Murder at Pettifog Hall
Hints & Solutions
Murder at Pettifog Hall
VICTIM
Hint 1
Don’t speed past your letter from Chief Constable Cobblesworth!
Hint 2
Perhaps those marks on the paper’s edge are more than just a postal barcode.
Hint 3
Each bar along the side of the letter has a matching bar of the same length and thickness across the bottom of the page. If you extend the matching lines, what letters are at the point where they intersect?
Solution
Lord Charles Carmichael
TIME OF MURDER
Hint 1
Ivy’s stamp collection seems to be arranged in a particular way.
Hint 2
It seems that some of these stamps are duplicates…
Hint 3
Draw a straight line between the matching duplicate stamps and see what appears.
Solution
7.10pm
LOCATION OF MURDER
Hint 1
Perhaps Ivy can periodically lend you a certain encyclopaedia.
Hint 2
See the newspaper advert for Chesterton’s Complete Chemists' Encyclopaedia. You may want to look up the periodic table of the elements as a handy reference.
Hint 3
The numbers on the Encyclopaedia advert correspond to atomic numbers from the periodic table.
Identify the element abbreviations (chemical symbols) for each atomic number, and two words will appear.
Solution
Back gate
WEAPON (part 1)
Hint 1
It looks like you can drink a free cocktail during the interval of Private Lives.
Hint 2
You can overlay the Bauhaus Bar drink token on the Private Lives flyer. Align the cigarettes on both.
Hint 3
The vertical rectangular boxes reveal the next instruction: Join N, S, E, W (North, South, East, West).
Solution
This points you to the markings N, S, E, W, on Jacques' fashion sketch.
WEAPON (PART 2)
Hint 1
Jacques’ fashion sketch is charming, although these symbols are odd.
Hint 2
Follow the Weapon Part 1 instruction and ‘join’ the corners marked N, S, E, W, by folding them into the middle of the paper, along the marked lines. This will cover the sketch of the woman's face.
Turn your paper over to find four more corners marked N, S, E, W – fold them into the middle of the paper too.
Fold the square in half and unfold. Turn 90 degrees and repeat.
Hint 3
Slide your fingers underneath the squares and bring them together to operate the fortune teller. If in doubt, look up: ‘How to make a paper fortune teller’ (starting at approx. 2 mins into the video).
Once you operate the fortune teller, a picture will appear, as well as seven letters, arranged at random.
Unscramble the letters and combine with the picture.
Solution
Arsenic in glass of wine
ACCOMPLICE MOTIVE
Hint 1
The drink token and the newspaper appear to share a symbol.
Hint 2
You can overlay the drink token on the newspaper advertisement for Uncle Percy’s
Cure-All Tonic. When you align the drinking glass on each, the horizontal rectangular boxes give you a clue.
Hint 3
The horizontal boxes reveal the message 'affair between old flames'.
Combine this information with the note on the Private Lives flyer, information from the inspector’s notebook, and the newspaper, to deduce the accomplice motive.
You will need to discover the premise of the play.
Solution
The accomplice was still in love with his former wife, Lady Carmichael.
ACCOMPLICE
Hint 1
The design of Mary’s invitation looks curious. The repeating pattern of the invitation is inconsistent – some lines are broken.
Hint 2
The broken lines are Morse code: the short gaps are dots, the long gaps are dashes.
Hint 3
Each diamond containing a broken line spells out one letter in Morse code. There are broken lines in 10 of the diamonds, giving you 10 letters.
Hint 4
The 10 letters spell: The Dr helps
Solution
Dr Robert Hatchett
MURDERER MOTIVE
Hint 1
Who sent this strange missive?
Hint 2
Have you noticed the telegram’s vertical red lines?
Hint 3
Read the letters positioned in the path of the vertical red lines.
Solution
Revenge, for deserting the murderer's mother
MURDERER
Hint 1
The Dragon’s first flight is quite a remarkable feat – there are a lot of firsts in that newspaper article.
Hint 2
Find the first letter of each sentence in the newspaper article – what does it spell?
Hint 3
The first letter of each sentence in the article spells: 'Lord C didn't have a bastard son.'
Together with the answer to the Victim and the Motive, you can deduce that the murderer is both a child of Lord Charles', and is not male.
Hint 4
Rather, the murderer was Lord Charles' illegitimate daughter.
Now you can deduce her identity.
As his wife and niece respectively, both Lady Elodie and Ivy Carmichael can be eliminated from suspicion, as neither are his daughter.
Solution
Miss Mary Armstrong