Stone-faced or stumped? Unveiling the answer to a tricky crossword clue

As a detective, my first instinct is to break down the definition of the crossword clue. ‘Betraying no emotion‘ could refer to someone who remains calm and composed, regardless of the situation. This led me to think of adjectives that describe someone with a stoic demeanor, such as ‘unemotional,’ ‘unfeeling,’ and ‘expressionless.’ The word ‘stolid‘ immediately came to mind, as it perfectly fit the definition and also had the right number of letters for the crossword.

However, I wanted to confirm my suspicions by looking at the letters already present in the crossword grid. The first letter of the word was ‘S,’ which ruled out many other possible options. I also checked the letters of the intersecting words where the letter ‘O‘ and ‘L‘ should have found a place. Finally, with a sense of satisfaction, I realized that ‘stolid’ was indeed the answer we were looking for. It had all the elements of the definition and filled in the missing letters perfectly. As a result, ‘stolid‘ was the right word that every detective should undoubtedly suggest when thinking of betraying no emotion.