Marlow

The rebus is a combination of the well-known portrait assumed to be of Christopher Marlowe (although there is no evidence for this), and a cartoon of Philip Marlowe that I found on the net. The result looks oddly like the controversial popular singer Pete Docherty. The �-E� shows that the final letter should be removed from the Marlowes to give the town of Marlow [REB3].

The 2002 Hunt took the form of a mystery story in which the murder of 16^th-century poet Christopher Marlowe was solved by Raymond Chandler�s Philip Marlowe. Hence a visit to the town of Marlow seemed appropriate for this section.

�All places are alike and every earth is fit for burial� is a quotation from Christopher Marlowe�s play Edward II [MAR1]. However, the �play dating from around 1600� is not by Marlowe (who died in 1593) but Shakespeare�s Henry V. In Act IV scene iv, the character Pistol, one of Falstaff�s cronies, is trying to extort a ransom from a captured French soldier, Monsieur Le Fer. The �fox� mentioned is a sword � possibly from the maker�s trade mark.

O Signieur Dew, thou diest on point of fox,
Except, O Signieur, thou do give to me
Egregious ransom

So nine words on from the word �fox� we find the word EGREGIOUS [MAR2].

The �shaven-headed footballer wearing a Liverpool shirt� is the beginning of a libellous description of the setter of the 2002 Hunt, Mark Abbott.  There are several quotes from Raymond Chandler in this paragraph � the lines beginning �He had a battered face� are from Farewell My Lovely, the lines beginning �I�m an occasional drinker� are from The Simple Art of Murder, �His smile was as stiff as a frozen fish� is from The Man Who Liked Dogs, �he didn't curl his lip because it had been curled when he came in� is from The High Window and �(s)he gave me a smile I could feel in my hip-pocket� is from Farewell My Lovely [MAR3].

The arm shown in the picture is the model�s own.

The �Detective Notes� sheet is from the game of Cluedo, a significant element of the 2002 Hunt. You also need to reference the works of Ellery Queen, who also got a mention in 2002. Calamity Town, Ten Days Wonder, Double Double, The King Is Dead and The Last Woman in His Life are the full-length �Wrightsville� novels, all being set in that town. But one is missing, which is The Murderer Is A Fox. Slotting this title into the given grid and taking the numbered letters in order reveals the word TIMUR, which is one of the many names of Tamburlaine the Great, about whom Christopher Marlowe wrote a play [MAR4].

For the co-ordinates, the simplest method is to put them into Excel and display them as a chart. There are some hints that you should do this � �some sort of plot�, �an excellent tool� � in the text. The result looks like this [MAR5]:

The additional word needed is NEMESIS, Noon Street Nemesis being the title of a Raymond Chandler short story that appeared in Detective Fiction Weekly on 30 May 1936 (�DFW 30/5/36�) [MAR6].

Passwords and Directions

(a) EGREGIOUS to reach Lane End
(b) TIMUR to reach the M40 Junction 4
(c) NEMESIS to get to Skirmett.