Search the Ship

A word search book that is also one murder mystery. Every grid hides a piece of evidence, and by the last page you name the killer yourself.

September 1924. The liner RMS Aurelia leaves Southampton for New York with a jeweler aboard, and in his dressing case the most talked-about pearl necklace in England. On the first night at sea he is killed in his stateroom and the pearls are gone. The ship's policeman has six days and six suspects, and he asks you to do the thinking.

How it works

• 49 word searches, seven a day for the seven days of the crossing. Each day takes you to one part of the ship: the quay, the stateroom, the reading room, the lounge and smoking room, the wireless room, the night stewards, and New York harbor.
• Every grid hides a message. Find all the words, then read the letters you did not use, left to right from the top. They spell a statement, a log entry, a time: a real piece of evidence, never filler.
• The messages build the case. On Day 2 you work out three things that must be true of the killer. From then on each day's evidence clears exactly one suspect, and on Day 7 one name is left. Nothing is a guess: every step can be traced to the messages.
• A Casebook page after every day, with the six suspects' photographs, a chart for the three tests, the day's question and room to write. Suspects cleared on earlier days are stamped for you.

Made to be easy on the eyes

• Large print: grid letters about 20 point, in Atkinson Hyperlegible, a typeface designed for readers with low vision.
• Grids of 11 by 11 and 12 by 12, with 16 to 20 words each, so they are a pleasure rather than a chore.
• The puzzles get harder slowly. Day 1 words run only across and down; new directions are added one day at a time, and a small compass on every page shows which directions words can run that day.
• Boxes under every grid for the hidden message, grouped into words so you can check yourself as you go.

Made so you never get stuck or cheated

• A worked practice grid at the front shows exactly how to find words and read the leftover letters.
• Two hints for every day's question, gentle then stronger, kept apart from the answers.
• Every answer explained, with the grid numbers it comes from, and a full solution with a timeline of where everyone was on the night.
• Every grid shown solved at the back, with the words shaded and the message letters in red. Every puzzle page tells you which page its hints and solved grid are on.
• Checked by computer: every listed word appears in its grid exactly once, the leftover letters spell each message exactly, and the case leaves one and only one killer.

Inside

• How the book works, your first grid step by step, and how the case works
• Who's aboard: the victim, six suspects and the witnesses, each with a portrait
• A cutaway plan of the ship and a plan of the C-deck corridor
• Seven days of puzzles, each opening with a period photograph or painting. The ship's rooms are photographs of the real liner Olympic, which the Aurelia borrows
• Seven Casebook pages, your accusation page, hints, answers, the solution and all 49 solved grids

Your files

• Search the Ship (PDF, 101 pages, color, US Letter), with bookmarks.
• Print Pad (PDF, 57 pages): the 49 puzzle pages and the 7 Casebook pages again on plain white, for printing at home with less ink. Page numbers match the book.

Good to know

• One story, so it is solved once, but you can print clean puzzle pages as often as you like for a second detective.
• A cozy mystery: there is a murder, but nothing gory and no bad language.
• American spelling. The pages are US Letter; on A4 paper, print with "fit to page".
• The PDFs are for printing or for writing on with a tablet pen. They are not fillable forms.
• This is a PDF download. No physical book is shipped.