Clues by Carpathian and Grid by Rikki
Enter the prize draw by 31 January.
The background for this puzzle is a Paco Britto photo of a radio or TV mast and a triangular structure against an orange sunset.
This puzzle by Carpathian uses a conventional 7x5x6 grid by Rikki and marks fifty years since the death of a best-selling author, whose surname and that of a principal character appear jumbled in the yellow highlighted cells. Solvers should submit both of these names with their entries. The solution to Day 8 is a feature associated with another regularly-appearing character. Clues are numbered in alphabetical order of their solutions.
Best-selling is a term that is often applied hyperbolically, but not in the case of this author, who has a strong claim to be regarded as the most sold novelist of all time. It should not tax your little grey cells to detect her name, nor that of her most famous creation.
Whodunnit? Carpathian has used Rikki’s grid to construct an entertaining homage to the Queen of a Golden Age. If in doubt, make yourself a tisane, and remember — one must seek the truth within, not without.
Day 3
Own commercial US college (5)
Since this entry only has 5 letters, but there are 6 layers in the grid, the direction indication should be 25up-5. This is a simple charade: take a short word for commercial (as a noun) and follow it with the acronym by which a leading US science and engineering university is known. The result means own (in the sense of own up). [NI]
Day 8
Source of 13’s core irritation is song with overlapped lines rewritten (7,7,5)
13 is part of the theme. ‘Core irritation’ is a big hint. Think of an operatic song and follow this with an anagram of ’overlapped lines’ to get your answer. [JP]
Day 9
Penny explores, starting between two rivers to get further down (6)
‘Starting’ means you want the initial letters of the first two words. These should be surrounded by two rivers: the first is the name of several rivers in the UK, including one flowing through North Wales and Cheshire; the second is simply the usual abbreviation for river. The solution means further down. [NI]
Day 10
Wattle and daub element we initially envelop (6)
A nicely misleading surface: the definition is wattle (think turkeys rather than plants) and daub is part of the wordplay. ‘Initially’ indicates that we should take the first letters of the three preceding words, followed by a short word for envelop. [NI]
Day 12
Medicated revolting git and journalist (5)
Not a slur on the press! Think of a short word for a git going up (revolting) and follow it with the usual abbreviation for journalist to give another word for medicated. [JP]
Day 28
Drive hard to enter charge (6)
An abbreviation for hard should be inserted (entered) in a word for charge (in the sense of care). The answer means drive. [NI]
Day 30
Victor headed core wartime organisation (3)
‘Headed’ can be seen to be doing double duty here! Referring to the first letter of Victor and its ‘core’ providing the other 2 letters to give you the wartime organisation. [JP]
Day 32
Wine and port in English town (10)
A tasty surface, but wine and port are used differently. Take a word for a very broad category of wines and follow it with a word for a port in the sense of harbour. The result is a town in Cumbria, but more relevantly it gives its name to the residence of the character named in Day 13 and the highlighted cells. [NI]
I am grateful to the other members of the Hints & Tips team: Garry Stripling (Gin) and Jim Pennington (Philostrate).
Happy solving!
Nick Inglis (etc)
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