The Perks Of Being A Book Addict discussion

                        

It's a Crime! February Mini Challenge

This is an optional mini challenge for our UNO players. This month we are testing your detective skills

You will be given a mystery (posted below) and it is up to you to solve it. There are also three clues that you can earn to help you solve the mystery!

◈ Books can be started at any point since the start of the UNO challenge (Feb 1)
◈ Books need to be read after the start of this mini challenge on February 14, 7pm AEDST (countdown is here) and before March 1 at 7pm AEDST (Countdown to March is here)
◈ As a team, you will need to complete some tasks, and spell-it-outs that are related to the story. All of the tasks you need to complete are on your team spreadsheet.
These are:
1. Read a book with a housekeeper, maid or servant in the story
2. Read a book where the main character works in the medical field
3. Read a book tagged MPG science
4. Read a book where a murder occurs
5. Read a book tagged MPG mystery
6. Read a book based in Sweden or by a Swedish author
7. Read a book with an alliterative title
SPELL-IT-OUTS
Livingston ESQ
Attending Nurse
Forensics
For each task completed, or letter spelled out, your team will receive 10 points.

◈ BONUS 50 points: Solve our original mystery "The Corpulent Corpse"
To solve, your team must first complete all tasks and spell-it-outs on the spreadsheet. Then the captain / co-captain needs to PM the Pixie account with answers to the following questions (don't forget to include your team name!!):
- Who killed Faustus Dutton?
- How was it done?
- What was it about the killer that gave him or her away?
Your team get up to three guesses

◈ Need clues to solve the mystery?
As you complete one task in each of the first three parts (not the spell-it-outs, just the numbered task) you can request a clue from the Pixie account


◈ Books used for this mini challenge do not need to be separate books for what you are claiming for your UNO hands
◈ The usual book length rules apply
◈ Team spreadsheets will be updated with a mini challenge tab so that you can track your books and claim your points

Spell-it-out rules
For this mini-challenge, you are using the same rules that apply for UNO. So a letter needs to be the first letter in the book title, author first name or surname, character name or nickname, or setting. Articles (a/an/the) can be ignored in the book titles. For this spell-it-out, you can also use the first letter in the series name.

So put on your hats and grab those magnifying glasses and lets get started!

                        

Story - The Corpulent Corpse
~writer unknown~

Donna Livingston, Esq., rushed into Detective Tubert’s office like a charging bull. “I know. I’m late.” She plopped herself on his torn leather chair. “Elaine Dutton was an hour late dropping the letter off at my office. Some sort of evening gown emergency… she’s a seamstress, you know.”

“Donna Livingston, I presume.”

“Gosh, I never heard that one before.” Tubert felt foolish as she pulled an envelope from her purse.

“It’s been a year since their father’s death,” said Tubert.

“Why did it take so long for this letter to surface?”

“The day Faustus Dutton died, his three kids started fighting over how to split up his autograph collection, which is probably worth about $25 million.”

Tubert whistled. “What’d he have? A posthumous Elvis?”

“A love letter from George Washington to Martha, an original Beethoven score, an alleged Shakespeare poem, a smattering of Kings and Czars… that sort of thing.”

Tubert whistled again.

“One of them wants to sell the collection immediately,” she continued, “another insists it’ll double in value if they hold onto it for a few years, and the third one doesn’t want to sell the it at all. And of course they’ve all got favorites they want to keep as mementos.

“As the executor, I’ve been trying to work out a solution ever since. In the meantime, they decided to padlock his room and give me the key for safekeeping to make sure none of them could slip anything out of the collection until matters were settled.

Yesterday, they finally came to an agreement. When we opened the room to retrieve the collection, I found this letter in his desk.”

Tubert pulled the folded page from its envelope. “To Whom It May Concern,” it began in a jagged scrawl, “In the event of my death, I, Faustus Dutton, hereby formally request a police investigation. The reason for this is simple: I know that one of my children murdered me.”

Tubert looked up. “You think this is true?”

“His kids do. They just don’t know which one of them did it, so they asked me to turn the matter over to the police.” After a year, Tubert knew the trail would be colder than an Eskimo’s sole, but the dead man’s plea intrigued him. “I guess we’ll have to exhume the body.”

Tubert lifted the heavy bronze knocker on the massive oak door and let it drop.

Donna answered. “Welcome to Dutton Manor.”

She waved him into an enormous foyer and led him into a two-story library where he found two men and a woman waiting.

“Lieutenant Tubert, allow me to introduce my clients,” she said, “Sam, Jack and Elaine.”

Tubert made the rounds to shake hands, noting that the siblings were sitting as far from each other as possible. There was no love lost in this family.

“We were so pleased that you decided to dig up the body,” said Elaine. I know Daddy’s letter was bizarre, and the police are so busy…”

“Cut the crap, Elaine.” Jack said impatiently.

“No need to get snippy,” she chided.

Sam interrupted, “Can we just get on with it?” Tubert was only too happy to.

“I called this meeting because the autopsy results came back last night and confirmed your father’s fears: he was murdered.”

The three siblings exchanged glances.

“The body was significantly decomposed,” Tubert continued, “but they were still able find evidence of succinylcholine.”

“Succi-what?” asked Donna.”It’s like a synthetic curare,” said Sam, “paralyzes the muscles. We use it in anesthesia.”

“Sam’s an ICU nurse,” explained Elaine.

“Which makes Sam the only one with access to the stuff, eh nursie?” Jack sniggered.

“It’s not a controlled substance like narcotics are,” interjected Tubert. “Someone motivated enough to commit murder wouldn’t have much trouble lifting the stuff from a hospital.”

Sam pounced on this: “Especially someone with a history of shoplifting like Jack.”

“I was a teenager, for chrissake.”

“I hate to interrupt the lovefest,” said Tubert, “but I’d like to see where your father died.”

They mounted the stairs to the fourth floor.

“This was Faustus’ bedroom,” said Donna. “It’s been locked since the police broke in except for when we came in to get the collection and found the letter.”

She took a key out of her purse and unlocked a massive padlock that sealed the room. As she swung open the door, she said “They found him in bed, on his back. It looked just like a heart attack — he had a history of angina.”

Tubert surveyed the room. It was octagonal in shape, with windows looking out in all directions, not only locked but double- bolted.

He checked for signs of tampering on the windows. He rummaged through the bedside drawers. He knelt and examined the bed, lifting the sheets to check the mattress. He looked through the dresser and the closet. He stood on a chair to check the swag lamp hanging over the bed. Nothing unusual anywhere.

Turning to examine the door, Tubert saw three arrays of splintered holes on the doorjamb.

“There used to be three deadbolts there,” explained Donna.

“The police had to use a battering ram to get in.”

“Daddy locked himself in every night,” said Elaine.

“Bastard didn’t even trust his own kids,” Jack muttered.

“He apparently had good reason,” remarked Tubert.

“What was it?” “Money. What else?” said Jack.

Elaine explained, “The Friday before he died, Daddy told us he was going to Donna’s office on Monday to give his entire autograph collection to The Smithsonian.”

“We all knew he’d been thinking about it,” added Sam, “but this was the first time he’d actually told us he was going to do it.”

Jack scowled bitterly. “Just like the old weasel to tell us before he did it so he could watch us beg for our inheritance.” “So someone tried to stop him by slipping the poison into his food that weekend?” Donna asked.

Tubert shook his head. “I’m afraid not. Succinylcholine is poorly absorbed in the intestines. Someone had to inject it. Depending on the dose, death could have occurred within seconds.”

“But that’s impossible!” said Donna. “How could someone have done that if the room was securely locked from the inside?” “That’s the question, isn’t it?” replied Tubert. “But I’m pretty sure I know who did it and how. And a simple search will prove it.”

FAQ

Q: If we request a clue after finishing a task, does that affect the points?
A: Nope. No penalties for requesting clues
====

Q: for that task number 3. Does it have to be ``science`` specifically or can it have an MPG that is a science? Like biology or psychology?
A: It needs to be science, but if it is science and then a subcategory on the main page (e.g. Science-biology) then that is ok
====

Q: re alliterative title: is there a minimum number of title words & alliterative words?
eg
1.Cappuccino Corpse - two word title, both alliterative
2.Champagne and Catastrophes - three word title, two of which are alliterative
3.Cabs, Cakes, and Corpses - min three alliterative, less non-alliterative than not
4.Crumb Cake, Corpses and the Run of the Mill - min three alliterative, don't care about how much isn't alliterative.
ETA: I just picked titles, I've not looked at page lengths - it's the principle rather than the specifics here :

A:I think the first one and third one are fine. The last one I wouldn’t count as there is no continuation of the C sound at the end of the sentence.
The second one doesn't work as there is a SH sound and a K sound.

Taking from your dictionary:

Not every word in a sentence must be alliterative. You can use prepositions, pronouns, and other parts of speech, and still maintain the overall, alliterative effect.
Words don't have to start with the same letter to be alliterative, just the same sound, so "Finn fell for Phoebe" is alliterative as the digraph ph makes a "fuh" sound.
====

Q: What is MPG?
A: It is what is listed as "GENRES" on the book page. E.g.: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8...
It is NOT the list you get when you click "see top shelves

More questions?

Ask your captains who will take them to the captains group

💉 Elaine killed Faustus Dutton

💉 A syringe full of toxin was hidden inside the mattress. When Faustus Dutton lay down, he compressed the mattress, forcing the needle into his back and depressing the plunger.

💉 The syringe could only have been hidden by an expert seamstress.



All three siblings had the same motive: to prevent their father from giving away their inheritance. And living in the house, all three had the same opportunity to sneak into their father’s bedroom during the daytime.

All three had an opportunity to steal the fatal drug from the nurse’s station when their father was recovering from his angioplasty two weeks before his death. And any of the three could have gotten into their father’s room to hide the syringe in the daytime, when it was predictably empty and unlocked.

Motive and opportunity being equal, Tubert focused on the means by which the toxin had been delivered. The room was locked from the inside, so the victim was alone in the room when he was killed. He died within seconds of being injected, so he couldn’t have locked the door behind his murderer before realizing he had been poisoned. If some sort of drug-delivering projectile had been shot into the victim, they would have found the needle when they did the autopsy.

Tubert deduced that the murderer had secreted an extended syringe full of the succinylcholine inside the mattress with the needle pointing up, just below the surface of the mattress. When Faustus Dutton had laid down and compressed the mattress against the platform bed, his enormous weight had pushed the needle into his back and compressed the plunger, self-administering the deadly toxin.

Assuming the death to have been a heart attack, no one had checked for needle marks at the time of death. And the murder weapon had not been visible when the body was removed because the mattress had expanded back to its normal height, once again concealing the deadly needle within. The murderer, not anticipating that the room would be locked up, had planned to remove the syringe without a trace in the same manner in which it was planted.

When Tubert examined the bed, he saw no evidence of tampering on the mattress. But he knew that the murder weapon had to be inside it. Which meant that the murderer had to have been the only suspect with the skills to take the mattress apart and sew it back together so expertly that no one would notice — Elaine, the professional seamstress.