The Torquemada Puzzle Book: A Miscellany of Crosswords, Acrostics, Anagrams, Verbal Pastimes and Problems, Etc., Etc. & Cain's Jawbone: A Torquemada Mystery Novel
London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1934.
First edition. 320 pp. + 16 blank perforated sheets of tracing paper at rear. Bound in publisher's red and black cloth with black spine lettering; lacking the dust jacket. Very Good+ with light lean and sunning to spine, slight bowing to boards, and light wear and soiling to cloth. Light foxing to textblock edges and endpapers; musty odor to contents.
A book of puzzles containing the notoriously difficult bibliomystery Cain's Jawbone, which only three people have officially solved. The author's pseudonym, taken from the famous torturer of the Spanish Inquisition, has proven to be apt. As Mel Brooks put it in The History of the World Part 1, "Torquemada; do not employ him for compassion. Torquemada; do not beg him for forgiveness. Torquemada; do not ask him for mercy. Let's face it... you can't Torquemada anything."
Price: $1,250