Cryptic crossword No 1,409

Very good puzzle, Amoeba. Thanks. My favourites were 5d 7d 21a 22a 24a and 26a.

Thanks Amoeba, and happy Halloween! Nicely thematic, and some lovely clues here. I particularly liked 3d, 5d, 15a and 16a, but 10a is my favourite for the fantastic definition.

Hi Amoeba, this was fun. Initially I made good progress but I got held up by a couple of NHOs. Lots of excellent cluing, though perhaps some surfaces lack a bit of fluency. Faves were: 👍👍👍 10a ( nice misdirection), 3d 👍👍 9a, 16d 👍 1a, 16a Couple of minor observations...

Very good, Amoeba. Excellent treatment of the theme. Pretty tricky for me with a few NHOs; found the NE tougher than I probably should have done. Particularly liked: 9a, 21a, 24a, 27a, 3d and 7d. Spoilers…

Great fun and excellent working of the theme. I liked 9a, 10a, 15a, 2d, 5d and 18d. I didn’t quite finish, beaten by the same one as Coot and for the same reasons! Thanks

Great fun and thematically lovely, thanks for the puzzle Amoeba! I'm in the same camp as some previous commentators in tripping over a very few tricky NHO solutions and elements, so a mite of electronic assistance was required for completeness, but no impingement on the enjoyment across the board! I particularly liked 9a (fun), 16a (neat), 22a (fun), 2d (creative), 3d (satisfying solve), 5d (likewise), 6d (likewise), 18d (very neat) and 20d (some nho bits but I still really enjoyed this one!)

This was a laugh, Amoeba. Done the day after but still a nice gentle acknowledgment of the season. You packed plenty in; well done. My podium was 15a, 24a, 18d and 23a. Spoilers in Reply. Thanks. PM

Thanks Amoeba, top stuff. Faves 1a, 22a, 26a, 27a & 18d, and the nice theming throughout. 20d was nho but ended up as my COTD as both the solution and the inner part provoked some interesting online research :-) Thanks again!

Thanks Ameoba, enjoyed this. Looked you up here after meeting you in York. Good puzzle, with really neat clues. The hidden clues were well disguised and there were a few smiles as I worked out some of the answers. 10ac very clever; as Baldur says, good misdirection. Took me quite a while to work out why it was undead, like the use of Nancy to mean French. Will look out for more of your puzzles. :)

Really enjoyed that!

I knew I had done one of yours. Actually finished it without any reveals as I remember. Good stuff.