Cain's Jawbone by Edward Powys Mathers

Cain's Jawbone by Edward Powys Mathers

In 1934, The Observer's crossword writer, Edward Powys Mathers, wrote a unique novel Cain's Jawbone. The title, referring to the first recorded murder weapon, was written under his pen name Torquemada. The story was not only a murder mystery but one of the hardest and most beguiling word puzzles ever published.

The 100 pages of the book were printed and bound out of order and the reader was invited to re-order the pages, solve the mysteries and reveal the murderer(s). There were over 32 million possible combinations of pages but only one order was correct. The puzzle was extremely difficult and was only solved by two puzzlers whose names were revealed in The Observer - but the solution to the problem remained a secret.

The Laurence Sterne Trust is interested in all literary works that challenge the idea of linear narrative (BS Johnson, Marc Saporta, Julio Cort zar &c) in line with Laurence Sterne's legacy, so the Trust responded with a mixture of surprise and delight when The Torquemada Puzzle Book was donated to the museum's contemporary collection, even though the solution was missing. Now, after many months of research and good fortune, the Trust has managed to unlock the secret of Cain's Jawbone.

To share the complexities, red-herrings and literary adventures hidden in the puzzle, Unbound is republishing the book in a custom-made box so that readers can physically reorder the pages for themselves and then get down to identifying the characters behind the fiendish crimes.

• 'If James Joyce and Agatha Christie had a literary love child, this would be it' Daily Telegraph
• 'A unique hybrid of word puzzle and whodunnit' Literary Review

Edward Powys Mathers (1892 – 1939) introduced the cryptic crossword to Britain in 1924 through the pages of the Observer. Known as Torquemada, he was acknowledged as a brilliant translator and a critic specialising in crime fiction. In 1934 he published a selection of his puzzles under the title The Torquemada Puzzle Book – the final hundred pages of which contained the novel-cum-puzzle Cain’s Jawbone.

The book is being re-issued with the assistance of The Laurence Sterne Trust and Patrick Wildgust, the curator of Shandy Hall.