The Problematic Puzzle of the Purloined Paperback Mystery Cache
The Problematic Puzzle of the Purloined Paperback
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(not chosen)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
The archvillain known only as MiLady deWinter has struck again, along with her latest partner, this time stealing a priceless book from the personal library of one of the area’s most cultured and secretive residents, Dame Donnatella. Knowing that due to your deductive talents, you will be called in on the case eventually, MiLady emails you the following conundrum in order to taunt you. Can you manage to foil MiLady’s plot and recover the stolen book?
The prize you seek is not at the listed coordinates! You will need to look elsewhere.
Here is MiLady’s email to you:
My dear,
It seems we are destined to meet over my latest escapade, so I shall cut to the chase, as it were, and provide you with everything you will need to stop me from succeeding. I do this in the full knowledge that I am perhaps not smarter than you, but indeed, certainly more clever.
Sometime in the last seven days, I disguised myself as one of Dame Donnatella’s closest friends (and my own latest minion), and whilst within the Dame’s home, stole one of her priceless books right out from beneath her aristocratic nose. Unfortunately, time constraints upon my busy schedule made it necessary for me to hide the book somewhere within a local library, rather than decamp with it posthaste. Knowing this ahead of time, I merely swapped the book in Dame Donnatella’s glass case for one which was to be used by my cohort at the costume party this very evening, enabling her to retrieve the book, swap it for a placeholder book, and tuck her own book into its dust cover, which she brought from home, thus completing her cover as innocent partygoer. Alas, the placeholder book, and thus the theft, was discovered before she could leave the party.
Inside the book she even now carries, while held for questioning with all the other guests within Dame Donnatella’s mansion, I placed a set of clues to inform her where to locate the book I stole; she is to extricate herself from the sheriff’s questions and retrieve the book, bringing it to me presently. Unless, that is, you can tell the sheriff which party guest is my accomplice, causing her arrest; unless you retrieve the stolen book first.
I doubt you will succeed. But I will give you this one chance to thwart me.
Either way, I will not fall into your clutches this time.
Farewell, my worthy adversary,
MiLady deWinter
Puzzle over this, if you will:
Earlier this evening, at Dame Donnatella‘s mansion, Amy and four other guests attended a literary costume party. Each guest had a different book she brought to showcase, each wore a unique costume (unrelated to her book choice), and each enjoyed their own favorite dessert; one guest selected the baklava. Dame Donnatella’s guests also each have a penchant for a different form of word play.
During the party, a priceless book was discovered to be stolen from Dame Donnatella’s personal library. The missing book was a rare first edition large print paperback version of Ireland’s famous Book of Kells.
The sheriff was summoned to the mansion, where he determined that none of the guests was concealing the book on her person or within the dust cover of her own book. The house was searched; it became apparent that sometime within the last seven days, the book had been stolen and smuggled out of the mansion. Dame Donnatella only recalls four visitors during that time frame and says they are all among the guests at the party tonight, leaving but one of her five guests free of suspicion. One clue the sheriff gleaned from the library was a smudge of nutty paste on the edge of the glass case that housed the priceless book. Another clue was a crumpled sticky note: learn about that below the puzzle clues.
The guests have been questioned separately about what they have witnessed during this evening’s event, in order to find the thief, but they have been equally parts confounding and mysterious in their replies. The sheriff could use your help. See if you’re up to the challenge.
Given the observations and recollections below, can you solve this mystery and find the thief by connecting each guest with her costume, book, choice of dessert, favorite type of wordplay and when she last visited Dame Donnatella?
1. Harper and the guest who brought Guns, Germs and Steel visited Dame Donnatella’s mansion yesterday and four days ago, respectively.
2. The guest who brought the classic 1953 Ray Bradbury book consumed the tiny marzipan books; she isn‘t dressed as Morgan le Fay, nor was she the guest who commented about Victor Borge, “Old musicians never die, they just decompose.”
3. Neither the woman who ate the tiramisu nor the one who carried around the blue raspberry lollipop brought Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.
4. Maya, who attended the party dressed as Helen of Troy, didn’t bring Feet of Clay, and didn’t eat either of the Italian desserts.
5. The guest who showcased A Brief History of Time was also known to say, “I seriously suffer from prestofrigeration. You know, when you’re hungry and you keep coming back to look in the fridge, even though there wasn’t anything good in there two minutes ago?”
6. The woman who had tiramisu isn’t the woman who recited,
“Pronounced differently but spelled the same;
I have many meanings from obscure to mundane.
In a trip across water I get there before you;
In precipitation amazing, a marvel to awe you.
One naming of me means to acknowledge the praise.
I move fastest in music as the violin maestro plays.
Taught to children of all ages, or trip up they would,
I was also much favored by a notorious Hood.
What am I?”
7. The visitor from 6 days ago ate white chocolate truffles at the party tonight, being allergic to tree nuts, while the pundit last visited Dame Donnatella‘s twice the number of days ago as the woman who brought the book with the prologue title “Yali’s Question“.
8. Savoiardi was not an ingredient in anything consumed by the woman who brought Fahrenheit 451.
9. Morgan le Fay didn’t bring the Terry Pratchett novel tonight.
10. Eowyn, who isn't Harper, commented over the dessert table, “Did you know that ‘eleven plus two’ rearranges to ‘twelve plus one’?”
11. Ursula isn’t the one who was overheard saying, “I always say, my Porsche has the hickest slandling of any car I’ve driven.”
12. The riddler isn't Nancy Drew.
13. Fannie, dressed as Lucy Pevensie, didn’t bring the book set in Discworld or the book by Jared Diamond.
14. The woman costumed as Ned Nickerson‘s girlfriend was seen visiting Dame Donnatella’s twice as long ago as Harper visited.
15. Neither of the nutty desserts were consumed by the guest who brought the bestseller by Professor Stephen Hawking.
16. A guest commented to Dame Donnatella that spoonerisms were better than anagrams or sniglets because they were more adaptable.
17. The guest who shared her name with a Disney villain ate as many truffles as her word play added up to.
The sheriff also retrieved a crumpled sticky note from the library; apparently it had been concealed inside the placeholder book in the Book of Kells' glass case. The thief swapped the book she brought to the party for the one inside the glass case, retrieved the note, then tried, unsuccessfully, to dispose of it after memorizing it. The sheriff deduces that the clues on the sticky note must lead to the real location of the stolen book. See if you can help the sheriff decode the clues. Unraveling the puzzle will be necessary first:
The sticky note:
“the play’s the thing, for example:
Maya’s + yours
Then apply Ursula
Subj. to search in Peterson Mem. Lib. Cat.”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The library is accessible by wheelchair ramp as well, but please note that due to the narrowness of some of the library aisles, wheelchairs are not able to reach every part of the library. Please feel free to ask for assistance at the front desk if you need it.
There are certain times you will not be able to complete the find for this cache, so please peruse the time tables below for your convenience.
Peterson Memorial Library Regular Hours
Sunday 10:00 am — 11:00 pm
Monday — Thursday 8:00 am — 11:00 pm
Friday 8:00 am — 2:30 pm
Saturday Closed
For extended library hours, please see the following link, in case you solve this at some odd hour and wish to try and locate the cache at once:
(visit link)
If you find you are well and truly stuck, please feel free to email me for assistance; I'm glad to help.
Frumious Jane is the author of the Caching Out geocaching mystery series, written under the name Morgan C. Talbot.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
xabj lbhe qrffregf
[SN] svany jbeq ahzore rdhnyf evqqyr yrggre ahzore
Treasures
You'll collect a digital Treasure from one of these collections when you find and log this geocache:
Loading Treasures