Happy New Year, and welcome to the first monthly contest from Ariadne’s Crossword Library!

Before we get to it, a genuinely heartfelt thank you to those of you who subscribed to this site last month, before a single contest crossword had appeared on it. I appreciate so much the show of faith, and I will try not to let you down. If you have not subscribed yet and you would like to be notified when new puzzles are published, head back to the homepage, scroll down to the “Subscribe to ACL” section, and enter your email address.

And now let’s get to it! This month’s contest puzzle is titled “The One That Got Away,” by Emma Oxford, and the meta answer is the popular novel whose title is suggested by the answers to the starred clues.

To submit to the contest, send an email with your answer in the subject line to damefoxwords@gmail.com. The contest deadline is 11:59pm on Wednesday, January 8. The solution, as well as the name of the randomly chosen winner, will be published on Friday, January 10.

AcrossLite (puz) file can be downloaded here.

PDF for download is below.

Happy solving!

Ex libris Ariadne