Crossword Ends in Violence (5)

[girlyswot]

Last week I had the pleasure and privilege of proofreading a novel written by the very talented James Cary. It was funny, intriguing, tender and a jolly good read. How can you not love a novel with a cryptic crossword to solve in the middle of it?

In Jam's words:

It’s about a professional crossword setter who discovers some worrying things about his grandfather. It’s also about D-Day, security leaks, codewords, Bletchley Park and chess. Like Robert Harris. But with jokes. It is a quintessentially British comedy thriller.

The jokes are good - I laughed out loud more than once. The history is pretty good too - I'm no expert but it feels like Jam knows his stuff. And the mystery is convoluted enough to keep interest right to the end.

So, now that you've worked out how many copies of this brilliant novel you'll need, where can you get hold of it?

It's all available here. You can read the first few sections online. If you can solve the crossword clues, you can download each section of the manuscript in pdf form and print it out yourself. Or you can wait a couple of days and then order a printed copy from Lulu. I'll definitely be getting a copy for my dad who is officially the hardest person in the world to buy presents for.