Showing posts with label Update. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Update. Show all posts

Saturday, 11 July 2026

Solving Cain's Jawbone: Progress report

After about two years since I bought my copy, here's my analysis so far.

Collected data:

Poetry fragments that cross pages (6 solved pairs of consecutive pages and poems identified).
Sentences that cross pages (2 unsolved pairs of consecutive pages).
Repetition of a certain name on nearly every page.
Spelling errors.
First-person narration throughout.
References to flowers, food, and literary figures.
Repeated indirect references to a name (solved).
(A long list of all names mentioned).
(A list of times the narrator acknowledged themself).
Fragments and words in Greek and French (translated).
(A long list of references to death).
(A very long list of one-sentence page summaries).
(A half-started list of longer analysis for each page).

Conclusions reached:

Re-ordering the pages is insufficient to solve the mystery of the six murders.
Since Torquemada was known for cryptic crossword clues, it is likely that the more nonsensical sentences are structured as clues in a similar way.
The main difficulty in solving the puzzle lies in interpreting the text.

Theories:

I believe the mystery has three layers to it:
Ordering the pages,
Interpreting/deciphering the text,
Reconstructing the narrative from the information given in the narrator's perspective.

(I have worked on it sporadically, mainly in the holiday seasons.)

I really hope the solution isn't getting published any time soon.

Monday, 26 January 2026