Shakedown

a cryptic puzzle by Emily Cox and Henry Rathvon

In a “shakedown,” a word is both shaken and downsized—that is, it gets anagrammed repeatedly with a letter dropped at each step. For example: ALTERING, GRANITE, RETINA, IRATE, RITE, TIE, IT, I. This puzzle’s nine unclued answers form a similar sequence of words shaken down from eleven letters to the three-letter one spelled out in the middle of the grid. At least one word along the way is capitalized.

Across

  • 1.
    The face of Saint Peter, seen around 100? (7)
  • 5.
    Penny admits Long Island customer (6)
  • 10.
    More roguish zodiac figure (6)
  • 11.
    Beside Turin’s river, bury hint (7)
  • 12.
    One searching the pantry for ripening agent (7)
  • 13.
    Kid kept back by guitar guru (3,3) (3,3)
  • 15.
    Holding Twin at first, fires pitches (5)
  • 18.
    Getaway locale is large and empty (4)
  • 20.
    Oblong ornament lost to Chaucer (9)
  • 23.
    No longer connected evenly (4)
  • 24.
    Exhausted writer lying in street (5)
  • 26.
    What a roller coaster may create: time lapse (6)
  • 28.
    Succeeding in court case involving more than two sides (10)
  • 32.
    Eatery with no waitstaff to put in gold floor cover (7)
  • 33.
    Some states truncated a shakedown? (4,3) (4,3)
  • 34.
    Roman is the lady’s biblical heroine (6)
  • 35.
    Eerie settings as scene shifts (7)

Down

  • 1.
    More conservative, fares poorly (5)
  • 2.
    Crackers in soup for extravagance (9)
  • 3.
    Burned vegetable on your tongue (7)
  • 4.
    Standing up before court (5)
  • 5.
    Relative pest entering college in Iowa (7)
  • 6.
    Roll heel to one side (4)
  • 7.
    Way of entering encrypted intel (5)
  • 8.
    Warm new audio receiver (4)
  • 9.
    Tied fast conviction to auditors (7)
  • 14.
    Current Pac-12 athlete exhibiting sharpness (5)
  • 16.
    12:00 Eastern turnout that’s underwhelming? (2,3) (2,3)
  • 17.
    Changed a cloche to dark brown (9)
  • 19.
    Worst noisy nap repeatedly cut short (8)
  • 21.
    Material for overlaying hole in one London gallery (7)
  • 22.
    Ground floor nurse dejected (7)
  • 25.
    Course including Latin poet (5)
  • 27.
    ACLU concern upon hearing formalities (5)
  • 29.
    Some loaves dry in the middle, for sure (4)
  • 30.
    4,840 square yards are about average (4)
  • 31.
    Somewhat anticlimactic release of 1998 (4)