Billed as Poirot’s last case, Agatha Christie’s Curtain depends on a crossword for its plot – how does it fare?
Sorry, but as Christmas approaches, it is time for another reading recommendation. We have recently pointed you at a graphic novel about the history of puzzles and at the first novel by Guardian setter Picaroon, each of which remains heavily recommended. Time for a peek at a golden-age yarn.
‘Even love—or third party risk?’ I read out. ‘Eight letters.’
The chaps between the hills are unkind (9)
‘Quotation: “And Echo whate’er is asked her answers” – blank. Tennyson. Five letters.’
I HATE the dreadful hollow behind the little wood,
Its lips in the field above are dabbled with blood-red heath,
The red-ribb’d ledges drip with a silent horror of blood,
And Echo there, whatever is ask’d her, answers “Death.”
25ac Just one of Iago’s drowsy medicines (5)
IAGO
[…] Not poppy, nor mandragora,
Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,
Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep
Which thou owedst yesterday.
I heard the teaspoon rattle on Barbara Franklin’s saucer.
I went on to the next clue. “‘Jealousy is a green-eyed monster,’ this person said.”
IAGO
O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;
It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock
The meat it feeds on