Jane and four other readers of mystery thriller writer Michael Connelly's work recently held a trading lunch at which each exchanged her favorite novel by the author for a book she hadn't read. The trading back-and-forth among the five lasted several rounds before each settled on a new novel to read.

1. Ms. Rider ended up with the book Anne brought to trade.

2. Ms. Walling didn't end up with Blood Work.

3. The reader who acquired The Poet really wanted City of Bones, but she never had that novel in her possession at any time during the trading-back-and-forth.

4. After the trading, Ms. McCaleb took home Beth's favorite.

5. After all the trading was done, no two of the fans ended up simply exchanging the Michael Connelly novels they brought to trade.

6. The book Ms. Walling brought ended up going home with Ms. Bosch.

7. Faith and Ms. McCaleb got their favorite Michael Connelly novels as birthday gifts.

8. Pam didn't acquire either Blood Work or The Narrows from the trading.

9. Anne, who isn't Ms. Haller, isn't the one who ended up with City of Bones.

10. At one point during the swapping of books, Faith traded The Lincoln Lawyer to Ms. Haller for City of Bones; neither of the ladies brought either of those two novels to the trading table and neither took either of those two books home with her.

11. Beth, Ms. Rider, and Ms. Haller conducted a post-trade analysis when they drove home from lunch together.

From the clues given above, determine each reader's full name, the Michael Connelly mystery she started with, and the novel she took home with her from the bartering.

In the first line below,

A = Anne
B = Beth
F = Faith
J = Jane
P = Pam

Second line is first letter of last name:

M = McCaleb
H = Haller
B = Bosch
W = Walling
R = Rider

Third line is book she came with (her favorite) and fourth line is the one she left with. Both lines use this code:

B = Blood Work
P = The Poet
C = City of Bones
N = The Narrows
L = The Lincoln Lawyer

abfjp
mbrwh
blpcn
lcbnp

DECLARE SUB permute (a$)
CLS

' ABFJP is the sequence throughout for first names

last$ = "mhbwr": lh$ = last$  'last names
DO
  IF LEFT$(last$, 1) = "r" THEN GOTO badLast
  IF LEFT$(last$, 1) = "h" THEN GOTO badLast
  IF MID$(last$, 3, 1) = "m" THEN GOTO badLast
  IF MID$(last$, 3, 1) = "h" THEN GOTO badLast
  IF MID$(last$, 2, 1) = "r" THEN GOTO badLast
  IF MID$(last$, 2, 1) = "h" THEN GOTO badLast
  walling = INSTR(last$, "w")
  bosch = INSTR(last$, "b")
  haller = INSTR(last$, "h")
  mcCaleb = INSTR(last$, "m")
strt$ = "bpcnl": sh$ = strt$  'starting book title first letter
DO
  cityBones = INSTR(strt$, "c")
  lincoln = INSTR(strt$, "l")
  IF cityBones = 3 OR cityBones = haller THEN GOTO badStart
  IF lincoln = 3 OR lincoln = haller THEN GOTO badStart
  bethFav$ = MID$(strt$, 2, 1)

fin$ = "bpcnl": fh$ = fin$  'final book title first letter
DO
  IF MID$(fin$, 5, 1) = "b" OR MID$(fin$, 5, 1) = "n" THEN GOTO badFin
  aTr$ = LEFT$(strt$, 1)
  ix = INSTR(fin$, aTr$)
  IF MID$(last$, ix, 1) <> "r" THEN GOTO badFin
  IF MID$(fin$, walling, 1) = "b" THEN GOTO badFin
  poet = INSTR(fin$, "p")
  IF cityBones = poet OR cityBones = 1 THEN GOTO badFin
 
  IF MID$(last$, 2, 1) = "m" THEN GOTO badFin
  good3 = 1
  FOR i = 1 TO 5
   s$ = MID$(strt$, i, 1)
   ix = INSTR(fin$, s$)
   s2$ = MID$(strt$, ix, 1)
   ix2 = INSTR(fin$, s2$)
   IF ix2 = i THEN good3 = 0: EXIT FOR
  NEXT
  IF good3 = 0 THEN GOTO badFin
  wBr$ = MID$(strt$, walling, 1)
  bRr$ = MID$(fin$, bosch, 1)
  IF wBr$ <> bRr$ THEN GOTO badFin
  cityBones = INSTR(fin$, "c")
  lincoln = INSTR(fin$, "l")
  IF cityBones = 1 OR cityBones = 3 OR cityBones = haller THEN GOTO badFin
  IF lincoln = 3 OR lincoln = haller THEN GOTO badFin
  IF MID$(fin$, mcCaleb, 1) <> bethFav$ THEN GOTO badFin

  PRINT "abfjp": PRINT last$: PRINT strt$: PRINT fin$: PRINT
badFin:
  permute fin$
LOOP UNTIL fin$ = fh$
badStart:
  permute strt$
LOOP UNTIL strt$ = sh$
badLast:
  permute last$
LOOP UNTIL last$ = lh$

Edited on December 27, 2009, 3:30 pm

Posted by Charlie on 2009-12-27 15:29:51