapon, which neither of us had heard of, but it's in the BRB so mustn't grumble. Overall, a lot of fun with no need for cold solving at all, even if the preamble looked terrifying at first. Thank you Hedge-Sparrow!

[Deviant]

Thanks Crosswhit99. All clear now.

[jim360]

And Cruciverbalist has surely encoded his post with a slightly different cipher. Rascal.

[freiheid]

Quite enjoyed it, though like others it took me ages to find the weapon. A few question marks though - 13a gives a choice of extra letters (surely it should be embedded in the fodder rather than next to it), and I'm not sure it is very cohesive thematically - e.g. it doesn't seem to refer to a specific detective story, and the coding isn't relevant.

[scooterbug]

Also took me forever to find the weapon. Yet, having now found it with some confidence, I don't see how it is any more justifiable than some of the red herrings previously mentioned. I even have a potential candidate of equal length (in a goofy, though symmetric and rubric-conforming, configuration) that would seem to have a more logical connection with the murderer. I don't see how JEG could accept one but not the others.

Fun puzzle that could be improved with a more thought-out approach to the weapon.

[crosswhit99]

The jumble of letters has to start at the start or finish at the end of a word freiheid, so there is no choice in 13a, but I do agree with your comment about the coding.

[JackDeCrow]

Finally found the weapon yesterday while sitting at an airport (good use of time, if arguably a bad place to find a weapon!). Like others, slightly niggled at the obscurity of it - would actually have felt slightly better had the detective been one of the other two - but I can still remember (just) how much I enjoyed the original "evidence in the grid", so overall a lovely puzzle. Thanks Hedge-Sparrow.

[Cloverjo]

I am unsure about the position of the victim. I have the name of a FHCE under the body, so this is the one I chose, but what about the body being under APKTJS? Does this mean detective c is the correct one?

[Scorpius]

To Cloverjo, I don't think your choice of APKTJS really fits detective C's reference (though it does fit another detective's comment) but there is another group of 4 letters that does. Hedgesparrow has included stuff in the grid to partially support every detective's conclusions, though as far as I can see there is only one murder victim.

I'm also struggling to find a murder weapon. Without some indication of length the whole process becomes a bit of an unsatisfying guessing game. I have two items (one obscure) that could have been conceivably used, depending on their size. If, as some have suggested, the answer is obscure, then I'm not sure that I want to waste any more time on it. In addition, the ambiguities in the word "touching" open up a minefield, as does the possibility of an encoded weapon (though that would strike me as unfair without any preamble confirmation).