Posted on November 23, 2021 at 10:00 AM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek

Some folks in the publishing industry are assuring authors that they can, in fact, sell books through TikTok.

Here’s another such testimonial.

The Guardian reports that Cain’s Jawbone, a literary puzzle published in 1934, is flying off shelves.

The murder mystery requires readers to first reorder one hundred jumbled pages, then solve the deaths of six people.

It was invented by the Observer’s first cryptic crossword inventor, Edward Powys Mathers, who was known as Torquemada.

And to date, the Guardian says, only four people have solved it — two of those in the 1930s.

The Laurence Sterne Trust reissued it after it spent decades out of print and added a prize; when it appeared in paperback this July, TikTok user Sarah Scannell (@saruuuuuuugh) decided to tackle it publicly.

That appears to have inspired some of her 60,000-plus followers to do the same.

The Guardian has plenty more to share about the sold-out Cain’s Jawbone, Scannell’s quest, and the prize money still available.

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Categories: Today in Books

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