Olive & Line Press · The casebook
Nobody Saw Santa
One hundred thousand names. Eighteen clues. One of them is a lie. Use this page beside the book: hints that start gentle, checks for your counts, a test for the lie and a final answer check. Nothing here shows the solution unless you ask for it.
How do you want to play?
The eighteen clues (as printed on pages 4 and 5)
Case closed
You found Santa's killer.
Turn to the Solution on the last page to read who it was, and why the lie gave itself away. Share your result without spoiling it:
Step 1
Find the lie
Seventeen clues are true. One was planted by the killer. You can prove which one it is before you read a single name.
Step 2
Retire whole ledgers
Use the true clues about grade, division and ledger number. Then count what is left.
Step 3
Narrow by position
Apply the true clues about folio and entry numbers to the ledgers you kept.
Step 4
Read the names
Only now do you read names. Apply the true clues about letters.
Step 5
The last clue
One true clue is left. It decides between the names you still have.
Your answer
Name the killer
Copy the name exactly as printed, with its ledger, folio and entry.
Hard mode
The lie and the killer
No hints and no checks along the way. Submit both together. You will only be told whether you are right.
Your progress is saved only in this browser.
About the book