Solution to the “Murder, Mystery and Mince Pies!” Christmas mystery…

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Phase 1

These clues established the circumstances of Black’s death and also that each of the four Committee Members had a motive to kill him.

The letter from Black to Pinkerton shows that Black was planning to demonstrate his Art Historical Spectacles on the ancestral portrait of Club Chairman Torquil Arbuthnot—revealing that the image of his own head had been added much later, suggesting that Arbuthnot is not whom he claims to be and is, in fact, an impostor. Since Arbuthnot’s status and wealth are based on his lineage this public revelation would be disastrous for him. The fact that the letter was found in his room shows he knows what was in it. Thus his motive would have been to kill Black before his revelation could be made.

The newspaper clipping reveals that the very existence of the spectacles could, if they were mass-produced, undermine the whole burlesque industry—upon which Horatio Scotney-Le Cheyne’s wealth is based. Thus killing Black before this can happen is Horatio’s motive.

The letter from Clayton Hartley to The Times, and the paper’s reply, show that he considered the spectacles to have been plagiarised from his own wife’s work—thus denying him the independent income he so desperately wants. Thus his motive for killing Black would be revenge.

Finally the letter from the Reverend Muskrat, the local vicar, shows that recently Artemis Scarheart had a look at the parish records and discovered that, contrary to popular belief, he was not actually Black’s illegitimate son (and therefore heir). So his motive was to kill Black (and inherit) before this fact became known.

Phase 2

These four clues established possible murder weapons.

The warning sign clearly comes from a trouser press (and we know that the one in Black’s room was the only one in the building). The fact that—despite a clear instruction that it was not to be removed from the faulty device—it was found in the bin in Horatio’s room suggests he might have murdered Black simply by deliberately removing the sign, allowing Black to be electrocuted.

The letter from Hartley to the Patent Office suggests that he knew his prototype clockwork self-tightening necktie could, if calibrated in a certain way, prove lethal to the wearer. Did he murder Black by deliberately presenting Black with a tie calibrated in this way? Only he would have known how to do it and Black would have no reason to be suspicious.

The invoice from Snoot and Koff shows that Scarheart purchased the snuff on the Snuff Bar and had access to rat poison. Did he kill Black by offering him poisoned snuff? He would have known which of the 24 tins was poisoned and which was not.

The blowpipe found in the garden suggested that Torquil—who grew up in Nigeria—might have used the Nigerian weapon to poison Black with curare.

Phase 3

These three clues served to eliminate suspects.

The phone message from the electrical supply company shows that at the time of Black’s death there was a complete power cut to the area—so there is no way he could have been electrocuted by the faulty trouser press. This lets Horatio off the hook.

The telegram from the doctor shows that both Black and Arbuthnot were fatally allergic to tobacco and knew this fact well. This shows that there is no way Black would have accepted snuff from anyone—so he couldn’t have been killed by Scarheart’s poisoned snuff. It also suggests it is extremely unlikely that Torquil Arbuthnot would have used the blowpipe, since it had recently been used for smoking tobacco.

Finally, the pages from the book, a memoir of days in South American, reveal that Black was in fact immune to the effects of curare, so he could not have been killed by the blowpipe dart, by Torquil or anyone else.

So, by a process of elimination, the murderer must be Clayton Hartley using the deliberately lethally calibrated clockwork necktie.