The Killer Isn’t Alice Clue Order: The Strategy That Worked for Me

Edition Note: I solved the original 2026 edition. The Updated Edition releasing September 1, 2026 uses the same clues but changes all of the names, including the killer. My Chapter → Page → Name strategy should still be useful, but the exact page and name counts I mention below are from my copy.

STEP ONE: Eliminate Entire Chapters

These were my first two clues because they let me remove large sections of the book without looking closely at every page.

1. The killer appears in a chapter with a place in its name.

I started with the chapter titles. Be careful with this one because “place” doesn’t only mean the name of a city or town. Something like a bedroom is also a place.

Using this clue, I eliminated 4 chapters, or approximately 31 pages. That left me with about 169 pages. Not too bad for just the first clue.

2. The chapter containing the killer also contains all four Beatles.

Next, I searched the remaining chapters for John, Paul, George, and Ringo.

They have to appear exactly as they are listed. This clue eliminated another 7 chapters, or approximately 44 pages.

Now I was down to about 125 pages. Two clues had already eliminated about 75 pages without having to look at thousands of individual names.

This is definitely why I think the chapter clues should come first.

STEP TWO: Eliminate Pages

Now I stopped thinking about chapters and started narrowing down individual pages.

3. The killer’s page is between Anna’s page and Zack’s page.

There is only one Anna and one Zack in the book, so I found both. I eliminated the pages outside that range, which removed quite a few more pages.

The clue also says “between” Anna and Zack’s pages, so I assumed that meant the killer was not ON their pages and eliminated those two also.

4. The killer’s page is no more than one page away from a Sasha.

Next, I found the Sashas on the remaining pages AND the pages surrounding them. If a page has been eliminated already, Sasha could still be on there and have an active page nearby.

Remember that “no more than one page away” includes the page Sasha is actually on.

So, if Sasha appears on page 50, the killer could potentially be on page 49, 50, or 51.

After finding the Sashas and checking the remaining pages, I eliminated approximately 21 more pages.

I was down to around 80 pages already, after only 4 clues.

5. There is a Kardashian within four pages of the killer.

Next came the Kardashians.

I marked their locations and looked at the pages that could still qualify.

This eliminated about 12 more pages.

One reason I did this clue fairly early is that I only needed to locate certain names. I didn’t have to look for every single name on every page yet.

I skimmed each page for capital Ks and Rs to find these names. The four pages before and after each name was still in my active search.

6. The killer’s page contains less than three names that start with M.

Now I looked through the remaining pages for names beginning with M.

My method was skimming for capital Ms and placing a dot at the beginning of the line it was in. Sometimes there were two in one line. When I got to three M names, that page was eliminated.

Be careful here: duplicates count.

If the same M name appears three times, that still means there are three names beginning with M on the page.

I eliminated about 10 more pages. Now I only had about 60 remaining in my search.

7. The page facing opposite the killer’s page contains the first name of a President of the United States.

This clue was a little difficult, first because the list of names in the back of the book was not in alphabetical order. So, I re-wrote them first. That also helped me get the names in my mind for my search.

There is a little shortcut here. I had already looked for John and George while doing the Beatles clue. Both are also Presidents’ first names, so if I already knew one was on a facing page, I didn’t have to search that page again for another President.

I eliminated about 13 more pages with this clue.

8. The killer is on a page with a repeated name.

This was one of the more annoying clues for me because repeated means the exact same name appears more than once on the page. Similar names don’t count.

This clue really requires concentration or the names just become a jumbled mess, at least for me. I found looking at all the A names, then B names, etc. was the best way to get started. But, after some skimming of the page, the duplicates sometimes just jumped out at me. I marked it and put ‘2x’ on the page so I remembered the killer could only be on these pages.

I went through the pages a couple times to be absolutely sure I didn’t miss a duplicate. This is the clue that would cause me to make a huge error and get to the end without a killer.

I was able to remove about 10 more pages.

9. The killer is not on a page that has an even number of names.

I saved this clue until fairly late because I did NOT want to count hundreds of names on every page.

Then, I noticed something that made it much easier.

My Shortcut for Counting Odd and Even Pages

Every page has 30 lines of names.

Each line had either 8 names or 9 names.

If all 30 lines had 8 names: 30 x 8 = 240 names [even number]

Every line containing 9 names instead of 8 adds exactly one extra name.

I really only needed to count the lines that contained 9 names.

▻ An odd number of 9-name lines = an odd total number of names.
▻ An even number of 9-name lines = an even total number of names.

Since the killer cannot be on a page with an even number of names, I could eliminate those pages without individually counting hundreds of names.

This reduced the active pages by another 8 pages, but this was the last ‘page’ clue. So, now it was time to deal with the individual names.

STEP THREE: Eliminate Names

This is where the puzzle changes.

Instead of eliminating chapters and pages, I had to go through all the remaining names.

10. There is a three-letter name no more than ten names away from the killer.

I used the three-letter names to identify the areas where the killer could still be.

Be careful near the beginning and end of pages because the ten-name range can continue onto the previous or next page if it is still active in your search.

After this clue, I estimated that I had narrowed the puzzle down to around 3,300 possible names from the 46,600 in the entire book. I eliminated about 93% of the suspects at this point.

11. The first name on the killer’s page shares at least one letter with the killer.

Now I looked at the first name on each remaining page.

The killer has to share at least one letter with that name. So, I eliminated about another 1,150 names with this clue.

12. The letters X, Y and Z are not in the killer’s name.

This was one of the easiest eliminations now that there were such a small amount of names to work with. I think I got rid of about half the remaining names at this point. I had no idea how many Y names there are!

13 & 14. The killer’s name is longer than three letters AND does not start with S.

I did these two clues together.

I only got rid of about 20 names that were 2 or 3 letters. So, I also marked off the S names. This reduced the suspects by about another 300 names.

15. The killer doesn’t contain a consecutive repeated letter.

Now I removed names with the same letter twice in a row.

This was pretty easy to spot and removed another 530-ish names.

16 & 17. The killer’s name is not six letters long AND contains at least two vowels.

By this point, I had so few names left that it made sense to apply these two clues together.

And then something exciting happened.

I was down to only TWO names.

After starting with tens of thousands of suspects. I had two possibilities sitting in front of me.

That’s when the final clue finally mattered.

18. The Killer Isn’t Alice

And there it was. One name left.

I found the killer!

I’m not telling you who it is, obviously!

Did My Clue Order Actually Work?

Yes!

I submitted the name and page number and later received the email confirming that my answer was correct.

For me, the biggest difference was resisting the urge to start crossing out individual names immediately.

Instead, I kept asking:

What clue can eliminate the most work for me right now?

That’s how I ended up with:

CHAPTER ▻ PAGE ▻ NAME

I can’t promise this is the fastest or best way for everyone to solve The Killer Isn’t Alice. These are simply the steps that finally worked for me.

But, if I opened a fresh copy and had to solve the whole thing again, this is the order I would use.

Before You Spend Hours Solving: Make Sure Your Book is Legitimate!

One last thing I learned after buying the book: counterfeit copies exist.

The official The Killer Isn’t Alice website warns that some counterfeit copies have missing pages, duplicate chapters, or pages printed in the wrong order. That can make the puzzle impossible to solve.

Imagine spending hours thinking you made a mistake when the problem is actually the book!

If anything about your copy seems strange, I’d check the official website’s information about counterfeit books before investing more time in the puzzle.

What Happens After You Find the Killer?

This part surprised me. I have the QR code at the end of the book that leads to the page to enter the killer and page number. So, I thought I’d do that and get a congratulations screen or something.

Instead, I had to enter my email address and wait.

And yes, that wait drove me a little crazy after all the work I’d just done!

If you’re still working on the puzzle, I hope my method and tips can help you and save some time or reduce frustration a little.

And if you have already solved it, I’d love to know whether you used the clues in order or came up with your own strategy.

Just please don’t put the killer’s name or page number in the comments. Let’s not spoil it for everyone else!