Solutions for the Mystery Word Ladders

Here are the solutions for the mystery word ladders presented in this post. Go to the link if you want the puzzles without solutions. There are likely shorter answers to some of these: these were handmade.

The dots represent several steps.

STAB to BACK in 7 steps.

STAB, SLAB, BLAB, BLAM, BEAM, BEAK, BECK, BACK

From DANGER to SAFETY in 10 steps.

DANGER, DINGER,DINGEY, DINKEY, DINKLY, DANKLY, LANKLY, LANELY, SANELY, SAFELY, SAFETY. 

From CRIME to CUFFS in 10 steps.

CRIME, PRIME, PRIMS, PROMS, PROFS, POOFS, GOOFS, GOLFS, GULFS, GUFFS, CUFFS

POE to ECO in 13 steps. (Poe and Eco are not Scrabble words, but the connecting words are)

POE, POT, BOT, BOA, BRA, ERA, ERE, ARE, ALE, ALA, AGA, AGO, EGO, ECO

From TRIAL to GUILT in 18 steps.

TRIAL, TRIAD, TRIED, TREED, FREED, FREES, FRETS, FRATS, FLATS, PLATS, PLATE, ELATE, ELITE, ELIDE, GLIDE, GUIDE, GUILE, GUILT

From JEWEL to HEIST in 18 steps. 

JEWEL, JEBEL, REBEL, REPEL, RAPEL, RAPES, ROPES, ROSES, POSES, POSEY, MOSEY, MOSSY, MOUSY, MOUSE, HOUSE, HORSE, HORST, HOIST, HEIST

From HOLMES to MARPLE in 25 steps. 

HOLMES, HOLIES, HOLIER, HOLLER, TOLLER, TILLER, TILTER, TITTER, BITTER, BUTTER, CUTTER CURTER, CURSER, PURSER, PURGER, BURGER, BURGEE, BURGLE, BURBLE, BUBBLE, RUBBLE, RABBLE, GABBLE, GARBLE, MARBLE, MARPLE

Martin Hill Ortiz is a Professor of Pharmacology at Ponce Health Sciences University and has researched HIV for over thirty years.

https://mdhillortiz.com/

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Mystery Word Ladder With Hints

Here are hints for the mystery word ladders presented in yesterday's post. Go to yesterday's post if you want the puzzles without clues. Wait for tomorrow's post if you want the full answers. There are likely shorter answers to some of these: these were handmade.

The dots represent several steps.

STAB to BACK in 7 steps.

STAB, SLAB, _ _ _ _, . . . . _ _ _ _, BECK, BACK

From DANGER to SAFETY in 10 steps.

DANGER, DINGER, _ _ _ _ _ _, . . . .DANKLY . . . . _ _ _ _ _ _, SAFELY, SAFETY. 

From CRIME to CUFFS in 10 steps.

CRIME, PRIME, _ _ _ _ _, . . . . GOOFS, . . . . _ _ _ _ _, GUFFS, CUFFS

POE to ECO in 14 steps. (Poe and Eco are not Scrabble words, but the connecting words are)

POE, POT, _ _ _, . . . ., ERE, . . . ., _ _ _, EGO, ECO

From TRIAL to GUILT in 18 steps.

TRIAL, TRIAD, _ _ _ _ _, . . . . ., FREED, . . . . ., PLATE, . . . . ., _ _ _ _ _, GUILE, GUILT

From JEWEL to HEIST in 18 steps. 

JEWEL, JEBEL, _ _ _ _ _, . . . ., ROPES, . . . ., MOSEY, . . . ., _ _ _ _ _, HOIST, HEIST

From HOLMES to MARPLE in 25 steps. 

HOLMES, HOLIES, _ _ _ _ _ _, BITTER, . . . ., BURGEE, . . . . . ., _ _ _ _ _ _, MARBLE, MARPLE

Some people take word ladders seriously, plugging all words of a certain length into a computer and using a program to find the optimal paths. This generated this graph for six letter words. 

The programmer found that the longest word ladder needed to connect two words in the shortest manner is 49 words long: CHARGE to COMEDO.

Martin Hill Ortiz is a Professor of Pharmacology at Ponce Health Sciences University and has researched HIV for over thirty years.

https://mdhillortiz.com/

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Mystery Word Ladders

It has been some time since I've made a non-coronavirus post. A fair number of earlier posts are related to my passion for mystery stories and mystery writing. Among other works, I have had three mystery stories appear in Mystery Weekly in the last few months, April, May and June. 

I also have a general passion for words. Words are chewy and when you masticate enough of them, you can build anything that can be imagined.

There is a type of word game called "word ladders." In word ladders, police are always one step away from being polite, and jail is followed by bail. The rules are you change words one letter at time to make the destination word. All transitions must also be words. I use the Official Scrabble Dictionary as judge as to what is a word and I never use proper name or words with hyphens or apostrophes. What constitutes a Scrabble word can be found at a number of sites online.

For example, I once became obsessed with changing the words that spell out numbers, one to another, for each instance when the word lengths are the same. One to Two in four steps (the fourth step being the destination word). 

ONE

ONO

OHO

THO

TWO

Ono, oho, and tho are in the Scrabble dictionary. Sometimes to crack these you need less common words.

The above example was simple. I had a hellacious time transforming seven into eight, working on and off on the problem for months. I would guess it took forty steps. I have the answer in an old writing journal. 

Here are some mystery word ladders from relatively simple to fiendishly hard. The fiendishly hard ones took me hours to construct. There may be quicker ways from one to another that I didn't find. I will publish hints tomorrow and the answers two days from now.

JURY to HUNG in 4 steps.

MYSTERY to WRITERS in 5 steps.

STAB to BACK in 7 steps.

From DANGER to SAFETY in 10 steps.

From CRIME to CUFFS in 10 steps.

POE to ECO in 14 steps. (I realize Poe and Eco are not Scrabble words, but the connecting words are)

And now for the fiendishly hard.

From TRIAL to GUILT in 18 steps.

From JEWEL to HEIST in 18 steps. (Jewel heists often take elaborate planning)

From HOLMES to MARPLE in 25 steps. (All the connecting words are Scrabble words)

Until tomorrow, good luck. 

Martin Hill Ortiz is a Professor of Pharmacology at Ponce Health Sciences University and has researched HIV for over thirty years.

https://mdhillortiz.com/

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And Now For Some Fun: Mystery Games on the Web

Below are links to some mystery games, many quizzes, some of them trivia. The quality of these can vary. Sometimes the answers require an unfair exactness or mind-reading, e.g., Sherlock Holmes sidekick: Dr. John H. Watson. (Not John Watson or Doctor Watson. Other times the trivia quiz creator was more generous in allowing alternate answers. I've tried to present the best up front and for those desperate for more, they can follow the links to further games. (Note: the term mystery gets used for a number of purposes in these quizzes, such as Who is this mystery actor? when his identity is a mystery, not that he had a career in mysteries.)

At Sporcle, they have a variety of mystery quizzes. (They have some wonderful quizzes in other fields, if you enjoy challenges). Some of their most popular mystery quizzes are:

Fill in the blank, name of famous mystery, author given.
For example:  Study in _____ Conan Doyle

Another fill in the blank of famous mysteries.

Here you are asked to unscramble the title of Agatha Christie works.

Sherlock Holmes Trivia Game - with a current BBC show emphasis

The quiz "101 Crime Novels" gives you ten minutes to fill in the names of the 101 best crime novels as determined by the Mystery Writers of America. Just typing their names in ten minutes is a challenge.

You can match up murderers to works of literature. 

Here you name the mystery/thriller author given the first letter and a clue.

For fans of Sue Grafton and the alphabet in general, A is for ____?

On a more serious note, you are asked to fill in the ten most common murder weapons (US) or murders/assassinations to the cities where they took place. 

Sporcle has many more mystery quizzes, including some submitted by readers which are of a lesser quality. 

Games and quizzes from other sites include:

I found "Know Your Noir" to be diverting. The goal is to identify 20 noir films using single iconic shots.

How Well Do You Know These Famous Women Authors?
In my case, not well enough.

Hitchcock, Christie and Conan Doyle are the subject of this ten question trivia quiz.

There are other mystery games, such as the "Solve This Mystery" variety, sometimes contrived, always an acquired taste. A good example is:

Can You Solve This Mystery?

If you want to sort among a variety of games that call themselves mystery or have a mystery theme (which noir character are you?) here is the general link to the playbuzz site. 

 Martin Hill Ortiz, also writing under the name, Martin Hill, is the author of A Predatory Mind. His latest mystery, Never Kill A Friend, is available from Ransom Note Press. His epic poem, Two Mistakes, recently won second place in the Margaret Reid/Tom Howard Poetry Competition. He can be contacted at mdhillortiz@gmail.com.

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