THE USUAL SUSPECTS

by Jonathan Sheffi, Ken Stern, and Dan Katz

Solution: RAINBOW SIX

Each set of cards is a list with one item missing, which is indicated by the blank card. Each missing item contains or suggests one of the 21 items (rooms, weapons, suspects) from the game Clue. (The design of the cards is similar to an edition of the Clue game, and the puzzle's title hints at the game as well.)

The solver should take the nth letter of the indicated Clue item, where n is the position of the blank card in the set. For the six suspects, use only the last name (e.g. MUSTARD rather than COLONEL MUSTARD or COL. MUSTARD), as indicated by the flavortext.

The nth letters of the Clue items spell out NINETY-EIGHT CLANCY BOOK. Tom Clancy released one book in 1998, called RAINBOW SIX, which is the answer to the puzzle (and is clued for an after-the-fact aha by the title vis-à-vis the game).

List contents

Missing item

Clue game item

Index

Letter

Works of fiction by Edward Abbey

The Monkey Wrench Gang

WRENCH

4

N

The Golden Girls cast (Rue McClanahan, Bea Arthur, Estelle Getty)

Betty White

(Mrs.) WHITE

3

I

Founding members of the Professional Arts Consortium (ProArts)

Boston Conservatory

CONSERVATORY

3

N

Bands fronted by Scott Weiland

Velvet Revolver

REVOLVER

2

E

Songs in the "Rock Symphony" on the Beatles' Abbey Road

"Mean Mr. Mustard"

(Colonel) MUSTARD

4

T

Chicago Transit Authority elevated stations that make up the Loop

Library-State/Van Buren

LIBRARY

7

Y

Characters in original cast of ER (Susan Lewis, John Carter, Peter Benton, Doug Ross, Carol Hathaway)

Mark Greene

(Mr.) GREEN

3

E

Cast of characters from Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark"

Billiard-marker

BILLIARD ROOM

2

I

Rolling Stones tours since the mid-1980s

"Voodoo Lounge"

LOUNGE

5

G

The Breakfast Club detention group cast (Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy)

Anthony Michael Hall

HALL

1

H

Anthony Bourdain books

Kitchen Confidential

KITCHEN

3

T

1995 Golden Raspberry nominees for Worst Picture

The Scarlet Letter

(Miss) SCARLET

2

C

Actors who played the Brady Bunch kids (Maureen McCormick, Barry Williams, Susan Olsen, Christopher Knight, Mike Lookinland)

Eve Plumb

(Professor) PLUM

2

L

Main parts of a trumpet

Leadpipe

LEAD PIPE

3

A

Styles sections in the New York Times

Dining & Wine

DINING ROOM

3

N

Names for the San Francisco 49ers' stadium

Candlestick Park

CANDLESTICK

1

C

2004 Hugo Award for Best Short Story nominees

"A Study in Emerald"

STUDY

5

Y

Films in Baz Luhrmann's "Red Curtain Trilogy"

Strictly Ballroom

BALLROOM

1

B

Studio albums by The Clash

Give 'Em Enough Rope

ROPE

2

O

Logos of the five major TV networks

NBC peacock

(Mrs.) PEACOCK

5

O

MIT dialup servers

no-knife(.MIT.EDU)

KNIFE

1

K