TikTok users, eager to find the answers to this classic murder mystery which baffled puzzlers back in 1930s are making it a huge hit.  

Cain’s Jawbone: A Novel Problem, first published in 1934, is a 100-page crime novel that tells the story of six murders, each with a different victim and killer. 

The pages are not printed in traditional novels. Instead, they’re printed on loose, individual cards. These cards have been mixed up and placed into a random carry bag. 

The puzzle is only solved by four people so far, but this may change with TikTok’s new popularity. 

After American TikTok user Sarah Scannell disclosed that she found the book at a store and tried to decipher the code, sales have risen by over 80% in the past week. 

Cain's Jawbone: A Novel Problem, first published in 1934, is a 100-page crime novel that tells the story of six murders, each with a different victim and killer, and has sold out online after TikTok users discovered it

Cain’s Jawbone, A Novel Problem is a crime novel of 100 pages that tells six different murders. Each victim has a unique killer. It was first published in 1934.  

It is up to you to piece together the entire story so that each of six murders can be solved. 

There are 32,000,000 possible order combinations in which cards may be placed, but only one of them is correct. 

It is so difficult to solve the puzzle, and only two persons have been able to do it correctly. They were both alive in 1935.

Cain’s Jawbone was first created by Edward Powys Mathers (crosswords compiler for The Observer), who also used Torquemada as a men’s name.

Sales have gone through the roof in the last week, after American TikTok user Sarah Scannell revealed she had found the book in a shop and was trying to crack the code

The last week has seen record sales after Sarah Scannell, an American TikTok user revealed that she bought the book from a local shop and had been trying to unlock the code.

When the murder mystery was first published in 1934, the reward to whoever solved it was of £15. 

This puzzle novel was only solved twice by two men in 1935, who received a reward of £25 each. 

Mathers was believed to have been the last to know about the solution.

The book resurfaced after it was donated to the Laurence Sterne Trust, based at Shandy Hall, in York, and Trust worker Patrick Wildgust set about uncovering the correct solution to the puzzle. 

John Finnemore, British comedy writer and creator of Radio 4's Cabin Pressure, solved the puzzle last year

John Finnemore (British comedian writer, creator of Radio 4’s Cabin Pressure), solved the mystery last year 

Wildgust sought help from the Observer in 2016. He announced, in 2017, that a’very substantial contact’ had answered his question and was 100% certain that he knew the solution to Mathers’ unique problem.

In 2019, the book was re-released, with the publisher Unbound offering a £1,000 prize for any reader who successfully cracked the puzzle by 19 September 2020. 

One leaflet found in the card box stated that the story proceeds unabated and without pause, even though the reader’s attention may wander from one page to another. 

John Finnemore (british comedy writer, creator of Radio 4’s Cabin pressure) was the only one to find the right solution.

TikTok user Sarah discovered the book in a book shop last week and decided to embark on solving the puzzle

Sarah, who uses TikTok to find the book last week in a bookshop, decided that she would solve the puzzle.

The TikTok user created a murder wall on the wall of her bedroom in an effort to solve the challenging puzzle

In an attempt to solve the difficult puzzle, the TikTok user built a murder wall in her bedroom. 

Since Sarah's video went viral on TikTok last week, social media users have been going crazy over the puzzle book

Since Sarah's video went viral on TikTok last week, social media users have been going crazy over the puzzle book

Sarah’s TikTok viral video has sparked a frenzy on social media. 

After the video went viral online, copies of Cain's Jawbone have sold out on the Unbound site, Bookshop.org and Amazon, with others creating similar solution walls

Cain’s Jawbone was a viral video that went online. It sold quickly on Amazon.com and Bookshop.org. 

Cain’s Jawbone, which he described at the time as a ‘far and away most difficult puzzle that I’ve ever attempted’. 

He told The Guardian: ‘It took me about four months – not continuously, but I had it spread out on the spare bed, and every so often I’d potter in, stare at it till my forehead bled, spend an hour online researching the history of Shrewsbury prison or something, swap three cards, move one back, and potter off again. It is impossible to believe that anyone could have solved this problem before the internet.  

Sarah, a TikTok user discovered the book at a bookstore last week and set out to solve the puzzle. 

While she was paper-making her room, she posted photos and videos to show the process.

Many other social media users ripped out the pages from the book and searched for solutions with annotations

Many other social media users ripped out the pages from the book and searched for solutions with annotations

Others on social media took the pages out of the book, and used annotations to find solutions (left and right). 

The video became viral and copies of Cain’s Jawbone sold quickly on Amazon, Bookshop.org, Unbound, and Bookshop.org. 

According to the publisher, orders for US copies have exceeded 10,000 while Canadian copies are greater than 3,000.

To meet demand, they plan to print 10,000 more copies in the UK.  

Many social media users are obsessed with the puzzle and have started to pin the pages to their walls in an attempt to solve it.           

Laurence Sterne Trust is the only organization that has the solution.