Saturday, December 31, 2011 - Mystery Theme

Introduction

From time to time, the theme of the puzzle is a mystery - and today this is literally - or literarily - the case. In today's puzzle from Cox and Rathvon, in which the theme is spelled out in 3d, we are introduced to a six-pack of famous fictional detectives.

I just realized that I blogged the wrong puzzle yesterday, having failed to notice that the National Post had published both the Friday, December 30, 2011 and the Monday, January 2, 2012 puzzles yesterday. Well, at least Monday is taken care of - now back to Friday!

Solution to Today's Puzzle

Legend:	"*" anagram; "~" sounds like; "<" letters reversed
	"( )" letters inserted; "_" letters deleted; "†" explicit in the clue

Across

1a   {NERO WOLFE}* - anagram (cultivated) of ONE FLOWER

Nero Wolfe is a fictional detective, created in 1934 by the American mystery writer Rex Stout.

6a   MA|SON - MA (mother) + (and) SON (child)

Perry Mason is a fictional character, a defense attorney who was the main character in works of detective fiction authored by Erle Stanley Gardner.

9a   A(LIMO)NY - LIMO (limousine) contained in (included in) ANY (some)

10a   RECLAIM* - anagram (plastic) of MIRACLE

11a   A|U|GUSTE D|UP|IN - A (†) + U (university) + GUSTED (blown) + UP (†) + (by) IN (popular)

Le Chevalier C. Auguste Dupin is a fictional detective created by Edgar Allan Poe. Dupin made his first appearance in Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841), widely considered the first detective fiction story. He reappears in "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt" (1842) and "The Purloined Letter" (1844).

14a   WE|ARIES - WE (you and I) + ARIES (sign [of the zodiac])

15a   CA(BINE)T - BINE (twining plant) contained in (in) CAT (beatnik)

17a   M(IT)OSES - IT (the thing) contained in (held by) MOSES (Hebrew phophet)

Note: the setters have employed an inverted sentence structure in the clue.

19a   RI(CARD)O - CARD (comedian) contained in (in) RIO (Brazilian resort)

Ricardo Montalbán (1920 – 2009) was a Mexican radio, television, theatre and film actor.

20a   {SIMON TEMPLAR}* - anagram (confused) of SIMPLE MATRON

Simon Templar is a British fictional character known as The Saint featured in a long-running series of books by Leslie Charteris. Although The Saint functions as an ordinary detective in some stories, others depict ingenious plots to get even with vanity publishers and other ripoff artists, greedy bosses who exploit their workers, con men, etc.

24a   EARRING* - anagram (shifted) of NEAR RIG

25a   THE|ORE|M_ - THE () + ORE (valuable rock) + M {magazine's first; i.e., the first [letter] of M(agazine)}

26a   _SPA|DE_ - hidden in (carried by) VeSPA DEtained

Sam Spade, a fictional character who is the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon,  is widely cited as the crystallizing figure in the development of the hard-boiled private detective genre.

27a   LE(W AR)CHER - LECHER (libertine) containing (holding) WAR (big fight)

Lew Archer, a fictional character created by Ross Macdonald, is a private detective working in Southern California.

Down
1d   (NO|AH}~ - sounds like (vocally) {KNOW (recognize) + A (†)}

The biblical story of Noah is contained in chapters 6–9 of the book of Genesis, where he saves his family (his wife, three sons, and their wives) and representatives of all animals from the flood by constructing an ark. Note: the question mark in the clue indicates that the setters have exercised a degree of cryptic license with respect to the definition (zookeeper).

2d   _RAIN - [T]RAIN (coach) minus the first letter (after the first)

3d   WHODUNITS* - anagram (developed) of WITH SOUND

4d   LA(YOU)TS - LATS (muscles) containing (around) YOU (†)

5d   ER(RAT)IC - ERIC (Norse explorer) containing (catching) RAT (†)

Erik Thorvaldsson (950 – c. 1003), known as Erik the Red, is remembered in medieval and Icelandic saga sources as having founded the first Nordic settlement in Greenland. Note: The setters have chosen to use an anglicized version of his name.

6d   M(ACE)D - MD (doctor) containing (acquires) ACE (hole in one; a golf term)

7d   SHAR(PEN)ERS - SHARERS (unselfish people) containing (keeping) PEN (quill)

8d   NO(MINA*)TION - NOTION (idea) containing (about) an anagram (changing) of AMIN

Idi Amin Dada (c. 1925 – 2003) was a military leader and President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979.

12d   {TWO-MASTERS}* - anagram (sailing) of MOST WATERS

13d   SAN(TA MARI)A - TAMARI (soy sauce) contained in (in) SANA (Aden's capital)

La Santa María de la Inmaculada Concepción (Spanish for The Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception), was the largest of the three ships used by Christopher Columbus in his first voyage.

16d   BUCCANEER~ - sounds like (said) "BUCK AN EAR" ("Dollar for each cob of corn")

18d   {STEN|GEL}< - reversal (returning) of {LEG (flight segment) + NETS (brings home)}

Casey Stengel (1890 – 1975) was an American Major League Baseball outfielder and manager. Although his baseball career spanned a number of teams and cities, he is primarily associated with clubs in New York City. He is the only man to have worn four of New York's major league clubs' uniforms - as a player for the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants and as a manager for the Dodgers, Yankees and Mets. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966.

19d   {ROPE TOW}* - anagram (lost) of POWER TO

21d   NO(I)SE - I (†) contained in (found in) NOSE (honker)

22d   ARCH - double definition; "clever" & "curve"

23d   O|MAR - O ([looks like] wheel) + MAR (damage)

Omar Bradley (1893 – 1981) was a senior U.S. Army field commander in North Africa and Europe during World War II, and a General of the Army in the United States Army.

Happy New Year to everyone - Falcon