Unpleasant Characters
by Chris Morse
This puzzle is a series of clues, each of which yields a one-word answer. The clues themselves start with an acrostic that states USE THE NUMBERS ON THE FIRST NAMES TO SOLVE. If you search or have read the books, as clued by the “book” in the flavor text, you can find that these are all surnames of characters in the Skulduggery Pleasant books by Derek Landy. If you use the numbers associated with each clue and index into the unique first name that goes with each last name, you get the cluephrase WHAT SKULDUGGERY MIGHT UNLOCK A DOOR WITH. Because Skulduggery Pleasant is the skeleton detective, he might use a SKELETON KEY which is your final answer.
| Clue | Answer/ Surname | First Name | Index Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ulrich horror vehicle (1) | SCREAM | WILHELM | W |
| Student residence hall on Mass Ave (2) | RANDOM | PHILOMENA | H |
| Esteemed or honored deservingly (5) | MERITORIOUS | EACHAN | A |
| Torment or annoy (4) | VEX | DEXTER | T |
| Hung Christmas decoration (1) | WREATH | SOLOMON | S |
| Eve’s eldest son (4) | CAIN | VALKYRIE | K |
| Nub or gist (4) | CRUX | REMUS | U |
| Uncommunicative (3) | RETICENT | ILLORI | L |
| Make a payment (7) | REMIT | ALEXANDER | D |
| Bard’s offering (8) | ODE | COTHERNUS | U |
| Enormous book (3) | TOME | SAGACIOUS | G |
| Role played by Tom Hardy (5) | BANE | DONEGAN | G |
| Smoldering, glowing fire vestige (4) | EMBER | ROSELLA | E |
| Optimistic or bloodthirsty (6) | SANGUINE | BILLY-RAY | R |
| Natively-worshipped Egyptian beetle (4) | SCARAB | DREYLAN | Y |
| Type of falcon (3) | PEREGRINE | EMMETT | M |
| Harm or malign (2) | WRONG | FINBAR | I |
| Engaged or claimed beforehand (1) | BESPOKE | GHASTLY | G |
| Fraternity or society (2) | GUILD | THURID | H |
| Inactive during the daytime (6) | NOCTURNAL | CHRISTOPHE | T |
| Research university in Montreal (6) | MCGILL | TACITURN | U |
| Sadnesses (4) | SORROWS | CHINA | N |
| The lowest point (3) | NADIR | SILAS | L |
| Not owned, like a cat (4) | STRAY | MYRON | O |
| Ally of Katniss from District 11 (5) | RUE | SARACEN | C |
| Material created from tanned hides (7) | LEATHER | VINDICK | K |
| Easy to lift (2) | LIGHT | CAMERON | A |
| Stood up (4) | ROSE | MURDER | D |
| Tremble convulsively or streaming service (4) | SHUDDER | ANTON | O |
| One card below a trey (2) | DEUCE | CORRIVAL | O |
| Service performed during three days preceding Easter (3) | TENEBRAE | AURON | R |
| One of genus Corvus (4) | CROW | MORWENNA | W |
| Loathe or dismiss as unworthy (3) | SCORN | ELIZA | I |
| Very auto-tuned Flo Rida/T-Pain hit (5) | LOW | TANITH | T |
| Element with a German name symbol (3) | TUNGSTEN | EPHRAIM | H |