John Finnemore heads for Greenwich

In 1934, a unique event in publishing occurred. A writer identified as Torquemada (named after the first Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition) published the book Cain’s Jawbone.

Presented as a murder mystery and published as part of a hard back book, at first glance the story seems a regular mystery, until you realise that the pages have been assembled in the wrong order. Full of veiled references, word games and clues, the challenge to readers was to reassemble the pages in the right order, identifying the six murder victims and their murderer(s).

With a print run of 4,000, publisher Vincent Gollancz offered a prize of £15 to the first reader to correctly solve the mystery, with three readers apparently cracking it in 1935. Then, with the solution still kept secret, the book was largely forgotten until 2019 when publisher Unbound published a new edition, presented as a box of cards for easy reassembling, and announced a prize of £1,000 for the first new reader to solve the puzzle. A year later, eighty-five years after the last person successfully completed Torquemada’s challenge, it was announced that comedian and writer John Finnemore had solved the puzzle.

Best known for his work on Cabin Pressure and the BBC’s John Finnemore’s Souvenir Programme, John Finnemore has won many awards, including the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Outstanding Contribution to Writing Award in 2020.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Finnemore said, “The first time I had a look at it I quickly thought ‘Oh this is just way beyond me.’ The only way I’d even have a shot at it was if I were for some bizarre reason trapped in my own home for months on end, with nowhere to go and no-one to see.” And then, of course, came the pandemic, and with nothing but time John set about unpicking the puzzle.

Thanks to Finnemore’s profile, and to a parallel attempt to solve the book documented by Sarah Scannell on TikTok, initial sales for Unbound’s edition went from around 4,000 in 2019 to over half a million by January 2023.

Now, inspired by his experience of working on Torquemada’s puzzle, Finnemore has published his own version of Cain’s Jawbone – entitled The Researcher’s First Murder – with publisher Unbound offering a £1000 prize to the first person to crack this new puzzle.

In Finnemore’s deconstructed novel, a body is found stabbed to death in a locked room. The police find no weapon, no motive and no suspects. However, the murderer has in their possession a box of one hundred cryptic picture postcards, now in the hands of the reader, which – if properly understood – would explain not just this murder, but nine others.

Solvers must rearrange the pages of text to unravel the story and identify the murderer, victim and location for each of the ten murders. They must also consider the separate puzzles presented by the curious images on the back of the cards.

On 25 November, to celebrate this unique publishing moment, we are delighted that John Finnemore will join Unbound co-founder John Mitchinson on stage at Greenwich Theatre to discuss the undertaking, before answering audience questions and signing copies of the book.

For anyone looking to glean a few clues as to the solution of either puzzle, or just to hear popular comedian John Finnemore speak, this is set to be the perfect event.