Honestly, I was really careful when I opened the box and the plastic bag that housed the 1000 pieces of the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories puzzle I got for Christmas. I developed routines as I sorted. I followed classic puzzle-solving protocol and put together the outside edges.
The next logical step was to sort through and put together the titles. From there I went to people, then background items, and ended with solid color and the borders between books.
The problem appeared early. By the time I was halfway through, I was a bit worried that one title remained incomplete. I tried to convince myself that it resembled one of the pieces between the book. The color of the letters for The Clue of the Dancing Puppet was very similar to that of the space between books. The closer I got to the end, the more I realized I was delusional.
When I put the last piece I had into the puzzle, my worries were confirmed. Can you see it in the lower left corner?
Maybe a close-up will help.
I searched the house – anywhere I’d had puzzle pieces ,
- the table where I did the puzzle
- inside the yoga mat I was using as the puzzle mat
- the clothes in the laundry basket
- in, on , and under my bed
I branched out to areas I’d never helped puzzle pieces, all to no avail.
Friends accused Richard, but I knew better. He’s not a chewer and was usually asleep on the sofa while I worked on the puzzle. I searched off and on again over the next few days before finally resigning myself to the fact that the piece would not be found.
At this point the pieces are back in the box and I am convinced I must have left a piece in the plastic bag when I first opened the packaging. The truth is, I’ll never know for sure.
booksandbassets 
I have much empathy with this challenge. Well, it may be an opening for thought, rather than a challenge. I have also been working my way through these times with puzzles. It may be that the answer lies not in a solution but rather through the puzzling process, which takes us on many often useless-appearing paths but sometimes opens windows, even doors which we never knew existed. I trade puzzles with a neighbor and we share much in and through this process. Solving puzzles is way of life for some creatures. Happy New Year, dear library friend.
I think you might need to get Nancy on the case. Maybe Frank and Joe can help as well.
So frustrating! But what a neat puzzle.