In a Radio New Zealand radio interview in early December last year I listened with increasing interest and growing excitement to Jesse Mulligan speaking with UK-based Kiwi publisher John Mitchinson. He is the co-founder of Unbound Publishing. In 2019 this crowdfunding publishing house rediscovered and republished Cain’s Jawbone, a complex literary puzzle originally published in 1934.

The Unbound website describes the book as follows [Cain’s Jawbone: A Novel Problem by Edward Powys Mathers — Unbound]

“Six murders. One hundred pages. Millions of possible combinations… but only one is correct. Can you solve Torquemada’s murder mystery?

In 1934, the Observer’s cryptic crossword compiler, Edward Powys Mathers (aka Torquemada), released a novel that was simultaneously a murder mystery and the most fiendishly difficult literary puzzle ever written.

The pages have been printed in an entirely haphazard order, but it is possible – through logic and intelligent reading – to sort the pages into the only correct order, revealing six murder victims and their respective murderers.

Dare you take it on?

Please note: this puzzle is extremely difficult and not for the faint-hearted.“

The new release started to feature in social media postings (thanks TikTok!) and all over the world (online) groups formed to tackle this murder mystery. Many individuals wallpapered their house with the 100 pages of the book to find patterns and clues. So far, since the book’s inception, or in other words, in the last ninety years, only 4 people have solved the puzzle (if no new code crackers have surfaced since that number was released).  

A reasonably recent article about Cain’s Jawbone’s background and journey from the Washington Post (26 December 2022) website is worth a read: Solving ‘Cain’s Jawbone’ has turned a murder mystery into an obsession – The Washington Post

In November last year Harper Collins released a new edition in Australia and New Zealand. They are offering a $1200 prize pack to the person who can crack the code.

Not much time left to solve the mystery and I haven’t bought my copy yet!

p.s. My house does not have much wall space either…