 Mystery: August 20, 2025 Issue [#13300] |
This week: Twisted words Edited by: Arakun the Scary Raccoon  
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Quote for the week:
"Mystery spread its cloak across the sky.
We lost our way.
Shadows fell from trees.
They knew why."
~From "House of Four Doors" by the Moody Blues |
Imagine you received this message:
XIBU EPFT UIJT TBZ?
It may look like total gibberish, but it is actually a message in the English language written in a simple code. The code was constructed by shifting each letter one position forward in the alphabet. Therefore, every letter is written as the one that comes after it in the alphabet. It actually says, "What does this say?"
This is a very simple way of constructing a code. It is easy to read if you know how it was designed. However, since it is also easy to figure out how it was done, it wouldn't be a good choice to use for hiding sensitive information.
A more difficult code might be constructed by putting the message through several levels of encryption. For example, decoding the first message might lead to another coded message that was written using a different code and so on.
Codes might also be written by substituting numbers or symbols for each letter. This type of code would be more difficult to crack if the substitutions were totally random. However, that type of system would also be difficult for the users to memorize without using some type of key that could be found by their enemies.
The Navajo language was used as the basis of a code that was a vital part of operations in the Pacific theatre of World War II. Since this language was not likely to be known by anyone outside the Navajo nation it was an ideal choice for a code. Marines known as code talkers were native speakers of the Navajo language. They constructed a code for military terms based on words in their language. The code talkers were used in pairs to transmit and receive messages during battles such as Iwo Jima. Their code was never broken by the enemy.
An anagram is a word or phrase made by scrambling the letters of another. An example is rearranging the letters of the word "cinema" to make "iceman." In the novel "Hark" by Ed McBain, a criminal known only as the Deaf Man enjoyed taunting police with messages written as anagrams. He signed these messages "Adam Fen" which is an anagram for "deaf man." In the Book series and TV show "Pretty Little Liars," the main character, Alison DiLaurentis's last name is a an anagram for "liars united." This was never mentioned in the book or show that I can remember, but several other anagrams and word clues were used in the stories.
A palindrome is a word or phrase that is the same when written forward or backward. Examples include words such as level, radar, and racecar. Here is a whole sentence: "Sums are not set as a test on Erasmus." Several hilarious palindromes can be found in the video "Bob" by Weird Al Yankovic.
Codes, anagrams, palindromes, and other forms of word play are fun to use in mysteries, especially light hearted mysteries or those written for young readers. If your story does include a code, try to make it original or something that isn't too easy to guess.
Something to try: Write a mystery story that includes a code, anagram, or palindrome.
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