THE MYSTERY OF MCGUFFIN MANOR

Andrew Chaikin is a musician and game inventor in San Francisco. This crossword contains a whodunit. — W.S. “Thank you for coming, Inspector,” Lady McGuffin said. “The famed McGuffin Diamond has been stolen from my study!

The eight members of the staff had a costume party tonight — it has to be one of them: the butler, driver, cook, baker, page, porter, barber or carpenter. They have all been confined to their respective rooms surrounding the parlor, as shown here.” Can you determine who stole the diamond … and where it is now?

ACROSS

1 Battlefield cry 7 Sprint competitor 12 Pollen-producing plant part 18 About three miles 19 Excoriates 21‘ ‘The Deer Hunter’’ director Michael 22 An antique might have one 23 What a Venn diagram shows 24 Like 25 As you inspect each room, you find staff members dressed as ____ 28 Suspect No. 1 29 Start of a Christmas

refrain 30 ‘‘I like it!’’ 31 Days of old 32 Word that sounds like a number … and is a letter backward 33 Russian pancakes 35 Burn slightly 38 Refusals 39 They’re all ____, so you can easily identify them 44 Popeye’s kid 46 Delta competitor, in brief 47 Woes

50 Suspect No. 2 51 Have trouble

swallowing

53 Like beloved books,

often 55 Showers

56 Tech debut of 1998 58 Tucson school, in brief 61 California-based auto company 62 Bristle of grain 63 What it all adds up to 64 A ways away 65 Suspect No. 3 66 Spawn

69 Music for the masses?

71 Sly and the Family

Stone genre 72 Public spat 74 Considered

76 ____ fusion (type of

cuisine)

78 Some appliances 79 They catch dust

bunnies

82 It might get a licking:

Abbr.

83 Musical family with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame 85 In the study, you find that the thief accidentally left behind an ____ 88 Some sports cars 91 Lots 92 ‘‘That’s ____’’ 93 Some modern ones are smart 96 Four-letter word for a four-letter word 98 In ____ (stuck) 100 Hershey toffee bar 101 Suspect No. 4 102 ‘‘You caught me!,’’ says the thief, who then admits: ‘‘The diamond isn’t here in my room, but it’s hidden in ____’’ 108 ‘‘Hungry’’ game characters 109 What each person gets in an election 110 Spark

111 Ordain

112 Joined at an angle, as two pieces of wood 113 Clothes hanger? 114 Suspect No. 5 115 Suspect No. 6 116 ‘‘Easy now ...’’

DOWN

1 Source of the robe material for Incan royalty

2 Home brewer

3 Tell

4 Spry 5 Brooklyn Coll. is part

of it

6 Thomas who was chairman of the 9/11 Commission 7 Enjoy deeply 8 Salon brand 9 Magazine audience fig. 10 Suspect No. 7 11 Style for Edward Hopper and George Bellows

12 What might come

with fencing? 13 Suspect No. 8 14 Goodwill 15 ‘‘Despicable Me’’

character 16 Intestinal: Prefix 17 Some knotted ropes 19 Elie Wiesel’s homeland 20 Lowest of the eight major taxonomic ranks

26 Flambé 27 Japanese box lunch 33 Oenology : wines ::

zythology : ____ 34 Org. in ‘‘Die Hard’’ 36 Teri with a ‘‘Tootsie’’

role

37 It might be snowy 39 Move off the bottle 40 Chip dip, familiarly 41 Badger 42 Diamond family name 43 Like a bad loser 44 Major source of oxygen in the earth’s atmosphere 45 Janitor’s tool 48 Britain’s Broadway 49 City near Monterey Bay

50 Latches (onto) 51 Delta preceder 52 Like a Debbie Downer 54 Women of honour 56 Kinda

57 Very, in Veracruz 59 Swing and completely miss 60 Getaway for two lovebirds? 67 Ireland’s best-selling solo artist 68 Home of the original Busch Gardens 70 The compass points 71 Hardy bean 72 Campfire treat 73 ‘‘Too busy’’

75 Jr.’s junior 77 Suffix with serpent 78 Leader whose name means, literally, ‘‘commander’’ 80 Kilt feature 81 Space to maneuver a ship 83 Seeped (through} 84 Low on dough

86 Big launch of 1957 87 ‘‘Time for a break’’ 88 Fictional city inspired by New York City 89 Sauce put on falafel 90 Squash 93 Springsteen’s

birthplace, in song 94 Knowledgeable (in) 95 Hard 97 Music to a hitchhiker’s ears 99 Thucydides had one 100 Said a 96-Across 101 Went with 103 Anika ____ Rose, 2004 Tony winner 104 Sunrise direction, in Seville

105 ‘‘Best. Day. ____!’’ 106 Stable diet? 107 Rushing group, informally