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This is part 16 of A Trivial Pursuit, a 25-part puzzle hunt. Each part is solvable on its own, with the exception of the meta-puzzle at the end.

Grid of 25 letters, with 8 bullet-point clues along each side

The final answer is a thematic 8-letter word.

Text content of image (for accessibility):

  • Grid rows: CHARM; PULSE; FAXED; TIBIA; WONKY.
  • 8 bullets on left side (top to bottom): Animal fibre; "Fight For You" singer; Mesopotamian goddess, daughter of Anu; Owned; Potassium; Quarrel; Roseanne?; Samos International Airport.
  • 8 bullets at top (left to right): Boot; Grandmother; Incisor; Redden; Rock band; Royal Navy 'soldier slang'; Scottish girl; White.
  • 8 bullets on right side (top to bottom): 15 in hexadecimal; Deprecated Microsoft web browser; Georgia (country); James Bond's boss; King, or Cheadle?; Lotidae member; Period of darkness; Thorium.
  • 8 bullets at bottom (left to right): ADD OWN FUNNEL; FIRE WRITER OR EX; INERT CARRIER; LATIN ADAM; LOOPED; OCEAN PRICKLES; ORIOLE GULCH; URBAN HOOD.
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    $\begingroup$ Eight is a lucky. @Stiv. $\endgroup$
    – 1357924680a
    Oct 2 at 22:04

1 Answer 1

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The final answer is:

Alsatian

Getting there:
First, some answers to the clues around the grid:

Left:

Animal fibre; Wool
"Fight For You" singer; H.E.R
Mesopotamian goddess, daughter of Anu - Bau
Owned - Had
Potassium - K Quarrel - Row
Roseanne? - Barr
Samos International Airport - IATA code SMI

Right:

15 in hexadecimal - F
Deprecated Microsoft web browser - I.E. (Internet Explorer)
Georgia (country) - GE (country code)
James Bond's boss - M
King, or Cheadle? - Don
Lotidae member - Ling
Period of darkness - Night
Thorium - Th

Top:

Boot - Wellington
Grandmother - Nana
Incisor - Fang
Redden - Flush
Rock band - Toto
Royal Navy 'soldier slang' - Pongo
Scottish girl - Lassie
White - Snowy

Bottom:

These are all anagrams of dog breeds:
ADD OWN FUNNEL - Newfoundland
FIRE WRITER OR EX - Wire Fox Terrier
INERT CARRIER - Cairn Terrier
LATIN ADAM - Dalmatian
LOOPED - Poodle
OCEAN PRICKLES - Cocker Spaniel
ORIOLE GULCH - Rough Collie
URBAN HOOD - Boarhound

Graphically:

Grid with annotated answers to clues around the edge

Putting it all together

The top and bottom give us the names and breeds of (mostly) fictional dogs, with the left and right joining to give us the surnames of authors who wrote about them:

Flush - Cocker Spaniel from Flush: A Biography (partly fictional, but about a real dog, hence the "mostly" above)
Wool+F - Virginia Woolf

Fang - Boarhound from the Harry Potter series
Row+Ling - J.K Rowling

Pongo - Dalmatian from The Hundred and One Dalmations
SMI+Th - Dodie Smith

Nana - Newfoundland from Peter Pan
Barr+IE - J.M. Barrie

Toto - Cairn Terrier from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Bau+M - L. Frank Baum

Snowy - Wire Fox Terrier from The Adventures of Tintin
H.E.R+GE - Hergé (pen name of Georges Prosper Remi)

Wellington - Poodle from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Had+Don - Mark Haddon

Lassie - Rough Collie from Lassie Come Home
K+Night - Eric Knight

Finally:

Taking a hint from the X in the puzzle title, and the one in the centre of the grid, let's join up the elements and see where the lines cross:
Grid with matching entries joined

And reading off the circled letter in order gives us ALSATIAN

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  • $\begingroup$ This is exactly right, well done :) A great write-up too, explaining everything - that's a checkmark right there! (Although actually you don't need to use an anagram at the end - you can just read it off row by row...) $\endgroup$
    – Stiv
    Oct 3 at 12:30
  • $\begingroup$ Hate to nitpick on such a lovely solution, but rot13(gur yvax sebz SNAT gb OBNEUBHAQ vf zvfpbybherq). $\endgroup$
    – Daniel S
    Oct 3 at 12:41
  • $\begingroup$ @DanielS Indeed it is. I noticed that when editing the image and corrected it locally. I must have uploaded the earlier version. $\endgroup$
    – fljx
    Oct 3 at 12:47
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    $\begingroup$ @Stiv I tried ordering the eight groups by their various elements, none of which worked. I never thought to just try grid order. $\endgroup$
    – fljx
    Oct 3 at 12:50

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