Unbound to publish Cain’s Jawbone sequel

Unbound will publish the sequel to Cain’s Jawbone – the 1934 murder mystery puzzle which recently enjoyed a resurgence on TikTok – by John Finnemore, the first person to solve the puzzle in 85 years.

The publisher said it successfully raised money for Untitled Mystery: A New Cain’s Jawbone Puzzle just five days after launching the title on its site. Publication is planned for early 2024. 

John Mitchinson, co-founder and publisher of Unbound, said: “None of us could have predicted quite how enthusiastically readers and puzzlers all over the world would embrace Cain’s Jawbone – perhaps it stirs some deep need in us, a reminder that we are hardwired to look for order and to connect things in meaningful sequences – but wherever the story of its re-discovery is told, John Finnemore’s name will be mentioned in awe as the first person in 85 years to have solved it. So, who better then to lay down an even more absurdly difficult challenge. Not only does Untitled Mystery offer us 100 pages to re-order, but also 100 images to decipher for further clues.

"It is entirely in keeping with the spirit of this project that [Finnemore] won’t even tell us its real title; that’s thrilling for puzzlers, terrifying to us mere mortals – one imagines the ghosts of Edward Powys Mathers and Laurence Sterne cheerfully toasting Mr Finnemore’s new mystery in some celestial gaming salon.”

In 2019, Unbound re-published Cain’s Jawbone, the 1934 murder mystery by Edward Powys Mathers, better known as the infamous Torquemada, the man who set the cryptic crosswords for the Observer from 1926 until his death in 1939.

The 100 pages were deliberately bound out of order and needed to be re-assembled in the correct chronological order in order to identify the six murderers and their victims. Only two people solved the puzzle in the 1930s and the first person to solve it since then has been Finnemore. He now returns with his own challenge: the first murder mystery ever to be presented in the form of a box of picture postcards.

The synopsis reads: “Everything about Finnmore’s sequel is a mystery – including the title which will first be revealed to people who pledge for the puzzle through Unbound.

“Instead of six murders like in the original Cain’s Jawbone, Finnemore has created a story containing 10 murders – using postcards, with text on one side and pictures on the other. The pictures also contain a series of puzzles which readers will also need to solve.

“A locked room mystery, Finnemore’s new whodunnit hinges on a person found stabbed to death in the study of a complete stranger. The room is securely locked from the inside, but no weapon – or murderer – is found at the scene, and the police investigation discovers no credible suspects or likely motive.”

Finnemore said: “I wanted to try solving another puzzle in that style. But Torquemada never wrote another one and nor did anyone else. So it seemed the only thing to do was to try to create one myself. So, this year Unbound, the publishers of Cain’s Jawbone, are publishing a new mystery puzzle box by me, the title of which is still secret for now. This time, solvers will receive a box of 100 picture postcards. As with Cain’s Jawbone, they will need to arrange the text sides in the correct order and understand the story told there in order to identify the killer and victim in a series of 10 murders; as well as find a certain crucial address. But in order to do this, they will also need to solve the various puzzles presented by the picture sides.”

Unbound launched the first competition to solve the puzzle for £1,000 in September 2019. It ran for a year until September 2020, when Finnemore was announced as the sole winner. He agreed to keep his solution secret. The second competition was launched with the publication of the paperback edition in February 2021. These winners, who will receive £250 of Unbound credit, have all been notified. Such was the demand that Unbound is accepting entries for another year (until 31st December 2023) but, as yet, there is no prize.