There were 67 correct answers and 13 incorrect submissions this month. A big turnout for The Women by Kristin Hannah among the incorrect submissions. Close, but doesn’t fully explain what’s going on. A couple solvers also mentioned they were hung-up for a while on The Lady Vanishes, which is of course a movie not a novel. Although, it actually is based on a novel, but fortunately for me that novel is titled The Wheel Spins and so doesn’t work as an answer. Several solvers also mentioned that they spent a while trying to find a novel with main characters AVA, LISA, LINDA, LEAH, and RUTH. Again, fortunately for me, there doesn’t seem to be one!

Congratulations to this month’s randomly chosen winner: Rich Pardoe of Houston, TX! The prize this month (as it will be every month) is a copy of a thematically apt novel embossed with FROM THE LIBRARY OF ARIADNE. You might think this month the novel would be Gone Girl, but no, inspired by the solver comments mentioned above, I’m going with The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White. Congratulations, Rich!

You can read Ben Chenoweth’s blog post about this month’s contest over at Crossword Fiend, where you can also rate the puzzle or leave a comment. Thank you to Ben for agreeing to blog ACL puzzles over at Fiend!

Missed Opportunities

Lydia R. and Christina B. suggest cluing 63A RELAX as [Curl up with a good book] and 38A PRIMER as [Kindergartner’s first reader, perhaps].

Please send along any missed opportunities for literary cluing you notice in future contests!

Dubious Honors

Although I don’t have any actual prizes to send to these lucky solvers, I do have two more “awards” to hand out: the Tick-Tock Award and the White Rabbit Award. The Tick-Tock Award (named for Tock and his brother Tick from The Phantom Tollbooth) goes to the solver whose submission I received first. The White Rabbit Award (named for… OK, I don’t think I have to explain this one) goes to the solver whose submission I received last. This month, the Tick-Tock Award goes to Hector P., whose answer came in at 9:55 AM EST on January 1, and the White Rabbit Award goes to Robert B., whose answer came in at 9:20 PM EST on January 8. Well done!

Can you beat their times next month??

Thank you to everyone who submitted an answer to this month’s crossword contest! I am truly blown away by the enthusiastic response I’ve gotten to this site. I appreciate so much everyone who has subscribed and the many kind words solvers sent along with their answers.

See you next month!