We have received a letter. Greywhistle, we should explain, is a village we invented ourselves. Bear that in mind as you read on. The letter is signed “the concerned residents.” The handwriting is suspiciously familiar. We print it in full.

To whom it may concern,

It has come to the village’s attention that two women, who do not even live here, except apparently every day, have published a book called The Village Fête Secret. We wish to register the following objections.

First. The book claims someone in this village has kept a secret for thirty years. This is outrageous. It has been thirty-one.

Second. The book contains 80 word searches, and hidden inside them is the whole story of what actually happened. We consider this a gross breach of privacy, and several of us have already bought a copy to see exactly what has been breached.

Third. A reader with nothing but a pen may work out the culprit before the village council does. The council has had thirty years and one lengthy subcommittee, and we find the comparison hurtful.

Fourth. The book has no reviews on Amazon yet. We should like it to stay that way, and we are watching.

In conclusion: we demand this book be withdrawn from sale immediately. Failing that, we demand it be read properly, with tea, and no peeking at the solutions.

Yours in considerable irritation,

The concerned residents of Greywhistle

IRRITATE THE VILLAGE — READ IT

The book they are complaining about is on Amazon. Eight chapters, eighty puzzles, and a secret the village has kept for thirty-one years now. We refuse to withdraw it.

Let’s begin with what’s true. We are two real friends. We live in Italy, where it is currently 34°C. We drink improbable amounts of tea for that climate, we argue about fonts, and we make puzzles — the kind with a secret hidden inside.

Mrs. Why asks the questions: the puzzles, the plots, and most of the sentences are hers. Mrs. Right knows the answers: the illustrations, the kettle, and the final word are hers. The names are pen names — in a small world everyone knows everyone’s business, and we’d rather they didn’t know ours. Everything else about us is real: the friendship, the deadlines, the heat.

What do we make? Our first world is Greywhistle — a cool English village we built because Italy in July required an exit. We hid a thirty-year-old secret in it and wrote eighty word searches around it. That became a book. There will be other worlds, other puzzles, other secrets. The village came first; it won’t be last.

This newsletter is our home, and it works like this: on Tuesdays we write you a letter — from the village, or from our real kitchen (names removed, heat included). On Saturdays we send a free hand-built word search. Whatever we make, one promise holds: there is always a hidden word. (P.S. Starting in August)

New here? Subscribers get a free prequel case, The Case of the Missing Marrow — six puzzles, twelve letters, one culprit.

Tell us in the comments where you’re reading from, and what the weather’s doing there. We collect weather reports the way other people collect stamps.

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