Cain's Jawbone

The World's Most Fiendishly Difficult Puzzle

Edward Powys Mathers author G T Karber editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Published:24th Sep '26

Should be back in stock very soon

Cain's Jawbone cover

The most fiendishly difficult literary puzzle ever written where readers must uncover the solution to six murders – only four puzzlers ever have achieved this. Can you solve Torquemada’s murder mystery?

With a new foreword from Murdle author G. T. Karber

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, deduction and intelligent reading - to sort the pages into the only correct order, uncovering six murder victims and their respective murderers. Every page contains clues, and only by piecing together the evidence can the truth be revealed.

Only four puzzlers have ever successfully completed Cain's Jawbone: do you have what it takes to join their ranks?

Also available as a boxed card edition.

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

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 *

ISBN: 9781037205156

Dimensions: 176mm x 110mm x 22mm

Weight: 144g

208 pages