100 hard word searches
The grids grow as the case deepens and the words hide in every direction, backwards included. Every count is guaranteed correct by construction and checked again from the printed page.
COLDCODE Case Files · Case 001 · out now
Stop finding words. Start counting evidence.
Seven in the morning at Hale Manor. Sir Edmund is dead at his desk, a gun in his hand, the study bolted from the inside, and a farewell note under the paperweight in his own hand. Every line of that note is a lie — and every fact of the case is locked behind a number you have to count for yourself.
One puzzle a day here, free, counted from the day you start. All hundred at once, with the Evidence Table to flip to and the name on the last page printed upside down, is the paperback: 188 pages.
The mechanic
The grid holds nothing but the letters of its own word.
An ordinary word search gives itself away: a stray letter catches your eye, a shape stands out, and a good solver reads the grid before starting. Here there is no stranger in the grid — a page hiding EVIDENCE is filled with E, V, I, D, N and C, and nothing else. There is nothing to recognize. You have to search.
01
Count your circles
Nobody prints how many times the word is hidden. You circle every hit in all eight directions, count them yourself, and write the number into the stamp at the foot of the page.
02
The number opens the table
At the back, the Evidence Table has a block for your code and a line for your count. A count one off returns a word that fits the sentence just as well — so guessing gets you a plausible lie, and only honest counting gets you the truth.
03
Ten counts make a chapter
Each chapter is the payout for ten solved grids. Take one letter from each answer, and the ten boxes underneath tell you whether you counted right. Ten chapters give ten facts; ten facts give one name.
Inside the case file
One hundred grids, ten chapters, one name.
A locked-room mystery in ten chapters
The body in the study, the door locked from the corridor, the note that was never his. The story is what you are really solving; the grids are how you get at it.
A Case Board to track it on
One page holding the whole book: a row for every chapter's counts, a line for each of the ten facts, and boxes for the killer's name.
Answers you can trust
Full answer keys with every occurrence circled, the ten facts printed out, and the reveal on the last page. Nothing in the book is unwinnable.
Details
COLDCODE — A Murder Mystery Word Search. COLDCODE Case Files, Case 001. Paperback, 6 × 9 in, 188 pages, black and white. Published by Tamada Press. ISBN 978-952-7694-12-1. Reading age 12 and up.
The grids, the Evidence Table and every count in this book are produced and proved by a program. The story was written with the help of one, and the listing says so.