Accidental Homesteader

This is right up my alley. Eighteen clues, 46,000 names. A big ass logic puzzle. Since I will have lots of waiting time, I thought I’d try this out. Clues in order of solving.

Method begins in body.

First, I separated the clues into chapter clues, page clues, letter clues, and check later. I would start with chapter clues and work my way down.

1. The killer appears in a chapter with a place in its name. I started here, because I could get big chunks out just by looking at the title of the chapter. I just crossed out the pages in color #1.
2. The chapter containing the killer also contains all four Beatles. This was the second one. In each chapter not eliminated before, I looked for all four Beatles. If I found two, I’d keep going looking again. I crossed out the chapters without all four, and marked line four with a red checkmark.

While doing that, I marked doubles (green) and Sasha (navy blue) while looking for Beatles. I eventually saw a Kardashian, and marked that in light blue. Finally, I saw Zack and marked that in purple and crossed out all the remaining pages.

3. The killer’s page is no more than one page away from a Sasha. Next I looked for Sasha. I found a chapter where I missed Beatles, so I updated that. Marked pages around each with Navy Blue.

Current legend:

• Magenta: place name
• Cherry Red, line 4: Beatles
• Navy Blue, line 5: Sasha
• Grass Green, line 6: double
• Sky Blue, line 7: Kardashian.
• Dark Violet: Anna through Zack

My guess for the final 18th clue – one of the possible pages has a blood spot on it.