And you have the balls to tell me I’m stealing?
I may appropriate some public domain material, but YOU are a thief for the ages.
Aren’t you ashamed?
How do you sleep at night?
But this is about something else, isn’t it?
I know what it is. You got your big boy diaper in a bunch because the last puzzle was so challenging.
I should probably apologize.
But I’m not going to.
See, Joe, I know there are no shortcuts in life. If you want something badly enough, you have to earn it.
Let’s say you actually pull off the impossible and save a life. That should be a big deal, shouldn’t it? Media attention, talk shows, increased book sales, all because you conquered evil and stopped a murder.
With that many rewards, should it be easy?
I think not.
I think it should be hard. Really hard.
Maybe even the hardest thing you’ve ever done.
Don’t you agree?
The worthwhile things are the ones that took the most effort.
Which brings us to the last puzzle in the HOW group. Solve this, and I’ll reveal HOW I’m going to kill my victim.
You may have noticed that I like puzzles and games. Here is a picture of sixteen of my favorite puzzles.
PUZZLE #12
Which puzzle is the hardest?
And I gotta say, Joe, that I’ve pretty much been spoon-feeding you the answers. Besides giving you easy questions, I’ve been giving you so many generous and revealing hints.
I should stop doing that. There will be no trophy for participation in this game. If you want to save someone, you’re going to have to think, and think hard.
So I’m making this puzzle more esoteric. You’ll need to apply some lateral, out-of-the-box thinking.
But even if you think you know the answer, how are you supposed to type it into the textbox? What am I looking for? The puzzle name? Some sort of rank and file graphing system? Some number from 1 to 16?
Nope. All I want is a descriptor. Fill in the blank.
SPOILER ALERT!
It’s the ______ puzzle.
That may not seem obvious. There are so many adjectives available to use.
Pick the correct one.
Then, when you have all twelve correct answers, take all the clues—you’ve been keeping track of the clues when you solve a puzzle, right? After you put the proper answer into the text box, the clues are at the bottom of the screen.
Twelve answers equals twelve clues.
Write down the clues and go to the “HOW will they be murdered” section of the www.stopamurder.com website.
If you did things right, you’ll get the answer to that question… as well as a surprise.
Hurry, Joe!
You have to move quickly!
Because someone doesn’t have long to live…
I’ll be in touch,
Unknown Senker
From: Joe Konrath
To: Unknown Sender
US—
With some help, I solved all your puzzles.
And I saw your video.
You’re insane.
Maybe I’m not smart enough to catch you.
And maybe you can evade the authorities for a while.
But my readers are clever. And determined.
I’ve had some hardships in my life. Some bad times. Some rotten luck.
I’ve made some bad calls. Been wrong too many times to count.
We all have to deal with uncertainty.
But there is one thing I’ve never been more certain about.
You will be stopped.
Joe Konrath
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I had a lot of help putting this one together. It’s worth taking the time to thank everybody.
First, my wife Maria and son Talon were indispensable. Not only with trying out puzzles, but for putting up with me for weeks as I hit them with brain teaser after brain teaser, trying to find the ones that worked best. Talon also did all of the video editing, and he and Dante Peinado were my crew for shooting all of the movie footage. Dante also appeared as Unknown Sender in several scenes. I’ll let the readers guess who played US the rest of the time.
The puzzles took a lot of work, and Latham Conger III helped out a tremendous amount. A lot of his devious mind is in this book. Also, Latham and I both drew on the tremendous collection of public domain puzzles available on the world wide web. There’s a lot of fun stuff out there, if you look for it.
Chris Klimas and Joel Haddock did Unknown Sender’s website, using a program called Twine that Chris created. If this ebook sparked your imagination to try something similar, hire them at http://unmappedpath.com.
Thanks as always to Rob Siders for the book design (www.52novels.com), Chereese Graves (http://grammar-rulesatoz.blogspot.com) for the proofing, and Carl Graves (www.extendedimagery.com) for the cover art. These guys make everything I do look and read a lot better.
I also had over fifty beta readers volunteer to test drive an early version of this. I’m grateful to them all for giving it a try, and the ones who got back to me quickly with notes and comments deserve to be thanked by name:
Beth Aaron, Christine Bock, John Donald Carlucci, Cara Colyott, Brandee Crisp, Jamie DeBree, Terri Dukes, Amanda Forrest, Teri Fuhrman, Ken Hattaway, S. Alexander Hicks, Megan Jarrett, Matt Linss, Louise Miller, Joe Mulak, Laura MT, Cathy Neumueller, Ann Voss Peterson, G. J. Phoenix, Jill Selkowitz, Ashley Smith, Rita Smith, Mary Stella, and Dawn Williams.
If I missed you, I either didn’t get your notes, or I left you out because I’m old and losing my mind. Shoot me an email and I’ll fix it.
Most of all, thanks to you, the reader, for trying something different from me, or trying something new even though you’ve never heard of me.
If you liked this, please spread the word. If the STOP A MURDER series does well, I’ll write more of them. I’d be foolish not to.
Thanks for reading!
Joe Konrath
JOE KONRATH’S
COMPLETE BIBLIOGRAPHY
JACK DANIELS THRILLERS
WHISKEY SOUR
BLOODY MARY
RUSTY NAIL
DIRTY MARTINI
FUZZY NAVEL
CHERRY BOMB
SHAKEN
STIRRED with Blake Crouch
RUM RUNNER
LAST CALL
SHOT OF TEQUILA
BANANA HAMMOCK
WHITE RUSSIAN
OLD FASHIONED
SERIAL KILLERS UNCUT with Blake Crouch
LADY 52 with Jude Hardin
65 PROOF short story collection
FLOATERS short with Henry Perez
BURNERS short with Henry Perez
SUCKERS short with Jeff Strand
JACKED UP! short with Tracy Sharp
STRAIGHT UP short with Iain Rob Wright
CHEESE WRESTLING short with Bernard Schaffer
ABDUCTIONS short with Garth Perry
BEAT DOWN short with Garth Perry
BABYSITTING MONEY short with Ken Lindsey
OCTOBER DARK short with Joshua Simcox
RACKED short with Jude Hardin
WATCHED TOO LONG short with Ann Voss Peterson
PHINEAS TROUTT THRILLERS
DEAD ON MY FEET
DYING BREATH
EVERYBODY DIES
STOP A MURDER PUZZLE BOOKS
STOP A MURDER – HOW: PUZZLES 1 – 12
STOP A MURDER – WHERE: PUZZLES 13 – 24
STOP A MURDER – WHY: PUZZLES 25 – 36
STOP A MURDER – WHO: PUZZLES 37 – 48
STOP A MURDER – WHEN: PUZZLES 49 – 60
CODENAME: CHANDLER SERIES
EXPOSED with Ann Voss Peterson
HIT with Ann Voss Peterson
NAUGHTY with Ann Voss Peterson
FLEE with Ann Voss Peterson
&n
bsp; SPREE with Ann Voss Peterson
THREE with Ann Voss Peterson
FIX with F. Paul Wilson and Ann Voss Peterson
RESCUE
THE HORROR COLLECTIVE
ORIGIN
THE LIST
DISTURB
AFRAID
TRAPPED
ENDURANCE
HAUNTED HOUSE
WEBCAM
DRACULAS with Blake Crouch, Jeff Strand, and F. Paul Wilson
HOLES IN THE GROUND with Iain Rob Wright
THE GREYS
SECOND COMING
THE NINE
GRANDMA? with Talon Konrath
WILD NIGHT IS CALLING short with Ann Voss Peterson
CLOSE YOUR EYES
FOUND FOOTAGE
TIMECASTER SERIES
TIMECASTER
TIMECASTER SUPERSYMMETRY
TIMECASTER STEAMPUNK
BYTER
EROTICA
(WRITING AS MELINDA DUCHAMP)
FIFTY SHADES OF ALICE IN WONDERLAND
FIFTY SHADES OF ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
WANT IT BAD
FIFTY SHADES OF JEZEBEL AND THE BEANSTALK
FIFTY SHADES OF PUSS IN BOOTS
FIFTY SHADES OF GOLDILOCKS
THE SEXPERTS – FIFTY GRADES OF SHAY
THE SEXPERTS – THE GIRL WITH THE PEARL NECKLACE
THE SEXPERTS – LOVING THE ALIEN
THE SEVEN YEAR WITCH
WHISKEY SOUR
Lieutenant Jacqueline “Jack” Daniels is having a bad week. Her live-in boyfriend has left her for his personal trainer, chronic insomnia has caused her to max out her credit cards with late-night home shopping purchases, and a frightening killer who calls himself ‘The Gingerbread Man’ is dumping mutilated bodies in her district.
While avoiding the FBI and its moronic profiling computer, joining a dating service, mixing it up with street thugs, and parrying the advances of an uncouth PI, Jack and her binge-eating partner, Herb, must catch the maniac before he kills again…and Jack is next on his murder list.
WHISKEY SOUR is the first book in the bestselling Jack Daniels series, full of laugh-out-loud humor and edge-of-your-seat suspense.
TRAPPED
TERRIFIED…
It was supposed to be a harmless camping trip. Six wayward teenagers who’d run into trouble with the law, and their court-appointed guardians, Sara and Martin Randhurst. Three nights on a small, deserted island off of Michigan’s upper peninsula. A time to bond, to learn, to heal.
Then Martin told a campfire story about the island’s history. Of the old civil war prison hidden in there, and the starving confederate soldiers who resorted to cannibalism to stay alive. Everyone thought it was funny. They even laughed when Martin pretended to be dragged off into the woods.
But Martin didn’t come back. And neither did Sara when she went in search of him.
Then the laughter stopped.
…TO DEATH
The group soon began to realize that this deserted island wasn’t so deserted after all. And perhaps Martin’s ridiculous story had more truth to it than anyone thought.
What’s the most horrifying thing you can imagine?
This is a hundred times worse…
TRAPPED by J.A. Konrath
It starts where other horror ends
STOP A MURDER – WHERE
This is unlike any mystery or thriller book you’ve ever read before. You play the sleuth, and try to follow the clues and solve the puzzles to prevent a murder from happening.
In this five-book series, you’ll be tasked with decoding the mind and motivations of a nefarious killer who is plotting to commit an unspeakable crime.
Each book contains an epistolary collection of emails, texts, and letters, sent to bestselling author J.A. Konrath, by a serial killer. This psychopath is leaving detailed, cryptic hints about who will be murdered, why, when, where, and how.
Some of the hints are easy to figure out. Others are much more devious.
Do you like solving mysteries? Do you enjoy puzzles or escape-the-room games? Are you good at spotting clues?
Only you can stop a murder.
Are you smart enough?
Are you brave enough?
Let the games begin…
#2 STOP A MURDER – WHERE: Puzzles 13–24
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STOP A MURDER – HOW
Copyright © 2017 by Joe Konrath
Cover art copyright © 2017 by Carl Graves
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from Joe Konrath.