I've found a few problems with my solution (failure to handle anagrams is one), but it does the right thing in many cases. Here is some test data I've generated--solutions are all animals on some nearby books. 

$length = 6;
$hints = {
           'blackly' => '2',
           'drowsy' => '1',
           'Haddad' => '1',
           'desperado' => '2',
           'achieving' => '2',
           'cowls' => '1',
           'bet' => '1',
           'comprehension' => '2',
           'foe' => '1',
           'permeate' => '1',
           'Balkanizations' => '4'
         };

[download]
$length = 7;
$hints = {
           'shortest' => '3',
           'drilling' => '0',
           'locked' => '2',
           'messing' => '1',
           'irritated' => '1',
           'glory' => '1',
           'modes' => '2',
           'transcribed' => '3'
         };

[download]
$length = 5;
$hints = {
           'blocker' => '2',
           'entropy' => '2',
           'monotonously' => '4',
           'resonant' => '3',
           'blindfold' => '1',
           'decrypts' => '2',
           'inquiry' => '1',
           'considered' => '3'
         };

[download]
And a trickier one... 
$length = 5;
$hints = {
           'repartee' => '1',
           'Kankakee' => '2',
           'dewdrop' => '0',
           'brushfires' => '2',
           'identifiably' => '4',
           'liberalizes' => '4',
           'swimming' => '3',
           'Geoffrey' => '0',
           'dotting' => '2'
         };

[download]

In reply to Re^2: Challenge: Mystery Word Puzzle by trammell
in thread Challenge: Mystery Word Puzzle by Limbic~Region

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