Ahoy, Fellow Cruciverbalists!

Welcome to the inaugural edition of Matt Gaffney’s Weekly Crossword Contest. Here’s how it works: each Friday afternoon from now until the end of time, I’ll post a new contest crossword. Follow these four steps to enter the contest each week:

1) Read the contest instructions. These change each week, so don’t skip ’em!

2) Solve the puzzle. “Can I use Google to help me solve?” you ask? That’s between you and your personal God — but as a practical matter, you might as well Google away, because how would I know?

To print the puzzle out, click on the image at left, then hit “print” on your browser. If you’d prefer to solve using Across Lite, please join my Google Group at www.groups.google.com/group/mgwcc.

AL files will be posted there each Friday (and e-mailed to subscribers).

3) Figure out the contest answer word(s). The method for discovering the contest answer word changes each week, so be sure to read the instructions every time!

4) E-mail the answer word(s) to me at crosswordcontest@gmail.com by the following Tuesday at noon Eastern time. Please put the contest answer word in the e-mail’s subject line. A winner chosen at random from the correct entries will receive a signed copy of any book I’ve written (see list on sidebar).

Puzzle answers are posted the following Friday.

THIS WEEK’S CONTEST INSTRUCTIONS:

We kick this feature off with a good old-fashioned murder mystery, four decades in the making. Well, it’s finally been solved! Finish the puzzle, figure out the guilty party’s identity (as hinted at in the clue for 71-across), and e-mail it to me at crosswordcontest@gmail.com. The guilty party’s identity is the contest answer word, and is three letters in length.

NOTE: please do not send in your solved crossword grid, just the contest answer word.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.